Great tip, tinpins!

I couldn't do planters here without rocks. Larger driveway stone is what I usually use, just because they're handy.

How big or small should the rocks be?

For this purpose I keep a large plant pot (or two) full of stones that we dig from the garden when we're tilling a new bed. And from the pots at the end of the season. They're varied sizes and I use either several large or many smaller ... it depends what I've got planted. The smallest I've used would be about the size of a hen's egg.

Our gardens used to have a lot of larva rock around juniper shrubs (previous owners choice ... all long gone by us now) and I think you could even use something like that but I dislike larva rock in the garden, so don't use it for that reason. I do bring home large smooth beach pebbles in my pockets after rambling walks with our grandson on the beach, so they go into the pots too.

What a fantastic idea!!

I've been using rocks in my planters this year too because the squirrels and, especially, chipmunks are out of control with their digging. I'm using the "river rock" and "egg rock" from Lowe's. I tried some large, flat pieces of slate or shale that I already had on hand but I didn't have good luck with those because the vile, obsessive diggers just flipped them over and out of the pots, or dug pockets under them. They are really bad this year!

Our naughtiness this year was the chipmunk ... he tunnelled into our cold frame and kept nipping off all the new seedlings as they came up. So we put a brick floor into the frame and that stopped him in his tracks. This year the squirrels aren't too bad ... but I do use quite heavy rocks and have had no problem. One year when the squirrels were really bad (they ate all the pansy flowers of a newly planted garden) we actually caught them and relocated them to a ravine miles away but when you remove one it seems like two more move in! Too much trouble. Sometimes we'd get four a day and one night when we forgot to close the traps we caught a possum ... At least it wasn't a skunk : ) We don't plant pansies in the spring any more : )

Possum had a nice smile, once liberty returned.

They have "egg rock" from Lowe's?! I didn't know that! Have to look for some there!

Have y'all added the rocks to the containers after the plants get growing and you can hardly see the soil?

That possum looks like he's smiling but he was actually baring his teeth and drooling and he didn't look too happy. He waddled off across the garden in a big hurry.

The egg rock looks interesting ... (googled it) but we have so many in our ground that we have a limitless supply on hand, and we reuse them each year when we re-plant the pots.

FYI, if you find the busted/broken bags of rocks at Lowe's, they are usually marked 50% off.

Danita said:FYI, if you find the busted/broken bags of rocks at Lowe's, they are usually marked 50% off.

OT, but topsoil and sand, too. We always stock up on broken bag deals at the end of the season.


When I top off my pots with rocks, I generally make it fun and do it like a puzzle...choosing rock size to the fit the next space size.

I hope they still have bags of egg rock at Lowe's. I'll have to stop and take a look in between all the rain (and off and on rain) we've been having.