Squirrels

I have a squirrel problem.

We have a flower planter in front of the new Nu Residence. It originally had a few bamboo plants but, due to the townhouse being empty for quite a while before the Nus moved in, the bamboo had become bamdead. So, for the past few weekends, the Nus have been working to dig up the bamboos for removal. Those suckers are stubborn! Not only do they have pretty massive root structures, their roots also grow lengthwise so that they form a network just under the surface of the soil.

We were finally able to remove all of them so we bought some nice flowers last weekend and planted them in the flower planter. See how nice they turned out? There were Asian lilies, snap dragons, feathers, gardenia, and some other kinds of lilies.

But, all is not well in the Land of Nu. Why, you ask? SQUIRRELS. Look at what they are doing to my flowers. They dig them up--see the dirt on the edge of the planter? That dirt wasn't there last night when I went to sleep. The squirrels also chomp off the buds. Now, I don't mind if they ate the flowers, but they just bite off the flowers and leave them laying around to mock me. The thing that worries me the most, though, is the fact that the squirrels are exposing the roots of my plants. I get up every morning to find little piles of dirt on the ground next to the flower planter and pretty deep holes in the flower beds themselves.

What can I do about this? Cl. Panic suggested that I employ a bb gun, but I don't exactly want to hurt the squirrels. Just keep them out of my flowers. Does anyone know of anything that will keep squirrels away without killing or hurting them??