Garden Plant Pots

My garden consists of nice shrubs and moss in-between large stones. The critters seems to like to dig up the moss in search of grubs. I’ve tried chemicals to kill the grubs, but they dig us up nonetheless. I have a trap and catch them and have animial control relocated them, but we live somewhat close to the mountains outside of Los Angeles and there is a steady stream of racoons, skunks and possum.

Has anyone had good luck with fox urine? I’ve tried it and can’t say that it worked well. We’ve also tried cayenne pepper applications, which work for a few days until the sprkinlers soak the garden and the pepper is washed away. Plus, the pepper turns the green moss red.

Thoughts?

I would like to plant some perennial plants that flower all summer until frost but the location often will have water sitting for a few days after heavy spring rains. In the summer a thunderstorm may cause water to sit there but only for a day or two. This spot at one time was filled with cattails and took some work to eliminate them.

I am in Zone 5b USA if that helps.