On Jun 3, 12:16 pm, ntantiques wrote:
Like I said, nothing ventured...Do have a thought about the deer
trampling your seedlings...Have learned it's well worth spending some
time observing deer traffic patterns before committing new plants to
the ground. Took us a while to adapt, but we co-exist fairly
successfully with a small herd that beds down in the woods behind our
house.

It's a little plot next to my driveway next to some junipers. I
usually park my car down the center and I'm thinking the deer are
going around.

Most mornings they saunter up the driveway, hang a left, and gather in
the front yard for a nosh on the lawn before marching up the bank that
separates the large front gardens from a meadow/orchard area. 90% of
the time they take the same routes and I've learned the hard way not
to plant anything tender (or delicious) in their path.

The first thing my wife wanted to put in that plot was a flat of
petunias. I just dropped them there to see how they took to the
location before transplanting. We left for the day and she thought
someone had stolen them. I backed up and noticed that the flowers
were all gone. At first I was thinking maybe the wind, but they were
clean gone, and I'm sure the deer got to them. I've been trying a
couple of pots indoors, but they're not growing terribly well. I
think I might be able to plant a hanging basket from an overhang above
our deck. I planted marigolds (Bonanza) at the suggestion of a
neighbor, but something ate them. Doesn't have the bite marks (they
look like they've been cleanly clipped) of deer, so I think it could
be birds.

I've told this story before on another forum. I was coming back from
the Tahoe area with my (now) wife on US 50 near Placerville. As I
went around a turn at the speed limit in the left lane, we noticed a
deer in the right lane. I'm hoping that it doesn't move and I get
past it. It doesn't move, but I notice a full-sized Dodge pickup
moving faster than us in the right lane. The deer leaves my field of
vision, but I hear this loud sound like a gunshot, and as the Dodge
speeds up ahead of us, we notice that its bumper is now hanging at a
strange angle. Also as we got home that night, a deer in the driveway
ran off. Spooked us out.

When I've been hellbent on planting in a vulnerable area, I've had
good results planting in big wine barrels - they're tall enough that
the deer just walk around them and could work well for poppies. If you
go that route, I'd suggest planting deer resistant companion plants
like lavender & creeping thyme so you have something to enjoy when the
poppies fade.

Anything that would deter the deer would block my driveway or the
sidewalk. There's plenty of lavender around the neighborhood; the
deer will have nothing to do with them. I went for the non-standard
poppies because I really wanted to plant something a little different
than any of our neighbors. Maybe I'll try some lavender from seed.

I'm just hoping my planting of non-orange California poppies doesn't
contaminate the gene pool of the naturally growing varieties in my
neighborhood. In any case, even the orange varieties sold as seed are
supposedly cultivated.