Squirrels feast on pecans, fallen fruit, squash, cucumbers, and even watermelons and cantaloupes. Rummaging through your garden beds, they may dine on bulbs that are a lot fresher and tastier than the nuts they squirreled away the year before. They can take over feeders you leave out for birds and other wildlife, and they don’t reward you for your sacrifices by becoming good pets.

If you have not had a lot of interactions with squirrels, there is a fundamental fact of the relationship between the squirrel and the admiring, animal-loving outdoor Texas gardener: Squirrels bite. That furry friend from the trees above will take bite out of your finger when given a chance. And it might even dine on your smaller pet chickens and eat their eggs as if it thought it was a raccoon or a skunk.

If you want to win the battle for garden supremacy with Texas squirrels, you are going to need to plan ahead. Here are 10 tips to taking action to help squirrels find a better habitat than your garden in Texas.

1. Confuse the critters. Gray (although not red) squirrels have a keen memory for landmarks. If you want to direct squirrels out of your garden with a minimum of fuss, move any shiny objects to a different location in your yard or garden every three or four months.

2. Install squirrel baffles on lines and wires leading to your home or garden. When a squirrel shimmies across a line, it grasps the top of the line with its front paws and the bottom of the line with its back paws. Putting a roller on the line makes it impossible for the squirrel to proceed.

3. Call out the hounds. Although this strategy may not work if your hound is a chihuahua, allowing your dog to patrol your yard or garden once a day or so, especially in the middle of the day, may keep squirrels off your property.

4. Get rid of squirrels humanely with a Havahart Two-Door Squirrel Trap. Just be sure it is not more than 5-1/2 inches high, so if you happen to trap a skunk, it can’t raise its tail to spray you.

5. Keep squirrels out your attic with ultrasound. Electronic noise machines generate high-pitched sound at 56,000 Hz. This is too high for humans to hear but drives squirrels batty. It’s a lot more useful for keeping squirrels out than it is for getting squirrels out. Once a mother squirrel has made her nest in her attic so she can raise her 4 to 10 babies, you are not going to be able to get rid of her with nuisance devices.

6. Make sure branches are cut within 15 feet of your roof. A squirrel can jump that far from a tree limb to the roof of your house, and then gnaw its way inside.

7. Dig mesh wire around valuable garden beds to a depth of 15 inches, with at least a three inch margin above the ground. This will deter both squirrels and, if you live in the Panhandle or East Texas, also gophers.

8. Place mothballs in the corners of the attic, where mother squirrels like to build their nests. Fumes from the mothballs make squirrels woozy so they want to leave. Be forewarned that the fumes can have a similar effect on people.

9. Recycle kitty litter underneath bushes or thicket at the edges of your property. Since cats sometimes eat squirrels, they will steer away from the odor of used kitty litter.

10. Shut the garage door at night. Squirrels sometimes find their way under the hood of your car or truck. You’ll make an unwelcome squirrel tartar should the squirrel get caught in your radiator fan or alternator belt, and a single broken wire in your vehicle’s electrical harness can result in more than $1000 in auto repairs.

Started A Compost Pile

I had never had a compost bin before, so I bought one from our local Costco that reduced my kitchen scraps and lawn clippings into nutrient-rich compost in a matter of weeks. I know that many people opt to make their own compost bin, but I wanted to make sure that my compost was ready for me to use at the beginning of the gardening season so I bought one to speed up the process.

Figured Out My Growing Zone

Unfortunately I don’t live in Texas…I live in a zone 3 area. This means that I do not get to grow watermelons or more delicate fruit that needs a longer growing season. Up North, the ground starts to thaw toward the end of April and we sometimes can get snow fall or frost in September so we only grow hardier types of veggies. I did try out some different types of peppers as well as a watermelon (that is how I know it won’t grow up here) with no success so I just stick to the basics that I know grow in our climate.

Started A Rainwater Collection

I had already started conserving rainwater in a barrel that I bought from the local town office so that I could water my indoor plants and my outside flower planters. The year that I started my veggie garden, I beefed it up and actually added three more barrels so that each drain spout coming off each corner of the house added to my water collection. I was able to water my garden all summer with my water collection which saved me a bit of money as well as being more environmentally friendly.

Used Soilless Mixture In My Veggie Patch

As my soil in the backyard is not that great, I decided to use the Square Foot gardening method. This meant that I used Mel’s Mixture which is a combination of compost, peat moss and vermiculite. Because it doesn’t have any dirt, I ended up with a weed free garden which meant that I had more spare time to do other things other than weeding which is not my favourite part of gardening.

Bought Some Good Bugs To Keep Down Plant Eating Bugs

I knew lady bugs and praying mantis bugs were good for my garden however I didn’t even realize that I could buy them online. As I didn’t want to use pesticides on my garden, I choose to get rid of my bugs with these good for the garden bugs. I ordered my bugs online and spaced out when they were shipped so that I had a healthy supply to keep the pesky bug population down in my garden.

I have found that growing my own produce in my organic garden is very rewarding. I am able to provide healthy, nutritious veggies that I knew are pesticide free while also saving me money on my grocery bill. If you are looking for a way to cut costs or you just want to be healthy, I highly suggest starting your own veggie garden.

Making a lasagna garden is a great way to build quality soil for your vegetable garden on the cheap.  Rather than buying expensive soil mixes from Home Depot or Lowes, you can just deposit the basic ingredients of a soil mix into your garden bed and let the processes of nature take care of mixing them together over time.  Earthworms and bacteria work for free after all!

If you have ready access to free materials such as compost, lawn clippings, manure and dead leaves, your soil will be practically free.  Even if you don’t you will find that purchase compost to supplement what you do have is a lot cheaper than filling an entire bed with expensive Miracle Gro.

A great thing about a no dig gardening method like this is you can just do it on top of an existing lawn area.  Simply start with a layer of cardboard to slow down the lawns growth – this should keep it under control until it gives up on trying to grow back and dies due to the lack of sunlight.

A great benefit of lasagna gardening to create a raised bed is that all your gardening will be done a foot or two above the ground.  This eliminates a lot of the crouching involved in most gardening, and makes life a lot easier on your back.  When I used to do row vegetable gardening I would dread getting outside and pulling weeds, as my back would always complain about it the next day!

Layering with cardboard is great for the aisles between raised beds too.  Weeds will grow anywhere given half a chance, but placing a sheet of cardboard between seeds and sunlight will prevent many of them ever seeing the light of day.

Whether you are a new vegetable gardener getting involved in square foot gardening, or just looking for an easy way to expand your beds, lasagna gardening is well worth looking into!  I recommend this book if you want more information.

Basically, the system consists of using small footprint raised beds for your veggie gardening.  By training your vegetables to grow vertically you can really squeeze a large crop into a relatively small area.  The value of this is obvious if you are one of those people who has a very small yard! Some people recommend the use of Lasagna Gardening techniques when building small raised beds, but this is optional.

As well as being a great way to overcome space constraints, this ‘technology’ has many other benefits.  Firstly, it is a lot easier to work a raised bed garden than it is to work the more traditional rows.  Since they are raised you will find you do not have to bend so far to pull weeds, eliminate bugs, etc…  Also, since they are relatively small, you can easily weed a significant fraction of your gardening space in a very short period of time.

Square foot gardening is great for companion planting too.  Since everything is growing quite close together – the plantings are done in a square formation rather than a row – you can easily gain the benefits of companion plantings.  For example, sewing a crop of carrots in your tomato bed will yield you a nice harvest of carrots before the tomato plants grow large enough to crowd them out.

Water savings are another plus.  You quite simply need less water to water a small garden.  Also, it is a lot cheaper to setup an irrigation system for a square foot garden than it is for row upon row of traditional gardens – the amount of hose and sprinklers needed is greatly reduced.  If you go the irrigation route you can setup an automated watering solution, which can be very handy if you are as bad at remembering to water your vegetable garden as I am!

Mels Square Foot Gardening books are listed here.  I personally recommend the  system as a great way to enhance your gardening enjoyment.  More detailed information on this type of gardening here.

There are two good sized areas of lawn in the back yard which show a lot of promise for conversion to some productive (and fun!) use.  I have already began the process of converting one of these using a modified form of the ‘Lasagna Gardening‘ method.

I hope to have some more updates on my progress posted soon!