The battle of wits between gardeners and deer continues this year unabated. Since the local towns continue to develop every square inch of land, the deer have no choice but to wander through town, foraging. Something needs to be done to control the deer population. In many respects I’d prefer that the towns stop developing all the land. Since that development does often help lower my property taxes I admit to a little support for the concept. But I was born and raised here and am astounded at how brazen the wildlife has become, been forced to become. This year we are all commenting on the huge increase in rabbits. I can only defend my property against the deer. They are big and easier to block. I concede the ground routes to the rabbits, ground hogs, possums, raccoons and whatever else figures out the back way to my garden. My most sincere apologies to my neighboring cat because her catnip has ended up behind the net. I hope she figures out she can get to it the long way around.
I am, however, holding my own against the deer. Last year, Ahuva Net 2.0, saw me purchase deer netting (Vigaro Deer Block, 7 ft x 100 ft) and bamboo poles. It worked, but the way I set it up also kept ME from getting to the plants. 🙂 This year I resolved to tackle that issue. I also didn’t like the way I attached the netting – I threaded the poles through the nets. That was tricky. I decided to switch to 6′ tall plastic stakes for securing the net in front of the in-ground front bed. I decided to start there and see how it worked out before trying to protect the planters along the front walk.
The plastic stakes were much sturdier than the bamboo which made getting them into the ground securely simpler as well. Last year I put up one continuous wall of netting. This year I planned to cut the netting into segments, defined by the plastic stakes. I taped the netting to one pole securely (Gorilla water-proof tape). I cut the segment to slightly overlap the next pole and then used binder clips to attach that side to the pole. *laughing* Hey, I have a TON of binder clips and they were the right size and handy. I wasn’t sure it was even going to work so I didn’t want to go buy some other kind of clip while I was still in “beta” mode. Because I was doing it in segments I could follow the outline of the garden more closely than I could last year. It also enabled me to wrap around the side and then put a segment blocking side access to the front. Dealing with the netting is truly annoying. It catches on everything, I’m short and trying to get it high enough is difficult, and it was in many ways very frustrating. Ultimately however it worked, it is working and it’s doing exactly what I hoped. Nothing in that front garden has been munched or chomped. Several times now I have unclipped a segment to add plants (my seedlings) and to do a little cleanup. It took several hours to get that front ‘wall’ built but hey – I’m retired now. *grin* I HAVE several hours. I confess that even though I went slowly and rested, it was exhausting.
Protecting the big planters I use to line my walk needed a different approach. They need protection front, back and from the top. Originally I thought I’d drive the supporting posts into my lawn and drape the netting from there. I realized almost immediately that it would work better if the posts were in the pots themselves. The pots are large and deep, so there was sufficient depth. It was difficult to drive the posts into the lawn in that area, and they were much lower if they were in the lawn than if they were in the pots. In the past I’ve put all those pots on rolling bases so that I could move them easily to get to the lawn or rearrange them. I decided that this year I was going to eliminate the bases and put the pots directly on the walk. That actually made them easier to manage, not more difficult. The next issue was how to cover the top and the side.
I’d get a straight side of netting down the “back” along the lawn, but the “front” along the walk needed to have some way to keep the net off the plants. Measuring from one side of the pots up, over and down the other side was roughly 13′. The netting is only 7′. I rotated my approach. I ended up with 3 13′ segments of netting, overlapping so that nothing could get between the ‘joins’ of the segments. I anchored them with garden staples. I couldn’t manage the net segments by myself. 😦 I’m too short and they catch too much. My husband came out to help me drape the net. Working together we figured out the best way to keep the netting from tangling. He’s tall enough with a sufficient arm span that he could spread the net wide across the plants. Once the segments were spread I could anchor them with binder clips and garden stakes. The garden stakes drive the net down to the soil of the pots while the clips are holding it to the poles and to the rims of the pots. It seems to be doing what I expected and I am able to detach it to get underneath to pull weeds. I regret that the plants are not accessible to flying creatures, but unless and until I figure out how to build a side wall along the walk, the only way to keep the deer out is a top net.
I finished up by rearranging all my herbs and vegetables. I have a small section of tomato plants and herbs protected by the netting. It starts at the last pole of the front garden and is in segments, with the supports again in the pots. There is a break between this section and the pots along the walk so that I can cut through with the hose. Since I only need to protect one side I don’t need to drape the top and I get the full 7′ height. I moved my most aromatic herbs in front of the porch beds: lemon balm, rosemary, oregano, sage and chives. The word is that deer don’t like plants with strong odors. My personal belief is that the deer are going to eat whatever they can find because they are hungry. For the time being those plants are NOT netted, but the arrangement is such that if I’m forced to protect them I can put up more netting.
I really like this approach – the Vigoro deer block – because it does NOT block the view of the flowers. I was amused while I was putting it up by the folks who came by and commented on my activity. Most of them did not realize that the netting was already up in front of the front bed. I’d point out to them that they didn’t notice the net because they could see the plants so easily – our eyes just discount the netting they way they discount the screen when we look out a window. I do think that the netting along the front walk is more noticeable (since it’s front, back and top) but I’m hopeful that once the flowers are in full bloom that is what gets noticed. I must have shown the Vigoro package to 4 or 5 passerbys who all got excited about this method to protect THEIR plants. 🙂 Deer Wars. 🙂
Unfortunately, the little sign is gone so I’m not sure WHAT it might be. I have other long-loved perennials pushing through as well. I know what they are by where they are, because I don’t always recognize the new growth. Last year I planted the curly grass (you can see it in the top picture) and it made it through the winter. I’m a little sorry I put it where I did, because there is typically a large planter in front of that spot so most people won’t see it unless they are looking at it directly.
It’s also exciting to see how many of my herbs wintered over. In one of the pots I have either lemon balm coming back, or sorrel. Or maybe it’s a weed. *grin* I’m waiting to see. It also appears that both the bay and the rosemary might have made it through the winter as well. I usually lose both of those and have to buy new ones, but they are both still fragrant and supple, even if I’m not seeing new green yet. I can always hope. 🙂 The photos show the lemon thyme, sage and chives that most definitely wintered over. 
It was such a mild winter that I’m wondering if my canna lilies might come back. They never have in the past, so I’m not really expecting them this year either, but there does seem to be something happening in that general region. 
When I’m ordering plants I try now to stick to perennials. I’m trying to save both dollars and my energy. If it’s going in the ground, I want a perennial. I’ll put the annuals in the big pots. I always want to find flowers for the pollinators – trying to grow native plants. I have very little area that is full sun, so I need plants that will also tolerate shade. And I like tall, bushy, wild-looking plants. Some people do color-themes, but I like a riot of color. Every time I say to myself that yellow is my favorite flower color, I realize that I love orange too, and there’s a lot to be said for red, and you need white to bring out the contrast, and purple picks up the colors in my awnings, and blue is spectacular. You can see why I have LOTS of colors. They are all the best. 🙂 
The rest of my current order from Heritage includes Agastache foeniculum Anise hyssop, 
(and hide the things they do like behind those). The 
At the same time I’m very happy come the fall and I can stop taking care of all of the plants. 🙂 Maybe some day (that oft-referenced, never-actioned retirement) I’ll be the kind of person to dig up bulbs and store them in the basement. That day is not today. I do, however, attempt to winter over the succulents. They are interesting and comparatively tidy. Even more relevant, however, is the fact that the cats appear to be uninterested in them. This year I also brought in one of the palm trees from the front porch. I’m not sure which species it is exactly, but I checked all of the ones that look like what I have and they were all okay for cats. I bought it at Home Depot so if anyone can put a better identification on it, that would be helpful.
I did some of that but not very much. Instead I’ve been using that area to winter-over the succulents. I started with succulents a few years ago after seeing the beautiful arrangements my sister made. I had one pot, and it was small enough that I could bring it in and out. Last year I expanded to another pot, a big one that was on a roller out front. It weighs a ton. My husband brought it in for me and we had it on the floor by the door to the deck. This year that location is no longer available so we had to lift it up to the window seat in the breakfast room bay window. Oh my, that thing is HEAVY. Two of the three palms had already died by the time we were moving the plants inside, but one of them still appeared to be salvageable. I pruned off all of the obviously brown and broken fronds and we brought that in as well.
The other 2 pots are extremely heavy and I thought they might crack anything that wasn’t metal or soft plastic. They are sitting on platters that function but are not aesthetically pleasing. My new kitchen and breakfast room are definitely about aesthetically pleasing. I’m on the hunt for some platter that is attractive, of the correct depth, and waterproof. And THAT’S why there is no picture of the base of the pots! I also moved a grow light into the breakfast room – you can see the pinkish light in the photo. I’m not sure that will be sufficient light for the succulents, but I hope it works. My memory tells me that the palm does NOT need direct sunlight (it was on the porch, after all), so I am hoping that it will have sufficient light from the window and what it gets from the grow light. 
I take all of the big pots, take the flowers out and put them in the compost (or in the leaf bags) and put the now plant-less pots on the porch. Then I take whichever herbs have survived the frost and cold and place those pots as the second row. They line the railing so they can get whatever sun and rain comes their way. The chives seem to manage on this benign neglect so I put them in the corner where I hope they will get the most sun and rain. We’ll see how the others do. The pot with the rosemary and bay leaves is way too heavy to move. I’ve considered digging up those 2 plants and bringing them inside simply for the lovely smell. Maybe if I get super ambitious this weekend I’ll do that. But if past performance is any indicator of future earnings – probably not that likely. 🙂
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