We’re planting a variety of bulbs to add to the large number we planted last fall.
So far we’ve been pretty successful with bulbs.
Squirrels are the most commonly blamed for bulb digging. Sometimes they replant them for you.(Heh)
But I’ve had crows pecking at bulb beds. The deer. Raccoons digging. And one obstinate Opossum named Clarence.
My dogs. A grand kid or two.
I hope the rocks help.
If it’s a bed and not a dedicated border planting you can over plant with vinca or other ground cover viney thing. That will fill the bed and your bulbs will come up thru them. And if you lose some you’ll be able to replant and the fresh ground will be hidden from those pesky thieves.
But it takes a year of planning to achieve this.
You might find vinca as a bedding plant in the perennials. That will come on faster.
It hides a bunch of bad things in beds. I love it. It does get out of hand occasionally. But will stand brutal pruning back.
We’re actually growing vinca already, started last fall in another section. But adding some to the flower beds might be good also. I was thinking about ordering some more, one Amazon partner has 200 tiny plants for sale for only $62. Small risk for a lot of vinca.
The vinca myrtle we planted last year is doing great so far.
If it’s racoons, you’ll usually find the bulbs discarded nearby with exactly one bite taken out of each and every one.
Those tiny plants will do big work in beds.
I’ve planted it everywhere. It is just a soldier in the garden. Easy grower. Easy keeper.
Nothing seems to eat it. I have hungry deer and they don’t bother it.
I use bloodmeal, critters don’t like it, won’t come near. I buy it at the garden centre by the bag. Works a charm!
We use these – works great. The leaves/flowers find their way through the holes, no problem
That’s a great idea.
I’m surprised you need to buy vinca. Around here, it is easy to find someone who has vast swaths of it from which you can dig up chunks. (I’m all about plant swapping!)
I curse the fool who planted “creeping myrtle” next door and now I see it one lot away creeping this way. Overtaking the natural woodland flora. I hates it, on par with poison ivy and some years grape vine.
I’m very happy to report we did not have a repeat performance. No new diggings.
I started using cayenne pepper to discourage squirrels from digging in garden beds a few weeks ago. Partial success. May have to escalate to adding bloodmeal, except it could attract a different class of undesirables.
The problem with squirrels gnawing on our porch flooring to eat the tasty paint continues, even though with the last repainting incorporating ultra-hot pepper extract. The little vermin apparently have a hankering for spicy Mexican food.
I worked for a few years to get the biggest acorn I’d ever seen to germinate. I did stratification, beginning in my refrigerator then moving to the freezer, eventually planting it in a pot. It sprouted and was ready to transplant to the next size pot. My gf witnessed a chipmunk running away, leaving the destroyed stem behind.
We planted 50 bulbs around our birdbath one year. The next day, there were 50 empty holes around the birdbath. I think we laid chicken wire down around the replanted bulbs, and at least some came up…same year I planted some flowering delphiniums in a row against a wall. Watered them, went inside, and when I came out about an hour later to admire my expensive pretty purchase, there was nothing there but a half inch stem where each flower had been.
It says right in the thread title: 100-watt bulbs… never mind—misread it.
I had that problem in the past. I started using this stuff, putting about a tablespoon in each hole. Works really well!
Another, more labor intensive solution is to wrap each bulb in metal screen, like you’d use for a screened porch.
I thought bulbs typically added more bulbs over the years. Wouldn’t the metal screen interfere with that?
I don’t know a lot about this subject so maybe I don’t understand how it works.
Just pull some of your vinca, cut it, and root it in water. It’s ready quickly. Or pull some where the stem has rooted itself, cut it so you have the fresh rooted section, and plunk it in the ground.
My vinca was just planted last fall, I don’t have enough yet to do that. I look forward to when it takes off, so I can do things like that.
Meanwhile, I have a bunch on the way and hopefully that works.
Years ago I witnessed an amusing scene in Pismo Beach where the landscaping crew had just finished planting an area with ground cover seedlings. A flock* of ravens appeared and proceeded to pull up every single plant (in search of bugs, I suppose?) as the landscapers looked on in dismay.
*perhaps the other term – “unkindness” – might be more appropriate in this instance 