I had 4 straggly, ratty looking roses planted on the bern on the side of my driveway. They were the only flowering plants, I had on my entire property, well except for a few lariope but that's besides the point. When my mother came to visit she convinced me to move my roses to the side of my house. For some reason my visiting sister got stuck with the job, but she dug for hours on end and finally succeeded in transplanting the roses. Aside from the occasional watering, (I had an infant and a 2 yr old at the time, so the garden got completely ignored) they were transplanted and then forgotten about. I had to cut them back last year in the middle of the summer because they were just growing like crazy. Already they are about 5 1/5 feet tall and about 3 1/2 feet wide. Oh and I have 4 more roses on the bern because my sister didn't get all of the roots, (I don't blame her because she was digging in compact cemented clay in the middle of the smoking hot September sun) and I now have 4 fairly cute bushes on the bern too. They're a bit skinny and sprawling, but they flowered last summer and if this weekend's frost doesn't kill them, I expect they'll flower this year as well. in my ent looking roses on the bare hill

Did you use any organic fertilizers when planting? Any bone meal or blood meal? Raccoons, possums, even cats and dogs will dig into the soil after the scent of organic ferts like the above. Not sure if they actually eat the fertilizer out of the soil/planting hole but they'll do a lot of damage looking for it!!

Squirrels are a possibility. They repeatedly exposed the roots of a large hosta "fragrant boquet" that I planted a couple of years ago. Last year it came back in the spring but as a very reduced plant. it was so badly damaged I dug it up, divided it and re-potted it in 5 different small pots and am nursing them back to health on my screen porch. Back in the 90's I was planting a large order of various spring bulbs. I had placed the bags of bulbs where I wanted them and had started back at the beginning of the line and started planting. I came to a spot where a bag of crocus bulbs was missing. I looked all over and couldn't find it. I finally gave up looking. Later, around Christmas, I happened to notice something about 50 feet off the ground in a crotch in a large Red Oak. It was the very distinctive color of the bags of bulbs that I had planted in the fall. A squirrel had apparently carried it into the tree and left the bag there. As I think more about it the neatness you describe doesn't sound like squirrels which I've observed to be very messy when digging among my plants, throwing the dirt everywhere. It sounds more like a cat or a raccoon and my money would be on a Raccoon looking for grubs or worms. If you have outside water and food bowls for a cat or dog they will take pet food or things they've dug up and wash them in the water bowl. Makes a big mess but is a sure sign they are working your yard.

https://www.msu.edu/~nixonjos/armadillo/problems.html Here are some suggestions for controlling armidillos that don't involve killing them. A good way to cultivate a pretty garden on a large tract of land is to put all the common trade plants (tender hybrids etc...) in a stout fence in a smaller area around the areas you spend the most time in. Allowing the rest of the land to go back to its "natural" state (weeding out the noxious weeds like ragweed, Poison ivy,briar,wild privet and honeysuckles mainly) will cut down on water,chemicals,time and money. It will pay for the cost of the stout fence and provide a natural area for the animals to share with us. PJ