Squirrel protection revisited

For the most part, my pop bottle cloches worked very well this year. They did get blown around a bit a few times, as I wasn't careful to twist all of them into the soil. Some enterprising squirrel took advantage of the temporarily uncovered state of this Girosa lily to bite a chunk out of the side. Fortunately, he missed the growing tip so the lily will still grow and flower, albeit with some pretty mangled-looking leaves. As they grow out, they will each display the same tooth marks along one side, much like the paper doll chains and snowflakes we made as children.

Conclusion, the pop bottles are worth the bother, although I should have taken more care to anchor them. One of them which couldn't be pressed into the soil better I held in place by anchoring four long twigs around it, with the curve of the twigs hugging the bottle. I obviously should have done that for this one also.

Yes, but is it art?

What do you think of my low-budget garden art? Yes, I share your opinion. I don't think the gardening magazine people will be beating a path to my door any time soon.

The pop bottles are obviously there not for esthetics but for a practical purpose: protection from squirrels. Although lilies are notoriously toxic for cats, the adorable but frustrating tree rodents consider newly emerging shoots to be a gourmet treat. I learned this the hard way when I first moved into a squirrel-infested neighbourhood a number of years ago, and had all my lilies chewed off to soil level within three days of breaking ground. The next year I devised my pop bottle cloche technique and have only lost one in the intervening years. As soon as the lily emerges, I pop on one of these cloches (sorry, couldn't resist), and remove it when the lily plant is butting against the top of it. At this point, the squirrels will almost always leave them alone. The cloche is made by simply cutting off the bottom of a 2L bottle. It's important to remove the cap to allow for some air circulation.

Pop quiz question (I am on a roll today): why is the soil covered with large pine cones?