There is also a product called Defender, or something like that, by Sweeney that works wonders on pesky deer. It’s a little cannister that sits on a wire in your garden and it really keeps the deer out of my roses. I believe it contains dried blood, but the cannister keeps water out of it so it doesn’t wash away. Non toxic and lasts a full year.
I planted a rose bed in fron of my hous (see my home page) and the deer ate every flower off it the bushes the first night they were in the ground. I putt p those little cannisters, and they’ve never touched the flowers agai. They also keep away from my tulips during tulip season.
There are other things you can plant in your veggie garden that help keep the pests away — onions, marigolds, alliums, daffodils. Look for deer resistent plants and plant them around the edges of your more attractive plants. They will keep the deer away, except in the dead of winter when there is no other food. Then the deer will eat anything. :)
Last winter, the deer broke into my garden — broke the gate. Then they didn’t know how to get out (the wire fence was invisible to them at night). So, they leapt at the fence and bent it all out of shape. I had big pooches in it leading from inside to out. So, after my husband fixed all the wire, I hung strips of blaze orange plastic tape all along the edges of the fence to flap in the breeze and to let them know that it’s there. I’ve had no further trouble.
The roses have generally been disappointing, thought I could tolerate the constant thorn pricks but some have done poorly partly because of me and way I garden and partly not. I dug out several; one I hope I got enough root because my back is bad and I can't dig too deep. So that freed up some space.
So I have 6 apricot colored ones I spaced out 5 feet apart I got from Jackson Perkins about 3 or 4 years ago, bare root, own root, die pretty far back here in the winter without a lot of boxes and mulch I can't/won't do. I was thinking of trying to move them or give them away. There's a pretty pink one in front left that's too big for the narrow strip planting areas that line my sidewalk.
The 6 are Austin roses, Crown princess Marguerita, good rebloom but Jap beetles ruin 6-8 weeks of it. They shoot up 4 to 6' canes unpredictably, a short climber. It came to me in a flash the other day what to do with them. Peg them. Went straight to an old video I'd watched I thought I'd never need. The idea is to get the canes lateral or circular so they shoot up shorter canes and tons more blooms. So there's that to try next year. Same idea as training grapes I think.
I'm really really really excited about some glass gem corn I've been promised as soon as it becomes available. From the photo, it looks glassy, vibrant colors and transparent but may have a very short cob, hard to know.
Frost north of us, couple really chilly days, got flowers that have been sitting in plastic cups and some bought in spring planted. Have 5 raspberries left to plant, 2 asters, and one potted little tree to sink into the ground til spring because I don't have a cold frame. A tulip tree. They come up all around my yard from neighbor's across the street, and many come up where they can't be easily separated from something to transplant. They would cost quite a bit at a nursery, don't know why I'm doing it, maybe stick some overflow that doesn't need high maintenance on the farm.
So that's enough for now. Hope to do some beans, Siberian tomatoes and maybe peppers next year and MUST plant about 6 kinds of herbs a higher priority than the veggies even. Growing veggies is sometimes more work than just getting at the store or Farmer's Market (ducking). I have a tiller but no more tilling. Lasagna gardening although it would be nice if I could have a couple raised beds like people here seem to think are a must. Tilling brought up tons of grass and weed seed and does every time you do it. Grass b Gon took care of it one year. I'm told you can mulch with 6 layers of newspaper and old cardboard and catalogs, some soil, then mulch but I don't like the expense of mulch so am going to use grass clippings and oak leaves, will watch for neighbor to put out theirs. Oak leaves are supposed to be really good but don't know why. The things people do. Worm farms for castings. Alfalfa tea. Composting. Cloning, rooting cuttings, controlled hybridizing on their own, have seen some marvelous daylilies and, of all things, zinnias. Takes dedication and patience.
I'm also trying to slowly get some nice stands of iris and daylilies, some setbacks with those. Enough for now.