Two of the best upgrades I made to my garden this year cost me nothing. If you have been paying for worms to stock your raised beds, or pulling your hair out trying to keep squirrels from digging up your potted plants, these two garden hacks will change how you run your backyard. I have been growing food in my Atlanta yard since 2015, and both of these come straight from my own beds.
Let me show you how to find the free worm nursery already hiding in your yard, and a low-profile trick that finally keeps the squirrels out of my pots.
Stop buying worms, they are already in your yard
If you are buying worms for your raised beds or compost, you can probably stop. You likely have a goldmine of them living right under your containers.
While doing my rounds recently, I lifted one of my fabric pots that houses a tomatillo plant, and the ecosystem underneath was incredible. It was packed with red wigglers, baby worms, and even a few jumping worms, though I generally leave the jumpers alone.
Why fabric pots are worm magnets
I am a big fan of fabric pots, and this is a major reason why. Plastic pots work too, but fabric pots breathe, which creates a cool, moist microclimate underneath them. When you set those pots on top of stones, rocks, or bricks, you build the perfect shelter for earthworms. They flock to it.
Harvesting is as simple as lifting the pot, scooping up the worms, and tossing them straight into your raised beds to go to work.
Why worm castings are worth it
If you did not already know, worm castings (worm poop) are garden gold. They contain:
- Major macronutrients and micronutrients that plants need to thrive.
- A dense population of microbial life, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes.
Here is the catch with raw plant nutrients: plants cannot digest most of them on their own. They need a middleman. In a living, organic soil, plants trade sugar with these microorganisms in exchange for nutrients they can actually absorb. You could take a shortcut with salt-soluble synthetic fertilizers, but those quickly kill off that delicate microbial life. Cultivating worms keeps your soil alive, rich, and balanced the natural way.
Keep squirrels out of your pots with sound
If you live anywhere like I do here in Atlanta, you know the squirrel struggle. I used to think they were cute. Now, after finding my pots dug up constantly while they hide their winter stashes, I would happily see them move along.
A lot of people build big, ugly cages out of chicken wire. That works, but it makes getting to your plants a nightmare. So I tested a low-profile method that uses sound to spook the squirrels off instead, and the results have been fantastic.
I call these little contraptions Pot Guardians, and I now sell ready-to-use sets in my shop if you want the low-effort option. If you are the DIY type and want to build your own, here is exactly what you need:
- 6-inch landscape spikes
- Fishing line bells (the tiny bells fishermen clip to the ends of their rods)
Squirrels like to sit on the edge or rim of a pot to dig. To stop that, clip the tiny bells to the ends of the landscape spikes, then push the spikes into the soil all around the perimeter of the pot, leaving no gaps. When a squirrel jumps up and hits the spikes, the bells jingle and scare it off before it can dig.
The results so far
I have been running a control test in my front yard for a few weeks, and the difference is night and day.
- The control pot: a pepper plant with no bells, pitted and dug up almost daily.
- The Pot Guardian pot: a pepper plant protected by the spikes and bells, completely untouched.
It is a small sample size and still a preliminary test, so I will keep tweaking it, maybe adding a perimeter of fishing line for extra security. But so far, this is a big win against the neighborhood squirrels.
A quick note on marigolds, size matters
Before we wrap up, here is a quick cautionary tale from my own beds. When you buy marigolds, pay close attention to whether you are getting African marigolds or French marigolds.
I accidentally planted African marigolds right in the front of a bed, thinking they were the petite French variety. African marigolds grow huge. Mine are easily 4.5 to 5 feet tall. They are beautiful, but at that size they can block out everything behind them if you put them in the wrong spot. French marigolds stay small and petite, and they are generally considered a bit more useful as companion plants. Know what you are buying so you do not end up with a 5-foot surprise in the front row.
Key takeaways
- Lift your fabric pots and look underneath. On stones or bricks they become a free worm nursery you can scoop straight into your raised beds.
- Worm castings feed both your plants and the soil microbes that make nutrients available. Synthetic salt fertilizers kill that microbial life.
- To keep squirrels out of pots, ring the rim with landscape spikes and small bells so any disturbance makes noise. Grab a ready-made set of Pot Guardians in my shop, or build your own.
- In my front-yard test, the belled pot stayed untouched while the unprotected one was dug up almost daily.
- Check whether your marigolds are African (tall) or French (petite) before you plant, so a 4.5 to 5 foot plant does not swallow the front of your bed.
Stop paying for what your yard already gives you for free, and stop letting the squirrels win. Watch the full walk-through in the video above, and join the newsletter below for weekly growing guides and real data from my Atlanta yard.
