Clay pebbles on top of soil???

Hi. I’ve got a few girls in 5 gallon buckets outdoors with soil. They are doing great. I was wondering if I could put clay pebbles, like hydraton, on top of the soil to prevent squirrels from burying stuff in in the buckets . Every morning and evening I find myself filling holes they have dug in the soil to bury nuts, or whatever. Lol.

I doubt that those will deter those little fuckers too much. I’ve never seen it done before but maybe you could cover them with small chicken wire. This would still allow you to water the soil and whatnot while keeping those cute annoying bastards out