Squirrels… They have officially become my nemesis over the last year and a half.
When we first moved here, we were fairly lucky in that pests hadn’t discovered our garden. Last year, however, was a different story.
We would find a squirrel sitting contentedly and almost mockingly on the corner of our deck railing, munching happily on an almost ripened tomato he’d just plucked from our plants. That or they’d leave traces of half eaten tomatoes and berries along their trail of destruction.
This year before we ever even started our garden, in fact while we were still starting seeds indoors before the growing season, we came up with a plan to put a stop to it.
Ornery little buggers! Squirrels are no longer cute in my eyes. And our cat, well… he’s just pure laziness these days and couldn’t give a hoot. Good thing he’s cute!
Anyway, we had to come up with a solution to keep squirrels out of our deck rail planters where we are planting lettuce, spinach, and have a few strawberry plants. We’ve already found where they dug up our spinach seeds before we could get the squirrel-proofing done. I kinda feel like I’m in an old 80’s hit comedy with these critters!
We’ve read all sorts of solutions, including using wolf (or other predator) pee, which we may be desperate enough to try around our front garden beds and pots. But for deck rail planters, chicken wire makes a great cage of sorts to keep squirrels out. I swear, as we built these, we could hear them angrily chattering from their perch in the trees overhead. I won’t share how Dan answered them back…
Supplies You Need
- Chicken wire
- Wire cutters
- Staple gun
- Staples
- Pliers
- Hooks
Instructions for Keeping Squirrels Out of Deck Rail Planters
Roll out the chicken wire and cut to the length needed for your planter. Form it into a tunnel, and staple it to the outside edge of your deck rail planter.
Cut another piece of fencing to match the shape of the tunnel end, and wire to the end, snipping extra wire off when done.
Place hooks in deck rail to fasten squirrel guard/tunnel down to railing. This way you can open it up when you need to work with your plants or harvest.
And that’s pretty much it! You now have a way to keep those pesky critters out of your deck planters. It’s so simple, it’s not even funny. So simple, the squirrels in your neck of the woods will probably be telling you off as you make it.
Happy squirrel-free gardening!
More Gardening Tips and Outdoor Living
- DIY Vintage Tractor Seat Bucket for Gardening
- Starting Seeds Indoors with Newspaper Seedling Pots
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