How to Keep Animals from Eating Your Bulbs

October 23rd, 2018

   Most of our yards are seriously under-bulbed – probably for several reasons.

A rabbit looking for a free garden meal.

   One is that bulbs have the unfortunate trait of lacking badly on the instant-gratification scale. You plant the things in fall, then end up with a bare bed for at least 4 months before anything happens.

   Another is the cost and the work. Not many people want to invest in either, especially at a time when they presume the gardening season is over. (October and November are the two best months to plant bulbs.)

   The third big strike is that a lot of gardeners haven’t had very good luck with bulbs. They rot, get eaten, or otherwise fail to deliver for more than a year or two (the bulbs, not the gardeners).

   That last one is easier to solve than you might think… mainly because the problems trace primarily to tulips.

   Tulips are wonderful bulbs that make a brilliant display, which is why they’re the most popular of the spring-flowering bulbs.

See George’s video on how to plant spring bulbs

   However, they happen to be the most challenging to grow. Deer, rabbits, and rodents love the flavor of all parts of the tulip, and they often ruin a planting. Even when tulips don’t become animal dessert, most of them tend to peter out within a few years.

   The latter is the reason why most public gardens treat tulips as annuals – yanking them after bloom each year and planting anew each fall.

   In case you’d rather not do that, I have a better idea. Why not select your way out of trouble by scaling back on or skipping tulips and planting other bulbs that animals are a whole lot less likely to eat? More on that in a minute…

   But first, as in any warfare, it helps to understand the enemy. We’re dealing with invaders on two fronts here.

   One is burrowing rodents – such as mice, squirrels, voles and chipmunks – that eat bulbs before they ever have a chance to shoot up.

   The other is above-ground foragers such as deer and rabbits that chew the flower buds off growing plants before they open.

   Groundhogs – that horrid creature that God created to keep gardeners from getting too cocky – can get you coming and going, both above-ground and below.

Rabbits have gnawed off these tulip leaves.

   If you insist on growing tulips, the best defense against underground attack is to screen out the pests.

   A sheet of chicken wire laid over the bed after planting, then covered with mulch, works great. Rodents can’t tunnel down through it, but the bulb shoots can poke up through the thumb-sized openings.

   Smarter rodents, however, can tunnel down beside the wire and then go sideways into the bulb booty.

   You can outsmart even those rodents by building what’s essentially a buried cage around the bulbs.

   First, excavate the bed down to the planting depth of the bulbs (typically about 6 inches for tulips). Lay chicken wire across the bottom, plant the bulbs and then fold up all four sides of the wire as you backfill the hole with soil. Lay another sheet of chicken wire across the top to completely enclose the planting. Touché, Mr. Vole!

   An alternative to wire is making the soil too scratchy for rodent comfort.

   Espoma’s gritty Soil Perfector (sold in bags at most garden centers) can be mixed into your bulb beds to discourage tunneling. Gravel, stone dust or similar crushed rock at about 10 percent volume also may do the trick at less cost.

   The bonus with this treatment is that the stone fragments also improve soil drainage.

   To head off above-ground attacks in spring, repellents are your best bet.

   Lots of commercial products are available to spray on and around emerging bulb plants, including Ropel, Predator Fox Urine, Bobbex, Liquid Fence, Plantskydd, and Deer Out.

   Some gardeners have reported success with such homemade repellents as human hair, rotten-egg concoctions, hanging sponge pieces soaked in a bloodmeal/ammonia mixture, and even human urine (a good assignment for the man of the house).

   Another effective defense is enlisting an energetic cat or dog. They’ll find it great sport chasing down rodents and rabbits all day.

   If you’re really getting desperate, there’s fencing. The main down side, though, is a fence isn’t very ornamental for your ornamental plantings.

   For deer, you’ll need an 8-foot fence around the perimeter of your property or an electric fence or a pair of shorter but parallel fences 3 feet apart.

   To fence out groundhogs and rabbits, sink fencing 3 feet down – or 1 foot down and 2 feet out. Also let the top unsecured so groundhogs won’t have support to climb over.

Chicken wire is protecting bulbs planted in this pot.

   One last backup plan… you could go with the non-tasty stuff in the ground and plant your tulips only in pots and window boxes. Then cover the tops with netting or chicken wire.

   An easier solution is to try bulbs that animals really don’t like. They generally feast on tulips, sometimes crocuses and occasionally hyacinths.

   Here are 10 alternatives that I like that animals aren’t likely to eat:

   1.) Daffodils (Narcissus). Early to mid-spring bloomers with cup-shaped flowers of gold, white and pastel shades.

   2.) Siberian squill (Scilla siberica). Short April bloomers with cobalt-blue hanging flowers.

   3.) Ornamental onions (Allium). A diverse family of late-spring to early-summer bloomers, most with rounded purple flowers of varying sizes.

A mass of glory-of-the-snow.

   4.) Glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa). Short early-spring bloomer with star-shaped flowers of white, pink or purple-blue.

   5.) Snowdrops (Galanthus). Short late-winter bloomer with hanging white flowers.

   6.) Fritillaria. Mid-spring bloomer with variety of types. Most common is foot-tall type with checkerboard red-purple and white hanging flowers.

   7.) Striped squill (Puschkinia). Short, early-spring bloomers that have white, star-shaped flowers with blue stripes.

Summer snowflakes in bloom.

   8.) Summer snowflake (Leucojum). Late-spring bloomers with hanging, white, bell-shaped flowers atop 12- to 15-inch tall stalks.

   9.) Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica). Foot-tall upright plants with strappy leaves and late-spring spikes of pink or blue flowers.

   10.) “Tommy” crocuses (Crocus tommasinianus). Short early-spring bloomers with upright, tubular light-purple flowers. This particular type of crocus is apparently least tasty to animals.