The Flower Bulb Protector - Phase 1
Donation protected
Hi Everyone! We are excited to update you on our Flower Bulb Protector progress. Read below for the backstory.
If you don't already know, bulbs can be eaten and dislodged by garden wildlife in your garden (squirrels, voles, moles, rabbits, deer, and many others). Without the right protection, you can't enjoy your bulb flowers, even if you treat them as annuals where you live. The wildlife don't care or enjoy your bulbs for their beauty. They are only interested mainly in your bulbs as a food source or to dig them up to then bury their own food.
Enter our Flower Bulb Protector idea and product.
So far, you have supported us with $600 since we started here on GoFundMe! WooHOO! Thank you soo much to everyone who has made this possible!
We realize our overall goal is super awesome, but also very ambitious (and frankly, a really high number). So, ... we are going breaking our goal into "Phases" so it is more attainable. Also, more exciting for you and us to reach together!
We are now working within Phase 1 of our overall goal to raise enough money to be able to cover the cost of our patent submission. This is fantastic news, because we are already just over a third of the way there! Yep!
Phase 1 needs to reach $1,580, with $420 extra for any minor contingencies or unexpected costs with the Patent Office, for a phase total of $2,000. Not bad right!?!
We need to raise $1,400 more to be able to complete Phase 1, by March 1st of 2021. We know we can do this, with your help!
Please donate to help us reach this goal.
Backstory: Mom's Bulbs Keep Getting Eaten
It all started with my mom's bulbs getting eaten every year by squirrels at my childhood home in Federal Way, WA . Every year my mom would plant tulips, daffodils, and many other bulbs in the fall to get them set for the coming spring when they would burst with bright green leaves and amazing flower colors. There never used to be a problem with her bulbs, besides the envy of the rest of the neighborhood.
When the local squirrel population started to increase and more homes were built (squirrel habitat was shrinking), squirrels started moving into our neighborhood. We had huge western red cedar trees sprinkled all over the cul-de-sac and the squirrels loved living in them. It was like squirrel high rises; They were living their best life.
When food started to get a little scarce because the squirrel population kept increasing and some of the neighbors stopped feeding the squirrels, a whole new level of foraging began. This is when my mom's bulbs started to disappear.
The squirrels would just pull the daffodils up out of the ground, take a nibble, and then put them aside (narcissus bulbs aren't tasty to anything and can be poisonous). We found out later that the squirrels would dig and pull up the tulip bulbs, and then dig new holes all over my parents yard and the neighbors to replant the tulip bulbs.
How did we know this, you might ask? Well, the tulips, that weren't eaten over the winter, started popping up out of the ground later in the spring in places everyone was pretty sure they hadn't been first planted. And there were definitely less tulips in the spring than were planted in the previous fall. The squirrels were slowly eating their "stashed" tulips of the winter. This went on for a few more years, and my mom had had it.
She said "Sean, what can we do to stop these squirrels from digging up and eating my tulip bulbs? You studied plant and horticulture in college; what can we do?"
I researched the problem and it was a fairly common issue in many different gardens. Many a gardener had been complaining about this for a reasonably long time. The current methods to stop or deter squirrels from digging up and eating tulip bulbs were to use chicken wire to wrap over the bulbs, use dog/cat/coyote urine, pepper flakes, and a couple others. There weren't any containers or vessels to place tulip bulbs into to protect them from being dug up or from other critters digging underneath or from the sides to damage the tulips.
And then the bulb security planter was imagined. That was the original name; we know, not very sexy. It's a work in progress.
BUT, we are ready to get our idea to be physically produced and get it out to gardeners everywhere that have to continually deal with and deter squirrels in their gardens.
Our dream has come to the physical world: the design is sound, the manufacturing (molds) is planned and we have a global company ready to start production. We just need the funds to actually get the molds produced and have the first run of 100 units made.
That's where you come in; we need your help to reach our funding goal to get us to the molds made and the first production started. Please help us to make our dream come true and to make my mom (and all mothers around the world) much happier guaranteeing that the tulip bulbs she plants will still flower and remain undisturbed by the squirrels (little buggers!).
If you don't already know, bulbs can be eaten and dislodged by garden wildlife in your garden (squirrels, voles, moles, rabbits, deer, and many others). Without the right protection, you can't enjoy your bulb flowers, even if you treat them as annuals where you live. The wildlife don't care or enjoy your bulbs for their beauty. They are only interested mainly in your bulbs as a food source or to dig them up to then bury their own food.
Enter our Flower Bulb Protector idea and product.
So far, you have supported us with $600 since we started here on GoFundMe! WooHOO! Thank you soo much to everyone who has made this possible!
We realize our overall goal is super awesome, but also very ambitious (and frankly, a really high number). So, ... we are going breaking our goal into "Phases" so it is more attainable. Also, more exciting for you and us to reach together!
We are now working within Phase 1 of our overall goal to raise enough money to be able to cover the cost of our patent submission. This is fantastic news, because we are already just over a third of the way there! Yep!
Phase 1 needs to reach $1,580, with $420 extra for any minor contingencies or unexpected costs with the Patent Office, for a phase total of $2,000. Not bad right!?!
We need to raise $1,400 more to be able to complete Phase 1, by March 1st of 2021. We know we can do this, with your help!
Please donate to help us reach this goal.
Backstory: Mom's Bulbs Keep Getting Eaten
It all started with my mom's bulbs getting eaten every year by squirrels at my childhood home in Federal Way, WA . Every year my mom would plant tulips, daffodils, and many other bulbs in the fall to get them set for the coming spring when they would burst with bright green leaves and amazing flower colors. There never used to be a problem with her bulbs, besides the envy of the rest of the neighborhood.
When the local squirrel population started to increase and more homes were built (squirrel habitat was shrinking), squirrels started moving into our neighborhood. We had huge western red cedar trees sprinkled all over the cul-de-sac and the squirrels loved living in them. It was like squirrel high rises; They were living their best life.
When food started to get a little scarce because the squirrel population kept increasing and some of the neighbors stopped feeding the squirrels, a whole new level of foraging began. This is when my mom's bulbs started to disappear.
The squirrels would just pull the daffodils up out of the ground, take a nibble, and then put them aside (narcissus bulbs aren't tasty to anything and can be poisonous). We found out later that the squirrels would dig and pull up the tulip bulbs, and then dig new holes all over my parents yard and the neighbors to replant the tulip bulbs.
How did we know this, you might ask? Well, the tulips, that weren't eaten over the winter, started popping up out of the ground later in the spring in places everyone was pretty sure they hadn't been first planted. And there were definitely less tulips in the spring than were planted in the previous fall. The squirrels were slowly eating their "stashed" tulips of the winter. This went on for a few more years, and my mom had had it.
She said "Sean, what can we do to stop these squirrels from digging up and eating my tulip bulbs? You studied plant and horticulture in college; what can we do?"
I researched the problem and it was a fairly common issue in many different gardens. Many a gardener had been complaining about this for a reasonably long time. The current methods to stop or deter squirrels from digging up and eating tulip bulbs were to use chicken wire to wrap over the bulbs, use dog/cat/coyote urine, pepper flakes, and a couple others. There weren't any containers or vessels to place tulip bulbs into to protect them from being dug up or from other critters digging underneath or from the sides to damage the tulips.
And then the bulb security planter was imagined. That was the original name; we know, not very sexy. It's a work in progress.
BUT, we are ready to get our idea to be physically produced and get it out to gardeners everywhere that have to continually deal with and deter squirrels in their gardens.
Our dream has come to the physical world: the design is sound, the manufacturing (molds) is planned and we have a global company ready to start production. We just need the funds to actually get the molds produced and have the first run of 100 units made.
That's where you come in; we need your help to reach our funding goal to get us to the molds made and the first production started. Please help us to make our dream come true and to make my mom (and all mothers around the world) much happier guaranteeing that the tulip bulbs she plants will still flower and remain undisturbed by the squirrels (little buggers!).
Fundraising team (2)
SeanandAllison McManus
Organizer
Tacoma, WA
Allison McManus
Team member