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.