Urban, aren't you attracting the squirrels to your yard with the feeder though? I think if they were eating my plants, I'd make them work a little harder on the peanuts by leaving them in the shell. Just sayin'!
Squirrels mostly just dig in my pots and disrupt my mini hostas. I have tons of acorns you'd think they wouldn't have to be storing or hiding nuts.
@longk Glad you could join us!
Neal thank you, I knew I could count on the knowledge of this forum to help. Now I know about my foxtails and my schubertii. Annette you give me hope by your beautiful buds.

Annette, how does using neem oil on your bulbs keep the squirrels from digging them up?

Kabby, the behavior of critters can be confusing. If you think that's bad, you should have seen what I saw the year before last. I was sitting on my deck that DH built for me one day, feeling downright depressed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a squirrel coming down the Bradford pear tree. I thought nothing of it, until I saw him climb up my Bartlette pear tree. When it came down, it had the biggest pear on the tree in it's mouth. At first I did not know how to react--amused, stunned, perplexed , as the pear was larger than the squirrel. Then reality set in. What was he going to do with that huge pear? Why was he not satisfied with all of those millions of beady sized pears on the Bradford pear tree? And why did he have to go and get the largest fruit off of my pear tree?

DH and I were sitting in the den looking out the window and observing crows stealing pears of the tree, earlier that same day. He remarked, animals/critters have to eat too. Well, they do they have to be greedy? I jumped up (depressed no longer), got my GF to come over and together we picked nearly all of the fruit off the tree, so that we could enjoy some. Greedy critters!!

that is funny Debbie. I mean, not really sort of but still.... Silly furry little creatures can be so contrary and destructive but I can't help but love them. DH caught one once in a home made birdhouse hanging from our back deck and nailed a small lathe across the entrance. I asked him what he was going to do and he said "Nothing," I couldnt stand the idea of him just leaving that poor squirrel in the birdhouse to starve. It would be so scared. (not really, just me anthropomorphisizing) so I put it in the car and drove out past our airport to the woods (very close) and took the lathe off. I was so scared it would spring out and attack me. lol. I waited and waited but it finally came out. I left then.

Deborah, the Neem oil has a weird scent, and I'm hoping that's what keeps the critters away. I've been using it on my roses for years every 1-2 weeks, and noticed the deer left them alone. I used it this winter, and after the 1st episode of deer destruction with the newly planted tulips and pansies, I've had no fruther damage.

I sprayed the bulbs, the ground where they were being planted, the soil that covered the bulbs, and the pine straw that I used to cover them.

I'm going to try using the neem spray. I hope that it works for rabbits as well. Those little rascals are the real menace in my yard.

The rabbits can also be a pain here as well, along with the chipmunks and squirrels. I mentioned earlier, I planted mini daffs around the edge of most of the back garden, and I've noticed less damage.

There were years where I didn't see many of my plants bloom, because they were eaten, or the bulbs were dug up and eaten. I now plant a ring of daffodils around my more precious bulbs

Good idea Annette - and they're so pretty too!!!!

Cayenne pepper flakes i heard works too

Yes Dave, I've also used the pepper flakes as well.

Only problem with neem oil is it is expensive. So do the daffodils repel varmints

Mary, the bulbs have not been touched that I've planted the daffodils around, especially my lilies that were ruined in years past.

I'm not a fan of daffodils, but I'll put a wall of them up around all my lilies!

Dave- Since you convinced me to buy lots of lilies I think it's time to work on you and daffodils How much do you want to spend?

I'd prefer to spend nothing on them since I do not like them. is rather spend that on more lilies. But seeing as though i have already spend around 2 thousand on lilies. Lol

They definitely need daffodil protection

Do you think if I planted daffys around my tree peonies it would protect them from voles? I would cover them to protect from the snow tunneling voles but I did that one year and they just moved under the cover and made it a B&B for the winter, killing the two tree peonies by eating their bark. I guess I could build a cylindrical cage with small holes (less than 1/4" with a top and sink maybe two inches into the soil as they don't seem to dig in the ground ,just the snow (lazy bums.) You would think they would turn white in the winter like the rabbits and fox.

Mary, I've never seen voles here, and I've only ever seen 2 moles, and they were both dead. One in my front lawn, and the other on my back walkway, by my lilies and daffs. I've never seen any evidence of either living in my garden.

What seems to work is a perimeter of the daffodils around the plants that you want to protect.

Here's mini narcissus 'Minnow' around a set of lilies.


And N. Delibes around OT Purple Prince


Edited to add the mini daff is 'Minnow', not 'WP Milner'.

The buds on the hyacinths I am forcing are coloring up nicely and the individual buds are beginning to separate from the cluster. They sure do develop quickly!

@Nhra_20 with regard to Daffodils, they have yellow ones, white ones, salmon colored ones, pink ones, white with yellow centers, white with orange centers, yellow with orange centers, short ones, tall ones, double ones, daffodils that smell good, daffodils that don't smell much . . . . .- kind of like Bubba Gump Shrimp

There's over 26000 cultivars in the daffodil realm.