Best Bet is Building Better Bulb Beds
Building Better Bulb Beds
Living in the city means better bulb beds against squirrels and contending with unique ecosystems. These ecosystems include impacted clay soils, trash and food waste, raccoons, pet dogs, and industrious squirrels. We have devised a system to protect these bulbs.
At Mezzacello, we also have a love of flowers (well, Rick does, I just want the biomass) but for pretty flowers we need better bulb beds and protection from squirrels. City squirrels are the worst! Planting any sort of bulbs anywhere is often a risk. It is especially fraught with risk in the city, because squirrels scavenge. They come from all parts of the neighborhood so they are tough to track.
Since squirrels dig from above we opted to place plastic (not steel) netting above the bulbs. Then we placed a bit of compost above the netting and mulched over that. We learned the trick with plastic versus steel mesh the hard way; when the steel rusts the squirrels rip through it. The plastic might last longer than a season at least.
The same thing was happening with my chicken coops. Where I planted steel wire (below the coops to deter digging under) the wire would oxidize quickly. Then I switched to plastic netting; a heavy duty gauge of netting that also withstands the acidity of soil. It did the trick, so i put it to work in the front, formal gardens as well.