squirrels in pots

[Henry Fieldseth]

Adam,

It comes in several sizes, from "starter" for baby
chicks to "turkey" which is fairly large.

I find the larger sizes better for discouraging
rodents.

I use about a half an inch (1 or 2 cm).

I keep buckets of the various sizes for use as soil
amednments and top dressing.

In Minnesota, winter sidewalk ice is a big problem. I
use the grit instead of salt on the ice. It works
better than sand there too.

I've been experimenting with trough building for
alpine plants and came up with another use for grit.

After much experimenting with lightweight aggregate, I
had the idea that if I made concrete with only large
aggregate the trough would leak.

I found a glue called Gorilla Glue which said it would
glue stone and stirred it into a bucket of turkey grit
until the grit was entirely coated (you have 20
minutes working time). Then I patted it into a large
plastic-lined bowl which I had sprayed with
cooking-oil spray.

I use quartzite grit called "Cherry Stone" from a
Minnesota quarry. It's most attractive when wet, and
the coating of glue keeps it looking wet.

Heavy-duty rubber gloves are in order for this job as
the grit tends to tear ordinary rubber gloves.

I have a beautiful planter but it hasn't been through
a winter yet for the real test.

--Henry

--- Adam Fikso <irisman at AMERITECH.NET> wrote:
> Henry.  How thick a layer is sufficient to
> discourage them?.   Squirrels and
> chipmunks both dig some of my stuff up, an
> occasional skunk, I think, but
> that's not too often.    They certainly do like to
> dig in looser soil (most
> loose soil, by definition is recently disturbed)
> Adam
> i
>


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