Deer and Flowers

The colorful and creative use of flowers around the homes and businesses in Italy and Switzerland inspired me to get some plants in around my own home before we get even deeper into the summer.

Yesterday I spent a fun hour or so at our area nursery admiring all their offerings and picking out some beauties to take home.   The question was, what to buy that the deer won't eat?  We have several group of deer that regularly walk through our property looking for food, and I think a young buck is actually living on our front wooded acre this year.   Most of the flowers that aren't in the pots on the patio are chomped off by the deer, which is a disappointment that I'm trying to get used to.   So instead of going crazy buying annuals I bought a few low green plants called "steppables" to plant between the flagstone in the patio and a few petunias and other annuals for the pots up around the house.

The one plant that the deer aren't eating yet are the perennial salvia, so I bought a few of those to plant along the driveway.  I do love their pretty blue color.

It was way to hot to do any planting once I got home, but this morning was cool and less humid, and in one big push I got everything into the ground with a couple of hours of hard work, just in time for the rain that is predicted for later today.   Now if those deer will just stay off the patio, we'll have some pretty flowering pots to enjoy this summer!