Bulbs: Squirrel Mischief?, 2 by LeawoodGardener

LeawoodGardener wrote:
Someone (or someTHING) evidently didn't approve of my plans for bulbs this spring. In the last few days I've found tulips sprouting in locations I would never have considered planting. At first, I thought it was probably due to my use of compost from my compost pile. Since I throw any and all yard waste in my pile, I figured some seedling bulbs had made it through the compost process and been scattered with the nice, rich compost.

Seeing the blooms, however, I'm convinced these errant bulbs are the top-size bulbs I planted in my beds last fall that have been dug up and re-planted by some varmint in my garden. There are blank areas in a bed of 1,000 tulips I planted in a display bed and the pots of tulips I forced to go in the urns in my garden have no bulbs at all! Instead, I have tulips coming up in my hosta/fern bed and my iris/daylily bed is full of tulips. There is even a single tulip coming up in the middle of a patch of new grass where I filled a sink hole in my lawn!

The natural suspect is squirrels, since there are dozens of them in the oak trees in my yard. They chew on the columns on my front porch, chew of thousands of small branches from the trees and seem to be a pesky group as a whole. For some reason, my cats have given up on chasing them out of the yard.

If not the squirrels, then whom should I blame? Anyone else have this problem? Any other suggestions for blame (or better yet, a cure for the problem)?