Oh, Deer

THERE’S BEEN A SHIFT IN MY THINKING on deer, as on so many things lately.

Just the other day, I was yelling and rattling screens at them, worried they would devour my newly planted white pine, holly, and arborvitae, and whipping up big batches of peppery homemade deer repellent.

But yesterday, I saw three or four of them walking, gracefully as always, but more slowly it seemed, through the snow of my backyard. They tend to show up in the late afternoon. I imagined they looked thinner. They didn’t seem desperate (how would I know?), but I know there isn’t much for them to eat around here. And it’s been so cold.

I briefly thought of feeding them my table scraps, the bucket full that’s meant for the compost heap. But I read up a little, on a State of Michigan website, and realized that’s probably not a good idea. Deer aren’t pigs. They’re particular, and eat different kinds of foods according to the season. I don’t think they could do anything with my orange peels and coffee grinds anyway.

But I feel sorry for them, and I don’t want them to starve. One thing they do eat is dried oak leaves, and I’ve got plenty of those on the ground. I could expose more of them with a rake or shovel. And I’ve decided to relax about the shrubs. I can’t maintain a constant vigil. And they probably won’t kill them, just defoliate them a bit. Come spring, they’ll find more to eat in the woods.

But there’s still a lot of winter ahead.

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“Gotta get through January, gotta get through February…” – Van Morrison, Fire in the Belly

The Good, the Bad, and the Mystifying

AT TWILIGHT YESTERDAY, I surveyed my 4/10 of an acre. Now that the bulk of the wisteria and weeds have been cleared away, I can see what I’ve got here, though I can’t identify all of it.

Love those rhodies

There’s a lot of damage; what the wisteria didn’t strangle, the deer ate.

You were so generous with your cottage color suggestions, I thought I’d pick your collective brains once more. If anyone has thoughts on what I can do about these garden challenges (on a shoestring budget, remember), please let ’em rip.

Got a $2600 quote for an 80' gravel driveway lined with Belgian block but i'm in no great hurry

Normally I avoid photographing unsightly automobiles, wires, disarray or ugliness of any sort. But in this post I’m going to show you the crappiest areas of my garden, just begging to be transformed.

Arborvitae(?) with a large chunk taken out of it. Anyone know if it can it be pruned into something more shapely?

And if anyone can ID any of the many plants I can’t (plain English is fine), I’d be very grateful.

Close-up of the foregoing for ID purposes

Sad hinoki cypress, bottom half gobbled up by deer - and right outside the back door. What to do?

Something more elegant is definitely called for in the way of a path

The circle around the cherry tree in the area where the demolished shed used to be is 30 feet wide. How to transform bare dirt into a circular garden room on a mini budget? Wood chips for starters?

I'm sure I can do better for edging

A rustic arbor on its way down, with a vine I cannot ID - no sign of flowers

Love this "picnic area" with a bit of scrubby lawn and a backdrop of juniper, a tall droopy evergreen, a blue spruce, and a couple of specimen conifers gone wrong

This one looks like something out of Dr. Seuss

Big-leaved something (what?) amidst lily of the valley

Talk about unsightly: crook of the amputee cherry tree. Could become a....?

Nothing like an electric meter to add class to the front deck

This one confounds me most - there's lots of it, it's a perennial (brown remnant from last year). Don't think it's phlox - help!

Container Culture

THERE’S REALLY NOTHING you can’t grow in containers, provided the container is big enough — trees, shrubs, grasses, bulbs, perennials, annuals.

So, if you happen to have a 4,600 square foot rooftop terrace like the one above and below, atop a factory converted to living lofts in Williamsburg, Brooklyn — come September, you can have your own prairie meadow, ablaze with golden rudbeckia (black-eyed Susans).

Rebecca Cole, the garden designer, created the look of natural landscaping, with metal cubes containing birch trees and grasses, ‘carpets’ of sedum, and lots of annual color. She carefully planned the placement of containers to break up the vast space into functional areas, and considered the view from indoors.

On the Greenwich Village terrace, below, also by Rebecca Cole, a Japanese maple thrives, along with a lush array of evergreens and perennials, many with chartreuse foliage.

MORE CONTAINER IDEAS

Now for something a little more attainable. First, a couple of humble containers from my own past, and what made me happy about them:

The yellow-tipped hosta in a terra cotta pot, below at left, couldn’t be easier or more reliable. The five orange lilies at right were a free bonus with a plant order. They were stuck in a clay pot and forgotten, except for the few weeks each summer when they would reappear, vigor undiminished.

The perennial dianthus (mini-carnations), below, from a farmers market, were a complete surprise. How well they bloomed had, I think, something to do with the piece of salvaged mirror I placed along the wall behind them. A south-facing wall to begin with, the extra reflected light seemed to enhance and prolong their bloom, which lasted for many weeks.

Another bargain in a pot, below: coleus and impatiens stuck in a shady, bare space among hostas, ferns, and hydrangeas for instant, portable color.

If there’s one good rule for successful annual containers, it might be ‘Stuff it all in there.’ The urn below, created by landscape designer Mary-Liz Campbell at the entrance to her home in Westchester County, has at least five different plants, including cannas, Japanese blood grass, variegated ivy, and sweet potato vine.

Two important things to do with container plantings: feed and water. A lot. Nutrients in containers get used up quickly.

Last, an unpretentious little grouping, seen last spring on an Amsterdam doorstep. Not much to it, really — it’s mostly just one plant per pot — but doesn’t it make you want to go plant up some containers and stick them on your front steps?