Squirrels

I'd like to begin a small container garden on my back deck. We have a lot of squirrels and a coupla raccoons in this area. Got any ideas how I could "shield" my plantings (veggies/flowers/berries) from these guys? We also have quite a few varieties of songbirds in the area but I don't know if they are a "threat". Any help/advise/suggestions as to what/when to plant will be appreciated. I've never tried anything like this before. I'm in planting zone 7a. TIA!

I don't know if it's effective with coons but I use a plastic owl (mine has the swivel head) to protect my fig bushes and it works great for squirrels, chippies and song birds. We mount it on a post in plain view and move it around about once a week so the critters don't get too used to it never moving.

We could use a lot more info. Can you take pics? How much shade, sun, east , west, north, south facing. Have you ever planted anything anything before?

We have a large deck in the back and it gets about 8 hrs. of sun/part sun throughout the day as it is south-facing. The yard between the deck and the back tree line is completely in the shade from mature trees. I wish I could plant in the front of the house as it gets more direct sunshine but the homeowners association would probably come and dig it all up - lol. And, no, I've never planted anything before. The only "gardening" I've done is to buy bedding plants in the spring and transplant them into containers all over the front side of the house and along the driveway.

You can buy bird netting for berries at Lowes. For squirrels sprinkle red pepper flakes on top of the dirt in your pots.They hate it. There isn't much you can plant this late in the season. For flowers (in the spring) look for perinnials.that way you don't have to replant every year. I just thought, you can plant pansies that will live all winter. They should make it pretty far into spring in your zone. You could plant some Mums but I don't know how long they would last for you. I use Mushroom Compost from Walmart. I add crushed leaves and peat moss mix it togethar and that is my potting mix. I use this in pots and to plant in the ground.
Where is Dumfries? I lived in Virginia for 4 years. I lived just outside of Franklin which is over towards Vir. Beach. I hope I have helped some. If I can help any further just let me know. Smokey

The squirrels we have here are sooooo obnoxious. Some planters I had to surround with chicken wire, in others I have river rock on top of the soil so they(and the chipmunks) can't move them out of the way to dig.

My sis used to live in Dumfries.

The squirrels don't bother my containers except for in the winter when they'll bury the peanuts I feed them.
Yes... I'm one of 'those' people who feeds the squirrels! LOL!)
If there's a particular pot I don't want them to did in in the winter, I stick a bunch of wooden skewers in it as a deterrent.
The only thing they have ever bothered in my garden was the sunflowers-going for the seeds. Oddly enough, they ignored them this year. The birds had a field day.

Raccoons are another story. They can get into just about anything. I don't grow a lot of edibles because of this.
I have hot peppers. They don't like them it seems. The problem is that although the raccoons are smart- they haven't figured out that if they don't like something from a plant, eating a different one from the same plant will produce the same result! As a result, I ended up with about 6 hot peppers on one plant that had a small bite taken out of each.

After that round, they seemed to have lost interest and haven't been around for a couple of weeks. (I had a family of 4 in the yard at one time)
I have also taken to emptying the birdbath each evening. Apparently the water attracts them as well. This seems to have helped.

Thank you so much for all your help! Smokey SC, Dumfries is located just off I-95 South at the Manassas cutoff. I love being here because it is near enough but far enough to Wash DC but urban sprawl is beginning to encroach. I, for one, am happy that the trend seems to be reversing itself as folks want to be closer in to the city because of rising commuter costs. I can see that my hope for beginning this year is too late but all this info will come in handy when spring rolls around - can't wait! Thanks again everyone!