A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall I think I need to...

QUIT GARDENING!!!

The deer ate 2 beautiful autumn joy sedum down to the ground in my driveway garden last night, and also ate ALL of the flower buds off my many hostas up by the front of the house!!!

Something is continuing to either knock down or eat my very tall coneflower stalks - most likely the deer and a woodchuck or two!

Something is continuing to eat or break all my marigold stems - and the only reason I planted them, aside from the color, is that they STINK and are supposed to keep things away from gardens!

That same something is continuing to eat what is left of my really nice orange cosmos!!!

AND... I can't even grow things safely up on my second story deck! The @#$% SQUIRRELS TOTALLY broke what was left of my 2 beautiful large black and blue salvias in large pots on the floor of the deck last night or early this morning! I don't think there is enough left on either plant for them to come back and bloom in time for the hummingbirds to enjoy them again this summer. The main reason I got these plants is because they love them, and they have been frequenting them - not anymore!


And if all that wasn't enough... I had asked Don to put some edging around the gardens on the sides of the pond so that when he fills in the grass that got worn down there from all of our working there it would not grow in the gardens. Well... when he sprinkled the grass seed of course tons of it went over the edging right into the gardens!!! I was sooooooo done at the point when I saw it that I was throwing the top soil with the seeds out of the gardens like a madwoman!

Someone please give me a reason to continue gardening, which is something I really love to do??? It's becoming another thing that upsets me and I just don't need that right now...


ooooooooooooh - and to top it all off... I think something is very wrong with the pond and 3 of the fish are definitely not well and will probably be dead in the morning. Don put an aerator on a generator and into the pond to try and get more oxygen in it for overnight. He will either call or go to the pond store with a sample of our water to try and find out what is going on. He has a test kit and it all came out ok!

I'm sorry Lynne, for all your gardening losses. I know how destructive wildlife -- especially deer -- can be!

I have no remedy to suggest, of course, that will solve it all for you, unfortunately.


The heartbreak of gardening goes along with the joy of it. I hope your joy returns to you sooner than soon.


Merme

Awwwww, Lynne, I'm sorry for your gardening troubles lately. Such a bummer.
I was thinking the same thing as Merme, for all the triumphs and surprises in the garden we must take the disappointments also. Hang in there with us, there will be joys too...........

I know you've probably heard or read about many of the tricks to try keeping the deer out of your yard. How about the animal fur , after brushing the cats spread their fur around the perimeter of your yard. Is there a certain way they are coming into your yard? Deer tend to have patterns and trails they take every day. I've also read about rigging up an invisible fence. Put some fence stakes (or tree branches for a more natural rustic look in the ground every 4 or 5 feet and string fishing line from stake to stake at different heights. Supposedly the deer will feel it , but not see it and go another way.

Or could you plant peppermint or spearmint around the woods surrounding your property. I planted some in their trail , quite by accident not because I knew they detest it, and they stopped coming thru my yard.

Thanks Merme and Mel

Mel - I have tried all sorts of predator urines, and other solutions, Irish spring soap which is supposed to keep deer away, both human hair and cat fur... There's no way to put up a fence, as our yard slopes down away from the house and deer are good jumpers. I suppose I could try and string some fishline on dowels or something. As for planting mint... all the backyards on our side of the street were clearcut when they built these houses about 30 years ago and no one planted trees to separate them, so it's pretty much a wide open area that runs through all the backyards. They come from all sides of our property.

There is something called MoleMax that someone recommended last week and it is my mission tomorrow to find the stuff. He said it worked on his woodchucks. Its main ingredient is castor bean oil, and is in small pellet form. I also hope to find some Liquid Fence - some have had good results with that for deer, but you have to keep re-applying it, and all this stuff adds up in expenses rapidly.

By the way... Don just informed me that Rudolph the Red Nosed koi is now dead. He is the first of the 3 that didn't look well earlier, to go. There are 2 others as well that I didn't get to see, to know if they are not well also. Now I won't want to look at the pond when I get up in the morning.

Mel, that lychis you posted looks like the seeds you asked for from me - the red rose campion. Did you get some seeds or am I confused?

Poor Rudolph.

P. S. The deer ate the tops out of my mothers sunflowers. ALL of them.

Sheri, I thought you said you had white ones, that's what I was looking for . seeds from the white ones. I have tons of the magenta ones, I love them.

OMG!! Lynne--NO!!!I am ever so sorry!!!

Hopefully some of the things you are going to try to find tomorrow will help you---I am in complete sympathy for you.---Wish I could help. Please do not give up on your gardening---
Also I will pray that Don finds a cure for your pond tribulations as well.

Reason #1 You were born to be a gardener

Reason #2 You will never be happy again if you don't have a garden

Reason #3 You are much tougher and more resilient than any ol' critter

Right?

Right Bill, and thanks for the reminders during this tough time for me!

no.1 from Bill,,,,,, Yes Lynne you were .. absolutely

no.2 from Bill .......Nope ya won't, Gardening is like therapy for a lot of us,, and I know how excited you get when you've finally found a particular flower you had your heart set on finding . flowers be replaced easy enough though I know it breaks your heart to see the wildlife do damage to your flowers keep in mind it's really harder on your heart to find a substitute for happiness that's been long lived thru your gardening .

no.3 from Bill,,,,, Ohhhhh how true a statement is that!! This last year or two hasn't been the best for you and you made it thru it ,, even when you thought you just couldn't deal with another rotten day, you dealt with it and came out on the other side ,, and because of that you're stronger in spirit then you realized, I believe you'll find a remedy to curb alot future damage by the deer.

no.4 from me........ Anything I have that I can send you to replace what you've lost just let me know( I knowwwww you're not going to give up gardening, 'just wouldn't be right,) ,,,,, because that what we gardners do,, it's a given we help each other in any way possible,,

Tomorrow when you look for something to deter the deer, and Don goes to the pond store,, I hope answers are there for each of you'
Big Big Hugs Lynne,, I know it has got to be discouraging,, I also know you could never give up what you love to do. :wink:

and a number 5 from me. you make the most mundane things come alive with your ideas and gardening.

and, something one of the farmers here does to minimize dear damage is to plant a 2-4 ft wide area thick with sunflowers between the dear and his fields. could you plant a strip at the edges of your yard to have a sunflower fence? the deer will eat them, but they will be full and maybe leave your plants alone?

and the farmer plants it thick. much closer than we usually do.

I'm so sorry Lynne.

Put up a statue of a hunter.......it seems like as soon as a person gears up, there's never a deer to be seen ......sorry but I had to try get a chuckle out of you.

Thanks for the chuckle Tamara!!! :wink:

Thanks so much for the encouraging words Merme, Carol, Bill, Mel, Diane and Jiffy! You just know I could never give up gardening for real , but yesterday was just the last straw. I had had a very long day after no sleep once again - was sorta held captive by some friends (we went to the farmers market at 9a.m. and they didn't bring me home from their errands I didn't know about til 4p.m.!!!), and it was unbearably hot and humid out, and everytime I turned around I saw yet another plant that had been eaten or broken. Seeing the black and blues totally destroyed on my deck was the clincher!!!

I did buy some more plants while I was out , but am pretty sure the squirrels will destroy the yellow osteospermums and scaviola on the deck by tomorrow. Home Depot had a nice clearance on the scaviola - a big 3 pack for $3.48 - usually I can only find them for $3-4 each anywhere here! I got 2 three packs.

I also got a flowering maple, after Myrna had bought 2 last week. Never saw that plant before and it has such nice orange flowers for the pond garden. I planted it last evening, and have to find a way to protect it from the junior woodchuck that I already chased away from the gardens this morning!!!

Today is another day... and gardening will go on... I just cannot keep wasting money feeding my plants to this voracious animals!

The story of the Lonely Little Viola.

NEVER give up! Sometimes, even Mother Nature comes along and "eats" your plants. This past winter, she stole my Flowering Plum and a few other shrubs...

I missed that story way back! How sad!! Love the picture of the Viola smiling at you, Bill.

Lynne, so sorry. I would feel devastated! Hope you find solutions for all the problems.

I am so there with you Lynne. I've never had as much damage in one day as you have but I've lost plants that I have babied along and I know how much it hurts.

I hope you do find some kind of deterent that works. The deer are to chicken to come into the yard yet, but I'm sure they will find me next year so I hope you find something that works really good.

Bill I've read the story before and it is fantastic. I didn't remember about the little flower. That was a wonderful ending.

Lady Huh is checking her vermin erradicator equipment and says if you need her she is there with Cindy's Go-Go Boots and everything.

I do not get to see a story when I click on the link---what am I doing wrong???

Try this link ,then click on episode 5 (Mother Nature)

BTW, both my Acer palmatum (Japanese Maple) and my Flowering Plum are still alive ... misshapen, but alive!

Never give up!

Thank you --thank you Bill--it was beautiful!!!!! and such a perfect ending to the story.

I don't have time to read the story right now, but I will later when we get home from the fireworks if they are still having them after the downpour we just had.

I just wanted to stop in to say that I bought something called Shotgun Repell that is supposed to work well in our area, but I won't use it until the storms have passed for a while - no point.

I also wanted to say that ALL OF MY POND FISH ARE NOW DEAD!
Don and I are very frustrated and sad right now.
I've posted in my pond thread all about it.

Goodness, LYnne---I am so sorry for you. I will hope that between Done and the pool guy, someone can figure out what the problem is.

Sorry to hear about the troubles in your gardens Lynne! I too have deer and rabbits that seem to like to munch on my plants. I haven't seen my lilies bloom once because as soon as they are ready to open the deer eat the blooms. I know how frustrating it is! This year I bought Liquid Fence and they haven't touched anything!! I think it is working. It is not the cheapest thing but you don't really have to apply it that often. Apply it once, then again a week later and then it lasts a month after that. Wear gloves when you put it on because until it dries it is the most awful smelling stuff and you don't want it on your hands. I made that mistake the first time and it took a couple days for the rotten egg smell to go away. It is all natural too which was important to me. I spray it around the gardens and right on the plants. Hopefully you find something that works!!

About 2 hours ago, I took a walk down the driveway to look at the gardens after putting some mail in the box to go out today. It felt so weird not having to feed the fish today, because there aren't any left in the pond...

BUT... I saw MANY MANY more coneflower stems either with the beautiful flower heads eaten off, or bent in half and lying on the ground!!! They were just coming into beautiful bloom and the flowers are so large this year.

I SAT DOWN ON THE DECK STAIRS AND HAD MYSELF A GOOD HARD CRY.
I WAS TOTALLY BROKEN...

I had to come inside and clean before Amy's flute teacher came this afternoon, and when I was finished with that, I armed up with some tomato stakes and fishline and went to work. I pounded in 2 stakes on each long side of the line of coneflowers and tied fishline back and forth in about 4 inch high spaces. And crisscrossed it as well. I still need to go out and do the other side, but I had to come in and cool off, and finally have some breakfast now that I have the time, and I'm also calmed down a bit.

My mom was on the phone with me when I saw the damage and I started to break down. That, with the fish deaths, and other things going on, just broke this camel's back. Her solution? To get out of the house and do something! BUT GARDENING IS MY "OUT OF THE HOUSE AND DOING SOMETHING TO SURVIVE"!!! She just doesn't get it, so we hung up for then...

I second that emotion Carol,,,,,,, Lynne