Tag Archives: deer

deer invasion, trees

Snow Oak

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Another two inches of snow early this morning. It looks pretty, but I’m ready for spring.

 At least I know the deer are still around. One of them chewed down my variegated dogwood against the house. Nice to know they’re not starving this year. this one looks nice and fat under all that fur.
container gardening, deer resistant gardening

(Hopefully) Deer Resistant Flower Containers

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As you may have already guessed from the many pictures of deer in previous posts, my new house is in the middle of deer country.
So… knowing how deer treat flower gardens as their own personal buffet, I’ve been researching plants that are supposed to be “Deer Resistant” for my new perennial bed in the front yard.
So far they’ve  sampled only a few plants on the list (a Centaurea montana and the Cardinal vine –
Ipomoea), but have left them alone since.
Anyway, I also love my flower pots and usually line my porch steps and any other convenient place that begs for a spot of color. So I decided, after the deer ate my ivy gerainum off the porch last summer, to apply the Deer Resistant gardening to my flower pots as well.
Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Alyssum, dwarf snapdragon, sweet william, and corkscrew grass (Juncus) in a 20″ ceramic bowl. (oh, in case you’re wondering, I don’t use chemical fertilizers- I mix my own soil of peat, compost and a bit of organic dry fertilizer. The plants love it!). The Juncus isn’t on the resistant plant list but I thought it looked cool and I’m depending on the “undesirable” plant to protect it (fingers crossed!)

 

Purple fountain grass, silver falls dichondra, and a little bit of blue lobelia, barely poking out.
 

 

A perennial and annual ‘Mailbox’ garden- Osteospermum, Alyssum, Yarrow, Dusty Miller, Purple Fountain grass, dwarf snap dragons, and a Shasta daisy  (daisy is hard to see from this angle).
 and a box full of Dianthus- or biannual sweet william. The little green pot next to it is Peppermint.

 

This is Mama Deer. She shows up around dinner time, everyday.
She has a fawn hidden close by in the woods.
So far she’s leaving my pots alone…

 

Here’s my source.
It has lots of good information about deer behavior and other pests and how to detour them.
But the best part is in the back with an extensive list of plants that resist deer, listing their toxicity if any, their care and a very brief description of ways to propagate your own
 (notice is didn’t say “deer proof”- no plant is deer proof as they will nibble on anything at least once).
You can find this at Amazon.com in the Kindle version  but the pictures of plants are in black and white. The paperback version is nicer and has full color picture of the plants.

 

container gardening, deer resistant gardening, perennial

Haircut Victim Recovering

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Over the winter the deer decided they liked my variegated pink and green sedum I had growing in a little clay pot on my front porch. They ate it completely level with the dirt and were rolling it around trying to finish it off.
I stashed it away, between some bigger pots of dormant hostas by my back door to save it.
Well it lived, and thanks to it’s haircut, it’s growing quite vigorously.

deer invasion, winter

Four Legged Bird…..

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I’ve been listening to all the hype about Winter Storm “Q” for about two days now and that by the time it reached my area, there would be at least 6 – 8 inches of snow.
Well it was just starting to snow when I went to bed last night, so when I woke up this morning I looked out my window to see how much we had gotten… this is what I saw.

Only one deer hoof deep…..

container gardening, deer, flowers, garden

Torenia aka Wishbone Flower

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 When I first met this little flower, I was introduced to it as the “wishbone” Flower.
Torenia fournieri ~ If you look closely, you will see a ‘wishbone’ just above the yellow. It’s also been dubbed ‘Clown Flower’. If you look at it for a bit, you’ll see a silly smiling face!
I wasn’t very impressed. They were featured in hanging baskets in the normal Peat mixture, which if you didn’t water it daily, dried out quickly resulting in burned and crispy plants.
I did my best to keep them watered and presentable but like me, most of the customers passed them by. 
Last year, I was looking for an annual to 
put in my deck rail basket that would tolerate shade most of the day.
I looked at my options but didn’t really want to do Impatiens again. 
I remembered that the Torenia liked shade and decided to give it a try. 
 
I put three little white flowered plants in the basket along with my special mix of potting soil and kept it well watered all summer. Once it got established, it grew like crazy.
Well, I was very happy with it. 
 
This year I bought eight plants of the purple and planted the basket right away.
It filled in quickly and the heat hasn’t fazed it one bit. 
It’s defiantly my new favorite!
Unopened flower buds
 and it blooms nonstop until frost.
 Here’s some features~
 
Light:Part Sun,Shade
Soil: Average to Moist
Plant Type:Annual
Plant Height:8 to 12 inches tall, depending on type
Plant Width:6-9 inches wide, depending on type
Landscape Uses:Containers,Beds & Borders
 
Special Features:Flowers,   ~ Deer Resistant! ~