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What’s blooming in my garden today.

What’s blooming in my garden today.

Here’s the thing. We all deal with garden pests.

Here’s the thing. We all deal with garden pests. One of the biggest challenges for me are deer 🦌.

We all come up with clever ways to deal with deer like make-shift chicken wire fences and crazy spay concoctions. But they’re such a pain to deal with. And I know my deer fencing is a real eyesore. There’s great repellents, but you need to spray every time it rains hard. I just don’t have the time or desire to do so much fussing.

I’ve spent the last two years experimenting with finding truly deer-resistant plants for my Michigan Zone 5 garden. This week I’m sharing my top 10 deer-resistant plant list on the blog. The link is in the bio if you’re interested.

Have you found any great deer-resistant plants from your experience to share with us? I’d love to know your secrets to keeping deer out of your garden. ADDED NOTE - I’ve learned after posting this and people sharing their own experiences that some of the plants the deer in my area leave alone, like Clematis, are favorites in other areas. I think this is super helpful information. Just goes to show there’s no guarantees with animals. I’m going to replace Clematis on the list with butterfly bush. That seems to be universally avoided by deer (so far 😬).

I’m starting to shy away from accounts that show

I’m starting to shy away from accounts that show unreachable garden goals:

1. They design in a way where budgets are not a constraint. To me, this just isn’t realistic. IMHO, anyone can create a dream garden for $30K+. I want to know how to do it for $100 or less.

2. Need to use heavy equipment, specialty tools, or a “crew”. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a crew. Unless you count the squirrels and chipmunks 😉.

3. Never talk about things that go terribly wrong and what to do when it happens 😬. When have you ever had a growing season without at least one huge problem? I haven’t 🙄.
How about you guys? Do you chase the impossible dream or do you follow people that show you how it’s done? Who’s your favorite IG gardener?

This photo is from last year. Only one tuber survi

This photo is from last year. Only one tuber survived my storage process. I must have put them away when they were damp (hind sight is always 20-20). I’m hoping the lone survivor blooms like this again. This has to be my favorite dahlia. 🥰 Do you have a favorite?

Hardly perfectly staged... the patio plants had to

Hardly perfectly staged... the patio plants had to move to higher ground. I’ve got a ground hog in the neighborhood that must have gotten a memo that the patio had free salad-bar access. That little bugger ate my potted kale, tomatoes, and cosmos. So now the survivors are on the tables 🙌.

What’s blooming in the garden. June 24, 2020 edi

What’s blooming in the garden. June 24, 2020 edition. There’s a lot of pink and purple shades right now. And lots of green. I’m looking forward to when the Annabelle hydrangeas bloom. They completely transform the shade and brighten everything up. It’s hard to imagine this garden without them. Do you have a plant like that? One that defines your space? It’s amazing to me how plants set the mood. 🥰