There is a loosely stated rule among gardeners, which goes like this: “70% of your garden space should be dedicated to feeding your household, and the remaining 30% to feeding the pollinators and deterring nuisance wildlife.”
I have been working on the pressing issue of deterring squirrels from the 20-by-4-foot raised bed that I supervise for the Carlsbad Senior Garden Group at the Pine Avenue Park Community Garden. We are among 30 other garden holders who love growing vegetables, herbs and flowers, but do not enjoy feeding the fruits of our labor to squirrels!
We have a new gardener, Amanda White, a veterinarian from Carlsbad, who has come to her new garden well-equipped to plant vegetables for her household, but to also make sure the squirrels are not eating her vegetables for their dinner.
Amanda and I share similar backgrounds, since we both studied plants and animals in a serious manner. When I served as the director of the Cornell Master Gardener Program in Cooperstown, New York, one of the questions we were constantly bombarded with on our Question-and-Answer Line was how to get rid of what is aptly called “nuisance wildlife.”
Nuisance wildlife here in Southern California is defined as: “Native or introduced animals that cause property damage, threaten safety or interfere with the enjoyment of your land. Under state law, it is illegal to trap and relocate wildlife without specific, written permission.” Contact California Department of Fish and Wildlife for further details.
Since Amanda is a veterinarian who now works for the USDA in San Diego, she has studied the effects of domestic and wild animals in the area. She has chosen 70% of her newly acquired raised bed for her favorite vegetables, and the other 30% to be perennials and annuals that attract bees and butterflies and deter rodents.
In an effort to foil the squirrel who is inhabiting many of the gardens at the community garden, Amanda has chosen her plants wisely. In her herb garden, brightly colored marigolds that please the human eye are actually distasteful to most rodents, so she has planted them in many spots in her garden.
Equally as repellant to rodents are herbaceous plants with strong scents that might taste good to us, but not to the squirrel.
Plants that rodents do not like
ARTICHOKES are the perfect example of a plant in Amanda’s anti-squirrel garden. The long leaves are filled with tiny spikes that will scare them off.
HERBS:
• Assorted thyme — Creeping thyme, silver thyme, woolly thyme and more all have a spicy smell and spread quickly
• Oregano — This fast-growing perennial is useful to humans, but rodents don’t like it
• Nasturtium — Spicy orange and yellow flowers
• Sage — Any variety of this plant is useful
• Lavender — This sweetly scented herb is great for sachets, and bees love it
FLOWERS:
• Marigolds — Any of the dozen varieties smell bad and scare rodents off
• Butterfly plants — All of the narrow leaf or native Asclepias tuberosa attract monarchs
• Perennial favorites — Bee balm, agastache and foxglove all attract bees and hummingbirds but not the squirrels
Protect your edible garden
The final phase of Amanda White’s 20-foot raised bed was to complete her vegetable garden. Located next to her herb garden, the edible garden is surrounded by a handmade cage. She constructed a sizable structure (4 by 6 feet) with wooden slates and mesh netting.
This box keeps rodents out, and her vegetables are safe for harvesting. Her edible garden is filled with her favorite salad ingredients of lettuce and tomatoes. She has devised a cut-and-come-again corner of micro greens including broccoli and arugula sprouts, and her small crop of strawberries is starting to produce summer fruit.
If you would like to visit the community garden, contact me at the Carlsbad Senior Center at 442-339-2650 or [email protected].
