Woodland Gardening

It’s way more challenging than I thought it was going to be to keep our yard presentable.  Between the lack of light, wet areas here and there, hills there and here … it has been quite the task.

When we moved here we were told there were deer.  Not knowing that there were more deer in our backyard than people in the entire city of Raleigh, I dug up a bunch of beautiful daylilies from our old home and brought them here when we moved.  When I planted them, I surrounded them with herbs in hopes of the herbs keeping the deer away from the daylilies just in case they got curious.  We are entering our fourth summer here and the deer have never touched a single herb.  They simply walk right past them.  The dayliles on the other hand have never bloomed.  The leaves come out every spring and right when they are about to get buds and blooms the deer eat them down to the ground.

You can see the hoof prints through the mulch.

The last remaining plant.  This entire area *was* full of dayliles a couple days ago.

At least we have the about-to-bloom lavendar.  I accidentally mowed over a sprig this morning.  It smelled fabulous!

Why can’t they eat the bamboo grass that has popped up everywhere?  Anyone know how to get rid of the stuff?  It’s a nightmare.

A look back at one of the flowers (a vintage photograph from way back in 2005) at the old house.  We could have cut the grass in the “yard” with a pair of scissors it was so small but I loved the flowers.

One day I’ll just give in to the 8,294,849 maple, oak, pine and birch seedlings that are taking over faster than the bamboo grass.  But funny thing … the deer eat the trees too.

And this concludes yet another post that has nothing to do with quilts.