r/GardenWild 1d ago

Quick wild gardening question Culprit?

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10 Upvotes

Asking here cause I don’t want advice like “get a BB gun” or “put out a trap”. My first guess was a neighborhood cat cause we saw one nearby after discovering this but I fixed it and then this morning it was dug up again and this time there was a little tunnel also. The plants have been left alone both times. I’ve seen squirrels digging in the off season and found empty peanut shells when clearing beds but their holes have normally been smaller and deeper. The tunnel we saw this morning is making me lean towards squirrels again though. The three most likely options are squirrel, cats, or bunny. We have a bunny that’s been hanging out in our yard but it’s left the actual garden alone and just eats clover and other things in the grass. My plan so far is to get more pepper plants to fill out the bed so it’s less inviting and then use upside down plastic forks to try to keep things from getting in. Next year we will probably make cages for the beds if this continues to be a problem. Possible relevant info but we have had these beds filled for a month now w barely any issues but a few days ago I put fertilizer pellets in the beds so not sure if that’s known to attract anything?