Marauding squirrels

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I have an inner city London large courtyard garden with a squirrel problem. I’ve been fighting them all year - I’ve given up on strawberries (demolished, leaves and all) and they regularly pull up new plants, have completely demolished a couple of astilbes, and are totally obsessed with scratching the roots of one particular hydrangea to the extent that I’ve had a cardboard box and bricks around the base to protect it for months now.

For some reason my garden is more interesting than the neighbouring gardens. There’s four of them that maraud in pairs.

They’ve crossed a line this weekend and have eaten all my courgette flowers and chewed through my Patio Plum tomato at the base - they’re growing in Quadgrows. As I’d quite like to have some courgettes this summer, what can I do to dissuade them from destroying my garden further?

Watching with interest... I'm inner London too and have squirrel invaders from the park behind me. Every sodding year they eat all the apples from our tree before they are ripe enough to pick. I plant bulbs every year and few ever appear...chief suspects in the disappearance being squirrels.
I have spread chilli sauce on the fence to deter them - they hate that, but they find ways around it. I've also sprinkled lots of chilli powder around areas I want to protect but you need to constantly reapply and I'm not sure it works anyway. I recently got a cat and I've seen a lot less of them, but the apples aren't quite ready yet, so time will tell. I wouldn't mind red squirrels but I really dislike grey squirrels. Hopefully someone will be along with some better ideas to deter them.

Chilli powder. Blooming things bit the heads off my tulips one year. Only the ballerinas, but they got every one. They haven't done it since though.

I think I have some kind of super squirrel variant that makes the ones in that old Carling advert look amateurish. They laugh in the face of chilli powder too. Doesn't help that there's nowhere in my tiny garden that I can site my bird feeder where the blighters can't jump onto it. They dig up all my seedlings, half the borders... gah. Rats with good PR. Good luck all...

We only put black Niger seed for the birds, the squirrels are less interested. Although there was one that used to hang off the perches by its front claws, and lap the seeds out with its tongue. They all laughed at our "squirrel proof" feeders. I feel your pain moonbells. But thanks for the laugh! Anyone else get oak seedlings sprouting out from random pots, middle of lawn etc? The varmints bury them everywhere. OP I think it's time for a cage around your veggies.

Anyone else get oak seedlings sprouting out from random pots, middle of lawn etc?

Yes, I've had this and all sorts of other plants too (but they may have come from seeds dropped by birds).
Squirrels are so destructive, our fences are full of holes. As soon as I repair one bit they chew through another section. We have 24 6ft panels and I can't cover every one with chilli sauce!

Weeditandreap that would be a lot of chili sauce!

I don't have oak seedlings - more horse chestnuts round here - but I have to admit I never expected to find a walnut seedling in the garden courtesy of the tree rats, but I did, and it's now in a pot while I decide whether to find somewhere to formally plant it and let it grow up to feed yet more squirrels.

Definitely a walnut - when I dug it up, the shells were still attached!

Just had to buy a new feeder baffle - the b*stards just broke my old one because they're lard arses.