Spring isn’t spring without tulips. Tulips blooming in the spring necessitates the digging of holes and planting of bulbs in the cool earth of autumn. Like crocus, hyacinths, daffodils and garlic, tulips like a chance to put out a few roots and get established before the dormancy of winter sets in.

I have an autumn birthday, and this year my husband gave me 80 assorted tulip bulbs and about half that many lily bulbs. He was also willing to help get them in the ground. He may not have planned for the add-ons of squirrel impact prevention.

Squirrels Deterrent #1: Spice

The last time I planted tulips, I knew that squirrels might dig them about as fast as I could plant them. Apparently these bushy tailed rodents have an acute sense of smell and KNOW when you’ve tucked potentially delectable offerings among their acorn caches.

After tamping soil down over the bulbs, I sprinkled it with Dave’s Insanity Sauce. This sauce comes highly recommended for chili-heads and was even banned from the National Fiery Food Show. It’s considered the hottest sauce in the universe, so I figured it would also be a pretty good squirrel repellant. Admittedly, this use would be considered “off label.” It seemed to work since the tulip plants appeared the next spring. However, I think it may have drained some of the color off the blooms. What should have been bonny pink flowers were dandelion yellow!

Squirrel Deterrent #2: Chicken wire

With an even healthier population of plump squirrels in residence now, and my wish to see the blooms pictured on the bulb packages, we enacted a more multi-pronged prevention plan.

Some gardeners are recommending the placement of thorny branches in the planting holes. Placed in parallel lines or a cross-hatch pattern above the bulbs, rose bush branches, raspberry canes, or prickly ash may act as underground bulb barriers. We’ve used this method to deter gophers from chewing the roots of newly planted trees.

But for this fall’s tulip planting, we opted for positioning chicken wire over the planting area. It would have been easier to use a large piece to cover the bulbs in one area. My plan, though, was to plant groupings of three to five bulbs two or three feet apart in three different flower beds. We didn’t want to cover the whole areas with wire since we’d be intermixing the bulbs with existing bleeding heart, irises, hostas, and other spring bulbs already in the ground.

We decided it would be well be worth our time to cut squares of chicken wire to pin over each “hill.” Eighty bulbs divided by 5 equals 16 pieces of chicken wire. Add half again as many pieces for insurance for the lilies and that equaled a lot of wire cutting. My husband augmented the birthday gift by cutting the wire, too.

Squirrel Deterrent #3: All of the above!

Working together, we watered the planting area since the lack of fall rains made the ground as hard as concrete. We dug the six-inch deep holes, placed the bulbs, covered with soil, positioned the squares of chicken wire, topped with more soil and then gave each “hill” a generous spray of Serrano pepper-infused whisky (see “Growing Up”, August 2024).

Now we wait and hope that in the spring of 2025 the tulips will emerge and bloom in polychromatic wonder.

Additional squirrel deterrent tips may be found at : https://www.masterclass.com/articles/keep-squirrels-out-of-garden-tips

Nancy Packard Leasman is a columnist, artist and gardener who maintains 40 acres in central Minnesota. See twiggerprofiles.blogspot.com, etsy.com/shop/leatherwood and qdpainting.blogspot.com

Featured image: Squirrel among new growth. Image by JoeBreuer from Pixabay.