The Deer Update


Addendum: Found the baby bunny in the garden, so I've made a few edits here to place blame accordingly. They are SO cute!


When I started this blog, I said that I would provide periodical updates regarding our experiences with deer around our flower garden. Last fall, we created a mixed border outside our cottage garden fence (the "outer garden") planted with all deer-resistant shrubs, trees, perennials, bulbs, and ornamental grasses. During the winter, we had some leaf damage to some of the evergreen shrubs. I'm happy to report that all recovered just fine (in spite of the frost damage after Easter) from the deer munching. The hypericum are now blooming beautifully and the bees are in a frenzy on the blossoms. The illicium now has green leaves. The cleyera is full and lush, having suffered only minimal damage.

This spring, we filled out the border with new perennials and grasses. For reference, this photo shows the cottage fence and part of the outer garden with a stepping stone path. The second photo shows the width of the outer garden between the fence and the meadow. The outer garden slopes down to the house. We have planted drought-tolerant plants at the top of the slope and plants that like wet feet at the bottom of the slope -- but, that's a topic for another blog.

Please click to enlarge the photos


Here's the list of what's planted in the outer garden. We have multiple varieties of many of these plants. Of the bloomers, some plants have bloomed; others are in bloom; and others are yet to bloom.

I have indicated in bold the plants that have had minor damage. That said, the only plant that I would avoid in the future is the illicium as it took so long to recover from being stripped of leaves in the winter. So far, there has been no damage to the rest of the list. I'm sure that I've left off some plants.

Agastache (hummingbird mint)

Amsonia (blue star)
Asclepias (milkweed for the Monarch butterflies)
Baptisia (false indigo)
Bamboo, clumping (not spreading!)
Basil
Buddleia (butterfly bush)
Brugmansia (angel's trumpet)
Canna
Caryopteris (blue mist shrub)
Carex (sedge, multiple varieties)
Chives
Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Cream Ball'
Colocasia (elephant ears)
Coreopsis (multiple varieties)
Cotoneaster (multiple varieties)
Crocosmia (bulb)
Cryptomeria (multiple varieties; minor nibbling on the 'Globosa Nana')
Daffodils
Echinachea (coneflowers, multiple varieties)
Echinops (globe thistle)
Eupatorium
Fennel
Deutzia
Delosperma cooperii (ice plant)
Dianthus (cottage pinks)
Gaillardia (blanket flower; bunny munched)
Gaura (whirling butterflies)
Hedychium (butterfly ginger)
Heliotrope (groundcover perennial)
Hepatocodium micionides (seven son shrub)
Heuchera (coral bells)
Hydrangea (not deer-resistant, it is up against the fence on one side; flanked by hollies and fronted by a huge indigo)
Hypericum (St. John's Wort, multiple varieties)
Illicium (anise shrub)
Ilex (multiple varieties; we don't have the varieties that will be damaged)
Iris ensata (Japanese iris)
Iris siberica (Siberian iris)
Iris pseudocorus (yellow flag iris)
Itea virginica(sweetspire)
Lavender (multiple varieties)
Lantana 'Miss Huff'
Lobelia (bunny munched)
Loropetulum
Lysimachia (creeping jenny)
Macbridea caroliniana (native for sunny bog)
Miscanthus (ornamental grass, multiple varieties)
Monarda (bee balm)
Nandina 'Alba' and 'Moonbay'
Nepeta (cat mint)
Oregano, culinary
Oregano, ornamental
Osmanthus fragrans (fragrant olive)
Osteospernum (annual)
Parsley
Pentas (annual)
Penstemon (multiple varieties)
Phlox subulata (groundcover phlox)
Rosemary
Rudbeckia 'Goldstrum' (black-eyed susan -- bunny munched, but growing back)
Salvia (multiple varieties)
Sage, culinary
Sage, ornamental
Snapdragons (annual)
Spanish bluebells (bulb)
Spirea (multiple varieties)
Stachys betony humello
Stachys (lamb's ears, multiple varieties)
Syringa (lilac)
Thyme
Verbena (groundcover and tall perennial varieties)
Vitex (chaste tree)

Okay -- maybe I cheated a little? The deer were accustomed to walking past our cottage fence from east to west on their daily traverse. Trampling and pulling, not munching, was a concern. Over the winter, we had experienced some plants (dianthus) either being pulled up or pawed up without being eaten. To try to get them to go around the garden, we put up a little 32" high flimsy wire edging. They can easily jump something that low. We had a deer jump the edging one night and that's when I suspected the rudbeckia and a few coneflowers had been nipped. I've since discovered only bunnies and no deer tracks around the rudbeckia, lobelia and gaillardia. So, my apologies to the deer on those!

Actually, it was a bit like deadheading the first blooms, which I do anyway. So, no harm was really done and the coneflowers are doing great. The rudbeckia has lots of buds now and should bloom soon (provided the bunnies stay away).
Recently, we had a doe (probably the mother of the fawn in the photo beside our well) walk down the river rock and the garden path taking off just the open blooms of the Japanese iris. She left the buds. She didn't touch any of the other plants in the outer garden. I could see where she left the garden, so she walked almost the entire length of the outer garden.

So, I've now closed that one gap where deer could enter the garden. If you click on the photo below, I think you can see this flimsy edging behind the bridge. The second photo was taken after the doe had nipped off the open blooms and more buds had opened. So, the edging is working for now. We see the doe everyday, so she's staying close by her fawn. There is obviously the possibility that she'll jump the edging. If so, I'll report the news.




If you would like to ask questions, please send email to DefiningYourHome at Yahoo dot com. (I spell it out to avoid spammers -- use the typical syntax).


Happy gardening!





June blooms

The garden is starting to crank up after lots of rain. Today was overcast, so I snapped these photos trying to get the colors to show well without bright sunlight.

Most of the perennials shown here were planted this spring except for the phlox, creeping heliotrope and cherry skullcaps which were planted in spring 2006. All of the iris were planted in the fall 2006. I'm having trouble keeping track of all the iris varieties, so please excuse me if I've not recalled the correct names since I didn't mark them when planting last fall.


Just click on the photos to enlarge.

Iris ensata 'Mount Fujiyama' is planted along with white butterfly ginger, white calla lily and white swamp asclepias around our dry stream bed. The background woody ornamentals are illicium (anise) and clumping bamboo.


Iris ensata 'Center of Attention' is planted in different areas in the rain garden and along the dry stream bed with mixes of other iris, monarda, amsonia and other miscellaneous perennials that are okay with the moist soil.


Iris ensata (maybe 'Royal Robes' ?)


Scutellaria suffrutescens -- the cherry skullcaps are being overrun by thyme. It's very interesting as the leaves of the two plants are so similar. These plants do not like to be moved and are very brittle and will easily break.


Phlox paniculata 'Robert Poore' is underplanted with the perennial creeping heliotrope and platycoden. It makes for a great combination since the phlox is so tall.


Heliotropium amplexicaule is a creeping heliotrope, perennial here in Zone 7. It spreads much like verbena 'Homestead Purple' but has a lighter lavender/blue color. It flowers all summer long and spreads so rapidly. The roots run deep as I found when I tried to move a clump to another location that it had outgrown in only one season.



Daylily 'Happy Returns' is planted in a yellow/cream color scheme bed with companions of daylily 'Joan Senior', coneflower 'Harvest Moon', shasta daisy 'Broadway Lights' and yarrow 'Prince Edward'.


Coreopsis 'Creme Brulee' is stealing the show in the garden! It's so bright and floriforus that it immediately draws the eye, skipping over the more subdued deep rose and purple blooms in the garden. It looks especially good surrounding an osmanthus 'Goshiki' shrub that is yellow/green variegarted. It also looks good beside the coneflower 'Harvest Moon' and perennials that are blue or purple. I have groups of 3 set throughout the garden and it plays well with so many other perennials and shrubs.


Hypericum 'Sunburst' is a shrubby St. Johns Wort that is totally covered in buds, but I found a few blooms open this morning. This one is underplanted with verbena 'Homestead Purple' and backed by tall verbena bonariensis in the butterfly garden.



Phlomis lanata (Jerusalem sage) is looking very nice right now. I'm not sure if I've got it surrounded by the right companions since I added it after I had started a different color scheme (lamb's ears, lavender, buddleia). I was trying to give it space since it will grow quite large if it survives.


Echinacea purpurea Harvest Moon™ 'Matthew Saul' PPAF is one of the patented varieties. The photo doesn't do the color justice as it is more soft yellow than white. It looks great with daylilies or coreopsis.


Echinacea purpurea Sundown™ 'Evan Saul' PPAF is a new favorite. I have it (and the 'Sunset') planted in the butterfly garden along with agastache 'Blue Fortune' (just starting to bloom), asclepias mix (not yet in bloom), crocosmia (red and orange not yet in bloom) and a vitex (Chaste Tree just starting to form blooms since the frost damage).



Echinacea purpurea Big Sky™ 'Sunset' PPAF is truly stunning. It looks pink in this photo, but shows up blue/orange in the garden and goes great with the blue agastache. I have planted masses of these along with the 'Sundown' coneflowers and agastache surrounding the chaste tree in the butterfly garden.