"paghat" wrote in message
news
If I had the deer problems some folks have, I would not want to discourage
them too much, I might even plant stuff they liked. I would create largish
arbor-gated enclosed gardens for sensitive things, deer resistant things
outside the wooden fences.

Hello paghat,

Well, I used to feel the same way, until we moved here. We love the fact
that our property is next door to a state park, but what we never had the
foresight to evaluate was the presence of the deer, moles and cercospora,
anthracnose, rust, powdery mildew, black spot, box elder bugs, earwigs,
you name it around the said property.

We created a nice little shade area where several rhododendrons, azaleas,
hellebores that peeked through the acer palmetun at the sun above, and some
rare even for Oregon trilliums that were nursed among the bleeding hearts
and the pulmonarias to show their sweet heads once in a blue moon. That blue
moon was this past week and the sole bud of a the most beautiful soft amber
pink trillium stuck its head out of the ground only to be munched by a
daring buck that crossed the street, stepped through rocks and two
strawberry trees and had breakfast with the one of the plants they are
"supposed" not to like.

In an ideal world they will not stampede in front of passing vehicles next
to our house creating a potential for both death and dismemberment from
drivers who are not aware that a herd of deer can make it across the street
at lightning speed without a thought about moving vehicles and without being
intimidated by them. It is really sad that there is no space left for all of
us deer
and people to live in happy compliance of each other's needs.

We cannot for practical reasons, such as light and space to grow that which
we love, encase the place with a fence of any kind. Our neighborhood is a
nice place filled with all kinds of old trees and the openness of the place
invites the people living here to take care of their yards and to help each
other sharing cuttings and plants that hold some interest to all of us. I
guess that openness has a price attached, and unfortunately as the deer
population increases without control so are the problems associated with
this.

For right now we continue to spray, when time is available my husband and I
will spend some time placing some posts every twenty feet or so, to be
climbed
hopefully by some vine to disguise the ugliness of it, and a single wire
fence will
be around the perimeter of the entire front garden. Do I like the idea? No.
I hate
enclosing anything as I predict that I will be the first one through
clumsiness or
distraction to shake hands with the wire.

But we are growing some roses that are nearly out of commerce and we hope to
preserve them to share them with others via cuttings or seedlings. As far as
the
diseases mentioned above, we will continue to clean, spray and maintain
the area we have as best we can. The old trees in the park have never been
sprayed that I know, and the different problems not only decimate the ranks
but threatens the new emergent growth along the perimeters. And I will leave
the subject of ivy alone because this is already a book. Take care, and I
wish I could carry on my dream of a nearly perfect garden as I wish you
could carry on yours about yours,

Allegra