The deer are my fault...
 

because I put out salt and food for the new mothers and fawns.

Then they hang around and after they get used to our presence, they move to the shore and eat my small garden (mostly containers).

The rabbits do not get up to the high containers, but the deer really
don't mind. I used a sonic device in the past, but last year the deer learned to
ignore it.

I only need to have 2mons of deterrent, not a whole year. So I am hoping the deer don't like the Fortress.

Last year was the most aggressive damage..I move my containers up on the unused dock at night and they are typically safe then. Last year she ate them ALL.

Our island does not have alot of soil base, so plant material is sparse.
We spend quite a bit of $$ feeding the deer (and now the rabbits).
Our cat keeps the rabbits in check however.
Here is a picture of a hare eating a soy chip...that season, we had a drought, so all the greenery for the rabbits was very low. It is unheard of to see them like this in the day, semi tame. So they were starving.

The second pic is a typical deer visit (this one 2004)
That is their feeding rock and the salt lick behind them.

The deer do swim on and off to us. We see them do this. But the rabbits cannot. They can only move
from island to island during winter when the water freezes.
It has been decades of not seeing a single rabbit... and now we have tons of them! ????

These deer will eat anything. The only thing spared for me last season was chives.
"Deer resistant plants" has no meaning where we are.

When we return in Sept, I'll report back on the effectiveness of the soap shavings and
Deer Fortress. The Fortress just came UPS yesterday thru Amazon. (they had the lowest price,
beating even Ebay).

We have enormous amounts of damage from deer and TURTLES :p.
I put wire "cages" around my tomato plants that stop most of the deer and rabbits but don't even slow the turtles. Of course they get only the lowest fruit and the birds get the higher ones.

We have a salt block that the deer love, far down on the other side of the house (near the hostas), but it doesn't slow them down.

Question about Peonies
 

First let me say thank you for this section of the forum!

Next, I have a question about peonies. We moved into a new house last fall that has some of everything in the yard. This little lady kept her yard with a variety of what looks like a gardening catalog.

There are several areas that have different colors of peonies and what I wanted to know is if I snip the blooms off, will they bloom more for the season? Or do they just have their own course of things? I have never had them before.

Thanks

only once
 

as far as I know.

The ants on them is normal.
If you want to cut and bring them in, turn them upside down in a
container of water, and the ants will go away (do this outside of course).

After witnessing deer/rabbits eating my hosta garden to nubs, I found an organic repellent solution at a local retail hardware store that worked wonders in training the critters to stay away. Here is a link to the product should anyone be interested in locating it:

http://terradisiac.com/products.php?...penparent=2213

I too, only had to use the product for two months, and the application of this product is easy.

Peonies only bloom once each season. It's best to cut off the dead bloom stalks once they have bloomed in order to allow the plant to maximize it's food production for next year to the bulb from just the leaves and not the flower stalks.

Here's a good link for information about Peonies. I have several Peonies in my garden and just love them. I will be dividing mine this fall as they have gotten quite large!

http://www.flower-gardening-made-easy.com/peonies.html

I am glad you like this part of the forum. Brain and decided to do it as she is very good with tips about some things and since I have a landscape design business that I started after I graduated with my Bachelors Degree in Horticulture we put our collective heads together to help answer questions!

This is fun to do and I really enjoy answering the questions posed by our community! Thanks everyone! ;)

be careful..
 

I think Peonies are a major bummer and risk to dig up and divide.

I seriously injured my back doing that many years ago (the only time I hurt myself) so I'll never touch them again! They can go down a foot or more!
Please be careful! They are lovely though! :o

I've divided them before. In fact, that's how I got these plants that I do have. They were in our horticulture class garden. When I did my internship in the Greenhouse, one of my projects was to divide all the perennials.

I also have about 7 or 8 daylilies to divide at the end of this season. I can actually divide them now, but decided to wait. I already divided my Lavender and Grasses.

I love Hostas. I am doing two hosta beds for clients right now and will be putting some in my front bed that faces North. I pulled out some Oregon Grape and two Rhoddies that didn't make it (they just don't do well here).

That particular Delphinium is absolutely gorgeous!

I pruned my lavendar way back this year and it's doing great! It was about 4' high and was blocking the yarrow from getting water. So, off with it's head! It's shooting back up again! And the yarrow is happy!

Not quite time to plant my pots yet, another week or so and I will be putting in my 12' long planter box on my deck! Can't wait!

Nice to see you again Brain! ;)