Hi Central,

Welcome to RMG!

From my experience it could possibly be two things! The first, as youÂve speculated, is squirrels! They dig a lot burying and digging up nuts and what-not-all, and can sometimes dig amazingly deep holesÂup to 5 or 6". The other possibility is robins! This is the time of year when theyÂre feeding their babies, and they too can do a surprising amount of digging damage. Robins can go a couple inches deep, but usually not more than that. Since they seem to be digging in you veggie garden, where the soil is more bare, and itÂs easier for them to look for worms, IÂd take a guess at robins. When they go hunting on/in the grass, you canÂt tell theyÂve been there, but in a veggie garden or flower bed covered with mulch, they can make a real mess. If the garden is in a place where you can easily see it, keep an eye out to see if you can spot either coming and going. If it is squirrels, thereÂs really not much you can do. They donÂt scare easily! About the only suggestion IÂd have for squirrels would be to keep a (big) dog in the yard! If itÂs robins, just push the soil back in place and know that it will get at least somewhat better after the babies have fledged!

Good luck,
Skybird

Agree with Skybird. Dogs or really floppy chicken wire fence might help - squirrels generally don't like floppy fencing, but if they get used to them your money is wasted.

Dan

What is "really floppy fencing"? Like, fabric or window screen?

Makes me think of Temple Grandin's book "Animals in Translation" in which she mentions how cows are afraid of so many things such as bright yellow, shiny, noisy or wiggly metal or reflective things.

If I could put up some shiny or floppy ribbons here and there to keep the dogs out of the tulips (no flower bed fencing there yet) that would be awesome!

:)