Fantasy flowers are equally lovely as real ones.

Cris in MT

I love the idea of these flowers for your pots.  They'll add a lot of color and won't wilt if the squirrels dig around them.

You've got it! 

As long as I have a neighbor two houses down who puts out unshelled peanuts and hangs dried corncobs for the squirrels and I have my own oak and hickory trees in our north lot I am conceding that the critters will win the Battle of the Pots.

Since the squirrels will dig I'm working on a gold-spotted black clay "varmint monster" for my next bit of creativity. He might even have fangs. (I'm thinking of perhaps a hybrid of a Darth Vader/Wookie kind of thing.)

I might as well have fun with my defeat.

Thank you, Cris.  I love your thinking. 

judyinohio said:

Since the squirrels will dig I'm working on a gold-spotted black clay "varmint monster" for my next bit of creativity. He might even have fangs. (I'm thinking of perhaps a hybrid of a Darth Vader/Wookie kind of thing.) I might as well have fun with my defeat.

Your varmint monster sounds like loads of fun to make.  I may need some varmint monsters next summer because I plan on having several pots of flowers on our deck instead of taking care of flower beds.  I'll have two new knees but the rest of me still won't like bending over to pull weeds and plant flowers.

You will find that you will really miss the "therapy" of crawling around in the flower beds and mindlessly weeding in between the hostas and daylilies and such. I know I still do and it's been three years (or maybe four) since I had our flower beds taken out. It was such tedious work and yet relaxing at the same time ...

My work with pots just wasn't the same and the squirrels just regard my large pots as their safe deposit boxes/playgrounds. They hop from one pot to the next, flicking tails and glancing at the windows of the house to see if I am watching them ...

Sure, you can show pics....of your Quilt mama stuff

judyinohio said:

You will find that you will really miss the "therapy" of crawling around in the flower beds and mindlessly weeding in between the hostas and daylilies and such.

I already miss it because I haven't done any work in the flower beds since early last spring because of all my joint issues.  I will still have some weeding to do but not of the level as before.  I'm having my second knee replacement surgery on Dec. 10 so I'm looking forward to two pain free knees.  Hip replacement in somewhere in my future.  Now, if the doctors would just come up with a way to do spine replacement to cure my stenosis!  But the steroid shots help.  And I foresee squirrel problems if I have a bunch of pots next year.

Well, Marcia, I cannot guarantee if my Varmint Chaser will work but I certainly had a couple of giggles while I was creating him in my clay studio.  He has googly golden eyes, golden horns and fangs and plenty of little drops to indicate that he's blood-thirsty so he should intimidate something. I scratched up his coat with a toothbrush to give him a rough-and-ready look and I think he'll be ready for action come spring.

I wish you well in the 2020 garden season as you try to outwit the furry invaders.

A friend sent me this idea for Christmas napkins

https://youtu.be/dUQaPg1oAnA