What do you do when deer rules?

The beginning of the season my hostas showed great promise. The left corner of my back yard is shaded by trees on the property line. I planted ferns as a backdrop for my hostas and astilbes. This was low maintenance, just mulch and water. There are two ponds on each side of my property that also borders the other backyards. A few blocks on the north west side is a park and several acres of marsh land. This makes movement of deer from the park to the ponds in the neighborhood to be quite frequent.

In previous seasons I would sprinkle some milorganite and/or shavings of Irish Spring soap around each hosta to discourage deer. After two or three rainfalls, I would repeat this process, which helped deter the deer but not the rabbits or racoons. What took a toll was my vegetable garden. It was fenced in with a gate and an arbor for the entrance. Beside weeds taking over when the heat was on, deer got over the fence and rabbits still squeezed between the gate door. Beans, green peppers, tomatoes, okra, eggplants, cucumbers, and zuchinni were planted each season.



I manage to yield tomatoes and cukes in abundance; but the others depend on who got to it first.

This year I gave up on the hostas; and just let the deer have at it. The picture of the deer down by my hostas was taken after her fawn walked by the hostas on it's way to the pond. It made it fun to watch them in the yard early in the morning.



At night the deer check out the container gardens around the patio. Some of these containers had green peppers or lemon grass in the center with petunia waves, dahlias, marigolds, or red salvias around it. Without the deer's attention, the peppers and lemon grass added height and the others added volume when the blossoms were in full bloom. The lemon grass did well; but the peppers never matured except to a bare stub(picture). My impatients have also been deadheaded by the deer while the flowers are in full-bloom.



They do not touch coleus or zinnias. Also, lemon grass, herbs, marigolds, and dahlias are not on their menu.


As we come to the end of the season, it is time to think of what plants to split and move around. Check in for next posting. For now enjoy the blooms!