We have an abundance of squirrels around here and there are tons of walnut trees all around us . . big, producing black walnut trees.
Vince built the two new raised beds a month or so ago and filled them with a mix of garden soil, compost, composted cow manure and peat. In one bed, I planted peas and transplanted some rhubarb. The second bed sat for a couple of weeks waiting for it to get cool enough to plant the garlic. I think it was early week before last that I planted the garlic and put a nice layer of mulch over it. The soil in the bed was nice and soft.
A day or so later I noticed three holes in the garlic bed. I thought I had not covered the garlic well, watered, and the dirt sank in so I raked the mulch back and moved some soil around and replaced the mulch. The next day I went out to water and there were maybe five holes. I thought a critter was eating my garlic but decided it was the squirrels burying the walnuts. Vince got some plastic landscape fencing with tiny holes, stapled that all around and so far, that’s stopped the squirrels.
I’m not terribly disappointed that the squirrels are planting walnut trees. There’s one growing in the front that we’re hoping will eventually be big enough to provide shade. The trees grow really quickly . . as in it’s about 6′ tall after a year but it’s going to be a while before it provides shade. There’s also one growing that will eventually provide shade for Vince’s shop.
But the funny thing is that I saw this on a friend’s Facebook feed:
They can have my relatives but leave my garlic alone! 🙂
montanaclarks says
And I just saw on FB where squirrels hid walnuts in the engine compartment of a vehicle and in other hard to reach places of a vehicle!!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Squirrels do the same things with acorns. In Texas, our cars were under a carport and Vince often opened the hoods and removed debris left by squirrels.
danielle says
I dont remember the exact number – but the amount of POUNDS of walnuts he discovered was amazing! Obviously he doesnt use that truck very often….
justquiltin says
The squirrels have been busy outside my apt. All my flower pots are filled with walnuts since there are walnut trees just on the other side of the fence.
LMW says
Be careful about walnuts. Their hills are poisonous to dogs!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Did not know that. Thanks. There are no trees right around our house. The closest ones are way across the street but obviously, the squirrels are bringing them over here so I’ll watch out for the hulls. I keep saying I’m going to put a muzzle on him when we go outside because he eats everything he finds.
Cilla Hould Tyler says
I’ll toss in a few relatives and an ex!!!
vivoaks says
The other important thing to remember with black walnuts is anything planted within the reach of their roots will not grow. My SIL had a gorgeous rhododendron that the squirrels planted a black walnut about 6 feet from. There’s almost nothing left of it now. Black walnut roots are poisonous to other plants.
Susan says
Both the meme and your comment made me smile, a very good thing these days!
Joyce says
My backyard neighbor has a Walnut tree and the house over one has a Pecan tree. I have a couple of tree stumps and they are covered in Walnut and Pecan shells. I also have an old Adirondack chair that’s falling apart and the arms are covered in shells too. The squirrels are busy! I always laugh, because they usually drop one Walnut in each of my flower pots. They don’t do a good job of “hiding” them…LOL