How To Keep Critters Out Of The Garden Without Harming Them

How To Keep Animals Out Of Garden

Lush greens, blooming flowers, and fruitful trees are a joy to see whenever you take a stroll in your garden. However, it’s not just us humans who find it appealing.

If you go through your vegetable garden and flower beds and find half-eaten fruits, mowed down marigolds, and dug up carrots, then you might have a critter problem.

Furry creatures and unwanted visitors like bunnies, gophers, field mice, and deer don’t always know they aren’t welcome in your yard, so they feed off the fruits of your hard work like there’s no tomorrow.

So you may be asking about How To Keep Critters Out Of The Garden without harming them or your garden.

Today, we’ll be talking about one of the most asked questions how do I keep critters out of my garden and the safest and most effective ways you can keep critters from making a feast out of your garden. Let’s get started!

Identify The Critters Causing You Problems

First things first, it’s important to know what kind of critter is wreaking havoc in your yard. This way, you’ll know exactly how you’ll communicate to them that your garden is off-limits.

Different types of animals leave behind different clues when they feast on your crops. Here are some things you need to look out for: 

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Deer

Tend to munch on landscape plants, flowers, and edible crops.

What to look for:

• missing buds
• half-eaten fruits and vegetables
• ripped leaves
• pellet-shaped droppings
• tracks that look like upside-down hearts

Bunnies

Love vegetables and they tend to have a big appetite for them.

What to look for:

• missing individual plants
• neat-trimmed leaves and stems
• tufts of fur
• slight depressions in your mulch
• pea-sized droppings

Raccoons

Are active at night and tend to forage in your veggie garden and garden beds as well as trash bins or through the mulch to dig up insects.

What to look for:

• toppled trash cans
• droppings and scratch marks at the base of wood piles or trees
• empty bird feeders
• holes in your lawn

Squirrels

Are nut eaters and savers, so keep an eye on your bird feeders as they are gluttons and won’t leave any for the birds.

What to look for:

• half-eaten or missing seed heads, fruits
• half-eaten vegetables
• empty bird feeder

Groundhogs

Create tunnels and burrows that have round openings with piles of dirt.

What to look for:

• tracks with 4-clawed toes on the front and 5-clawed toes in the back
• missing leaves, flowers, fruits, and vegetables 
• Wide teeth impressions on bark, plants, and fruit

Eliminate Hiding Places

When talking about How To Keep Critters Out Of Garden, this one is essential. Making your garden and flower garden less attractive to local wildlife and wild animals is an effective solution and one of the best ways to keep critters out of garden.

Removing hiding places or nesting areas, including tall grass and brush piles, is one way to keep different animals out of your own gardens.

You might also consider sealing off access to spaces under your porch or deck. Such critters like rabbits and groundhogs will be discouraged from crossing a clean yard just to feed themselves.

This is an effective method to prevent rabbit damage or damage from other smaller animals. With a sturdy fence such as steel mesh, mesh fencing, or rabbit fencing you can stop problem animals and household pets from getting into any small area or small holes.

Remove Food That Attracts Them

For the answer to how to keep critters out of vegetable garden read below:

If your garden has crops common garden pests such as that deer and other pest animals love, it’s best to harvest your fresh vegetables as soon as they’re ripe.

Gather fallen fruit and nuts, and don’t leave pet food out in the yard so as not to attract animal pests such as ground squirrels and raccoons.

Build A Barrier Around Your Garden

Put up a garden fence or any tall fences around the perimeter of your garden. This is the best control method for preventing and keeping deer and other pesky animals such as rabbits and groundhogs entering your garden. Use chicken wire or a wire cloche to make a barrier and protect your precious produce.

If you have a deer problem, make sure that the fence you’re using is high enough so they cannot access your yard easily.

Alternatively, when answering the question of How To Keep Critters Out Of Your Garden, you can use sacrificial old or young plants as a barrier to block access. If wildlife can feast on something other than your main plants and root vegetables, then they’ll be happy enough to steer clear of your yard. 

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Consider Using Pots and Raised Beds

Planting your crops in pots or raised beds is the best way to keep critters out of garden by can keep critters away and preventing critters from munching on your produce.

When vulnerable plants are placed in areas where wildlife can’t reach them, they will be discouraged from coming back and taking a bite out of the new plants you’ve worked so hard to grow.

Give Your Pets Garden Duties

Domestic animals such as dogs and cats do more than just make your home a little happier. You can also give them the task of protecting your garden area from unwanted wildlife.

Dogs are excellent for keeping groundhogs and gophers away from your crops, while cats are natural rodent predators.

Use Repellents

You don’t have to go to extreme measures like using poison to keep critters away from your garden. You can use scent repellents like garlic clips, castor oil, and hot peppers to deter wildlife from nibbling on your precious crops and different types of plants. 

Taste repellents such as coffee grounds and cayenne peppers are also known natural repellants agents for different species of larger animals and small mammals to protect your new plantings.

You can also use scare devices like noise makers such as ultrasonic repellents, motion activated sprayers, noisemakers, odor repellants, reflective tape, or a good old fashioned scarecrow.

I hope these tips for How To Keep Critters Out Of Your Yard And Garden will help you keep your beautiful garden happy and healthy. Do you have any tips you can share? Please leave them in the comments below, and we’d love to hear them!

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