Neighborhood Squirrel Problem

Since starting a real garden is still a year away, I decided to try growing a couple veggies in containers out on our condo's small porch. I went with some mint (for tea), some basil (for recipes) and bib lettuce (for our rabbit). We picked them up at Home Depot some 5 weeks ago on a warm Sunday afternoon. What I didn't know was that we were headed to a colder than normal spring and still had a handful of night temps in the low 30s ahead. The mint and the lettuce are pretty hardy but the basil didn't do as well with 2 of the 4 sprouts dying. Just thankful to have any basil left I tended to them all and looked forward to using each as intended.

That's when they came under assault by the neighborhood bully squirrels.

They are diggers, aggressive diggers. I see their handiwork all over the neighborhood landscaping and have even seen them out back digging in the mulch. But I also see that lots of the neighbors have potted plants, flowers and food so I figured my pots had a chance. PLUS, I left the big barrel, that has been here for years, empty so they could have a place to dig.

As you can see they do dig here. What I don't get is why they also have to go dig in my pots. They are not eating the plants and don't seem to be actually burying food. What's worse, I don't know how to stop them. I've never seen this with squirrels before. Potted plants outside is very common this time of year, it's not like squirrels everywhere are assaulting these pots. Just another thing I hate about our current neighborhood.