There is nothing more annoying than planting a whole bunch of spring flowering bulbs only to find the next day that they all been carefully dug up again by some pesky squirrel or other critter. While the squirrels need to eat you would prefer them to find something else to satisfy their hunger. Although they are not entirely foolproof there are a number of steps you can take to protect your bulbs as Kathleen LaLiberte explains in her article which I found on the Longfield Gardens website.

For gardeners, fall is planting time for tulips, daffodils, alliums and other spring-blooming bulbs. While we’re busy planting our bulbs, chipmunks and squirrels are?busy gathering?nuts, berries and seeds for the winter ahead. If you?re a rodent working hard to fill up your food cache, the flower bulbs we’re planting are buried treasure:?tasty, nutritious and easy to transport.
It’s heartbreaking to have your?flower bulbs become dinner for some pesky critter. Read on for some easy planting tips?that can help you?keep?your fall bulbs safe?from chipmunks and squirrels.

Don?t tempt them. Not all flower bulbs are appealing to chipmunks and squirrels. So one?strategy is to plant bulbs they avoid, including?daffodils, alliums, scilla (Siberian squill), hyacinths, muscari (grape hyacinths), fritillaria, camassia, chionodoxa, galanthus (snowdrops) and leucojum (summer snowflake).
Planting your bulbs with smelly a organic fertilizer such as bone meal or fish emulsion may attract skunks, dogs and cats well as chipmunks and squirrels. Bulbs already contain everything they need to flower, so skip the fertilizer and avoid attracting attention to your newly planted bulbs.

See more at Longfield Gardens