On Jun 3, 5:28 pm, ntantiques wrote:
On Jun 3, 1:43 pm, y_p_w wrote:



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.

Petunias = deer candy. We found that out the hard way too...painful
lesson, isn't it? Suspect snails got your marigolds...they used to
inhale mine in CA - now I just have to fight off gigantic Oregon
slugs.

I didn't see any slime trails.

Think you may find lavender is not so easy to grow from seed, but is a
snap to grow from cuttings. One pot from the nursery to plant now will
give you stock to grow more from cuttings. Am told the deer don't
generally munch zinnias - I've started some a while back and will be
testing that theory next week.

I'm now addicted to growing from seed. ;-)

You may not have thought about bulbs, but that might be a nice choice
for next year - deer don't eat daffodils. They utterly ignore all of
my varieties of iris and daylilies. A small Stella D'Oro daylily
would give you a bright burst of color and several months of blooms.

If all else fails, think about something walkable - once established,
my thymes and Corsican mint have stood up to hoofs and filled in bare
areas nicely. Whatever you put in is going to require some protection
until it gets going if that's only route the deer can take.

Well - I checked this morning and found hoof prints in the same area.
None of the seedlings were outright stepped on, but some of the soil
was displaced. I might be better off trying to block off the area,
but I'm not sure with what. I'm also getting promising results from
the peat bags. I planted them Mon and by Wed morning some of the
seeds are already germinating. I'm also moving just germinated seeds
around to different pots.

The only surviving seedling from my first transplant attempt is coming
up nicely. I can see the main plant sprouting up from between the
leaves.