Plants squirrels avoid

Plant choice matters far less against squirrels than against deer, because squirrels dig rather than browse. The one place it genuinely helps is bulbs: squirrels dig freshly planted bulbs in the weeks after planting. Wire mesh laid over the planting area and covered with soil is the reliable fix.

This page is shorter on plant names than people expect, and the reason is structural. With deer, plant choice works because deer are eating foliage and can choose to eat something else. With squirrels the damage is mostly digging, and a squirrel digging in fresh soil is not evaluating your plant selection.

Digging, not browsing

That second row is the whole page. A squirrel excavating a newly planted bed is responding to freshly turned soil, which reads as either a cache site or a place something was buried. The plant that happens to be there is incidental.

Where plant choice does help: bulbs

Bulbs are the exception, and it is a real one. Some bulbs are toxic or unpalatable and get left alone; others are essentially food and get dug up systematically. Daffodils are the classic example of the first category — every gardener notices that their daffodils survive while their crocus and tulips vanish.

We are not going to publish a definitive palatability table, because we have not found an authority that publishes one and inventing it would break our sourcing standard. What we can point you at is the extension lists that cover this alongside deer and rabbits — Colorado State University Extension publishes one for rabbit, ground squirrel and deer-resistant plants, and your own state's service will have a regional equivalent.

The fix that always works: wire over the bulbs

Whatever you plant, this closes the vulnerable window entirely, and it is the single most useful technique in this section of the site.

1. Plant the bulbs as normal and firm the soil.
2. Lay a sheet of 1 in or smaller mesh flat over the whole planted area, extending a few inches past it.
3. Pin the corners with landscape staples so it cannot be flipped.
4. Cover with an inch or two of soil, then mulch as usual.
5. Shoots grow up through the mesh in spring; the digging is blocked all winter.

The reason this works so well is that the vulnerable window is short. Squirrels dig where soil has recently been disturbed. Get the bulbs through the first few weeks and the problem largely disappears on its own — which is also why the mesh can stay buried and forgotten rather than needing seasonal management.

The University of Georgia Extension notes hex netting is sold in 1 in and 2 in openings. Take the 1 in or smaller; you are doing the work once.

Repellents, and their real limits here

Plant repellents formulated for the small raiders — Bobbex-R names rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks; Plantskydd's ready-to-use lists squirrels and chipmunks among its targets — reduce damage on treated foliage and bulbs while the coating is present.

The limit is the same as everywhere: rain strips it, new growth is untreated, and on a buried bulb the coating is not where the digging happens. Use a repellent for containers, specimen plants and beds you will not cover. Do not use one as the primary defense on a bed you could simply cover.

Fruit and vegetables

Plant choice does essentially nothing for soft fruit and tomatoes. A squirrel taking a single bite from each ripening tomato is not making a considered botanical judgement, and there is no variety that solves it.

That is a barrier problem, and a rigid cage over the bed is the answer — plant cages and cloches covers the options, and keeping squirrels out of the garden covers the whole picture.