I have continual problems with squirrels and have tried many different things.

They get on the bench where the trees live and knock them off. I lose a couple of pots a year. Saturday I lost one of my souvenirs from Tokyo.

They also dig up the pots and kill lots of roots.

I have tried spraying fox urine around, which washes away after a couple of heavy rains. I have tried putting long bamboo skewers in the pots with sharp ends; they wind up on the ground.

I put up a wind chime, with no effect.

There are large forest areas all around, one maybe thirty feet away, so whatever I might do with one squirrel will hardly dent the abundant supply next door.

Has anybody solved this problem effectively?

Sorry about your squirrel problem. maybe if you cannot get rid of them try putting up a suet feeder on the other side of your property to keep them fat and occupied. i have three squirrels that I feed next to my tables and they leave my trees alone.