Animal Battles

I've written about my battles with the deer and the measures I've taken to minimize the damage from their eating habits.  I can say I have partial victory in that regard.  Only partial because my Deer Protection Plan is concentrated in the backyard and the deer still manage to browse through out front.

Look carefully at this Autumn Joy sedum in Mom's Garden out front and you'll see they've been eating the leaves and some flowers.

This silhouette shows the damage.

Fortunately they don't like the pink muhly grass.

Another animal I battle is the ground hog.  I saw yesterday that it was gathering dead leaves and taking them into its den under my porch.  Won't be long before its hibernating but in the meantime it is munching away.  Lately its been favoring some new yarrow that I planted so I had to take action to keep it out.

They (I think there is more than one) live under the porch.

Here are the two entrances.  The chicken wire did no good.

It's an easy toddle for them to the Perennial Garden.

One stop is here to eat the forget me nots.

They've been in this patch of black eyed susans.

This bed is where I planted some new perennials.  The aster has a fence of bamboo stakes around it.

The yarrow has a tomato cage with netting newly installed this morning.

When I planted these several weeks ago I thought the cone flowers would be their target plants so protected that with chicken wire.  Didn't know they liked yarrow.

Next year I will have to do better to get those ground hogs out!

Moon Flower

When I started my project to keep the deer out of the backyard and protect the gardens from their damaging eating habits, part of that plan was an arbor with gate to block their entry from the west.  [See more about the D.P.P. here.]

The arbor I purchased was crying out for a vine and I selected a Moon Flower.  It gets its name because it blooms at night.  It has grown quite well in this spot but I haven't really seen it bloom until yesterday evening.  Before then I would see the spent blossoms or the buds but not the big white flowers.

I spotted this one as we sat and ate dinner on the screen porch.  As I face the perennial garden I could see the white of the blossom.  

The blossoms are as big as the hibiscus.

This morning there were two blossoms with many more buds set to open.  It is lovely but unfortunately will not last the winter.  Who knows what I'll plant there next year.

The second blossom's petals must be too heavy to fully open out.

 Or maybe that petal is caught behind?

Here's a new bud showing the promise of more to come.

By the way the D.P.P. has worked wonderfully this year.  Fishing line has done the trick to keep the deer out even when we were on vacation and those critters always seem to know when we're gone.  I still have hosta in the Glen Garden that in past Augusts would be just stems by now.

Mulched

It happened yesterday and I didn't lift any of it.  8 Cubic yards were delivered on Thursday afternoon from a local supplier and Bill, a handyman extraordinare, came Friday morning and spent less than 6 hours spreading it all.  It would have taken me weeks and weeks.  It was well worth the money spent. And plus it looks fabulous.

You know its spring when you step outside and smell the mulch!

Here's the west end and A's Garden is on the right.  Perennial Garden is in the foreground.  I have been busy expanding A's Garden and expanding the Glen Garden on the left by the fence.

I bought and planted three new foxglove and this time I will not clip the spent blooms so they reseed.

I planted three new ferns there with a lovely bright green type of grass whose name escapes me in the center.  I've also been transplanting lots of volunteer bleeding heart to the fence line in the Glen Garden.  The dark spots are from my watering.  It made a funny pattern in the mulch.

Another view of A's Garden the green on the left is a new white butterfly bush.  It will grow big and block some of the view in.  Part of the D.P.P. as is the arbor with gate.  There is fishing line now between the stone wall and the arbor.

Here's a look at the fence line in the Glen Garden with the mulched bed.

I was taking these photos in early evening so these blooms have already closed up.

It's hard to mulch around daffodils but these survived.

One of the transplanted bleeding heart with blooms setting.

Farther down the Glen Garden the hosta poking through the mulch.  Liquid Fence spraying weekly will be required as the grow.

The Pond Garden, half in light and half in shade, ringed with iris and full of tadpoles.

The D.P.P. called for me to dig up these hosta.  Well, I tried unsuccessfully so I planted the red hot poker plants to the left (not in this photo).  I'm just going to have to keep these sprayed as I have in the past successfully.

There wasn't enough mulch to do the Perennial Garden which is just as well since as things come up I need to thin and transplant.  The herb bed, front right, needs a total overhaul, too.  I saw something on Pinterest where each herb is kept in a pot then buried to the brim in the soil.  I do that already with mint.

Inside, here are the tomato seedlings, doing well. Peppers still need to be transplanted to small pots.

Don't you just love Spring?