I am in a similar situation - 255 tulip bulbs. From online research and personal advice seeking, these will be my strategies: (1) Plant as late as possible. Mid-late October is average here in Ottawa, Canada. Early November is even safer. We have to wait until the squirrels' gathering season is over. Let them go after your neighbors' bulbs first. :) (2) Lay chicken wire on top of the entire bed. A 1" hex x 24" x 25' (50 square feet) steel chicken wire costs $9 in Rona. You can cover 100-200 bulbs with one roll. The flower will have no problem growing through the 1" hex. (3) Bury at least 6" deep. Cover the bed with mulch so the squirrels can't smell the bulbs or see the disturbed soil. (4) Delay the bird feeder to winter (and hang it far, far away from your tulip bed).

Hi, I'm new to gardening and wondering the same question. I am in a wooded area with assorted wildlife including voles, moles, squirrels, chipmunks, red foxes, bats, raccoons, turkey, and deer (and probably more I just don't know of yet). I am going to be planting an assortment of spring bulbs - crocus, hyacinth, daffs, tulips. I want to protect from underground burrowing as well as burrowing from the surface downward, primarily focused on protecting from voles but also squirrels and chipmunks. After much research I came up with mixed sentiment between 1/2", 1/4", 1" and bottom basket only vs full cage, with people vouching for each method. Owner of local pest control company told me that voles can definitely fit through 1/2" but I am concerned that leaves can't grow through 1/4" so I decided to go with a blended approach with the bottom of the cage made out of 1/4" hardware cloth and top out of 1/2" hardware cloth. Imagine one of those free gift boxes you get when you buy a sweater with the bottom part ~8" deep and the lid part ~1" deep. Going to sink the whole thing in the ground and throw in some Vole Scram (granular castor oil based repellent) plus some red pepper flakes for good measure (have a huge warehouse club tub of it anyway). Anyone with more experience have any input or advice? Much appreciated!!

We are "out there" and have to deal with about everything - deer, rabbits, squirrels, chipmuncks, moles, and even our dogs and chickens. I haven't really had much problem with moles and chipmunks other than burying their stash which grows into weeds 8), but to deal with the others we put up a 5' tall 2" x 3" mesh fence all the way around the whole thing. So far after 4 years, no problems. Will probably put up some 4x4 posts with cross ties at the top to drape anti-bird mesh over some of our berry plants this year or next (they are finally getting big enough and putting out enough berries to bother protecting). You might could do something similar with a pvc frame anchored to the raised bed, maybe?

Last spring I caged the whole garden with chicken wire when the majority of of plants were large I removed it Then for my successive plantings I used a 1'x1' cage made of wood with wire stapled to it, a lot like Mel,s only smaller. I liked them and think I made 8, I can plant seeds like carrots in a square next to a grown Pepper and The cage keeps the pepper leaves off the new plants until they can fend for themselves. In the fall I stapled plastic over the wire and used them for mini-cold frames. I had spinach over winter under the small frames. If you go this route 1x4 inch seems to work the best, cut them shorter than a foot square or they will not fit side by side. First you can use the bare frame as a hi-rise, I did this with some carrots. Second you can staple wire flat across or bend and staple a taller wire cage per Mel' book Third the flat wire type make a great support for stapling clear plastic over for a cold frame. fourth you can tell by the length of this post it is raining. Curt~