Blood meal deterred the rabbits, but my dog ate my plants when I tried it. My dog then threw up the plants inside the house which is how I knew what happened. I decided I'd rather have the rabbit damage. Now I use Liquid Fence and that works fairly well. You have to reapply it after a rain and a determined rabbit will still damage some plants, but it works better than anything else I've tried other than a good fence.

If we believe that bulbs do not need fertilizing when first planted, then putting blood meal where the bulb, when it forms its roots, will take up its heavy nitrogen content, and may force it to grow in earnest too early, bringing foliage up while the ground is still in a frost state, I'd say using blood meal is not the thing to do. Whether putting bone meal or another phosphurus adding material to the ground can help....experts say YES...helping the bulb to feed its roots is a way to improve the foliage and flower production. But it is mixed with the soil when first planted...not sprinkled on top. If a squirrel has the intention to dig, nothing short of removing its claws, will prevent it. The chicken wire, if its small enough, but large enough to allow the foliage to come through it, can work if the squirrel has a time to get by it. Sensing the soil there is soft from digging, the wire will move easily with the animals digging and probably only put up a barrier for a short time. Put a preying bird ontop of the ground, he might take a look and run for cover....or he may laugh at the silliness of the planter to think he can be fooled so easy and take a bite out of it as well. A snake of the same intent will probably leave the animal guffawing and rolling on the ground in hysterics. But, what the hey, it can be tried. They sell plastic owls in stores....but move it around, the squirrel might be fooled once.....shame on him..... but fooled twice...shame on you for not thinking of it sooner.

You might want to ask this question on one of the Bulb forums since you haven't gotten the answer here. I tend to think it won't matter this year because the bulb has already done it's growing and will bloom or not based on that growth already stored. But I don't know for sure.

There are packaging out there that states it's Blood Meal and contains about 95% of other darker colored ingrediences listed in a much smaller print on the bag. Point 1 - Logic dictates if the city monkey is thirsty and you have something that's of a fluid base, city monkeys are going to preserve themselves. Therefore, if you provide a birdbath that they can get into of which they also learn from the birds is a place to drink, they will go there, more often then to your tomatoes. However, it won't keep then from wanting to try something different. I voach for blood meal. NOT BONE MEAL. For vegtables. Try to spinkle the leaves and stems closest to the fruit/veg. Only a lil' should do. I've always had an over abundance of tomatoes from my family garden so I've never put blood meal there. You's might want to try a lil' right on the reachable tomatoes and see how goes. Would be washed off at watering fairly frequently and need to be reapplied every now and then. If anybody knows if this would burn/damage the tomotoe's skin they should leave a follow up. Test 1 or 2 sacrificable tomotoes if your going to try this in the mean time. They do get discouraged after a month or so, especially if there's a birdbath to turn to to instead. Flower gardens: Apply it over the ground where you're bulbs are if that's your problem...that's mine. Lots of times, they're just digging to see if there's something to eat under a plant or storing some food for the winter. But ohhh, they do detest the smell of pure blood meal. The first month or so of foliage growth, during the time your not expecting flowers anyway would be benefitial to have more nitrogen to help grow your plants faster anyway. Thus, the more Nitrogen the better, at first anyway.-Sandy