Groundhogs digging up flower beds

I was talking to a friend tonight and she has a groundhog who is digging up her flowers. She asked me if I had any ideas on how to stop this from happing. I suggested a sign to the groundhogs not to digging, everyone laughed a little. I then recommended planting something that groundhogs do not like. So what plants could be used in a zone 6 in Kansas to help with groundhogs?  Any other ideas to help with the problem that does not involved using a trap or harming  a animal?

They are tough little critters not easy to get rid of. some people use scented dryer sheets suspended on a string around garden for rabbits it might work for woodchuck I dont know

Our go-to for something like this is cayenne powder. We just sprinkle it all around on the soil.

Cayenne peppers are dried and then ground into a fine powder.

While I have not tried this maybe just throwing some fresh or dried peppers might help.

Planting French Marigolds might help to deter the pests.

If they're the easy sort, just yell a bit and leave some scary or strong smells. Dog or cat waste, marigolds, mint, hot pepper powder, neem oil, etc. Most of them seem to be reasonable, especially if there's other tasty morsels around that don't come with a cranky human.

If they're the stubborn sort, I have only found two ways that worked. These aren't for the faint of heart - but if you get one of the awful groundhogs / woodchucks, you may come to understand.  I'm not talking about the nibblers, I'm talking about the ones who go around trashing whole gardens, digging up walkways and foundations, and climbing into vehicles and ripping the wiring. The ones who are undeterred when they're hit with rocks and sprayed in the face with a hose from three feet. The ones who will charge your dog and give you a vet bill.

One was to wait until the little furry SOB climbed into someone else's engine compartment, snarlingly refused to get out when they banged the hood, opened it and yelled in his face, and started up the truck. They drove far enough away with him that he never found his way back.

The other was to hit a groundhog with a house.  Technically I suppose the house was hit by the groundhog... I roared and charged the beast as he was once again climbing into a garden box in my kitchen garden. He panicked and ran blindly, skidding on the gravel border and slamming himself into the side of the house hard enough to leave a smear before fleeing in a direction he could get some distance.

May all your (and my!) groundhogs now and in the future be the easy reasonable sort!

cat poo doesn't work. there's a little battle going on in my woodshed between my cats and a woodchuck that has taken up residence somewhere in there. first off the cats avoid the woodchuck but dont seem to like the idea that someone else has invaded some of their space where they like to hang out and catch mice and stuff. and my cats are not shy the eat all the wild critters they can catch including big rabbits and any big or little rat that might try to come around, mice, moles, ect.. but the cats won't even try to touch a wood chuck. dont know if its instinct that they are big and very tough or if they had tried before and learned a lesson. the cats have been pooping in the woodshed since the chuck moved in and a few days ago I noticed a fresh one that they didn't even bury and yesterday it was gone almost like the woodchuck ate it or something.
it might just be time to put some cantaloupe rind in a have a heart trap and relocate the chuck to the other side of the river.

Mine must be the agreeable type.  They live under my woodshed and venture out into the yard to graze.  As long as they don’t dig holes in the horse pasture, I’ll leave them alone.  Lucky for them my wife likes them, or I would have shot them and fried them by now.   Groundhog is my favorite wild meat!