The latest in garden decor?
What do you think? Modern art? Sculpture de plastique? An obstacle course?
No, it’s my latest attempt to protect my plants.
Yes, that’s right. Little Miss Emmy (as I’ve named our resident yearling deer) has been munching on all my newly-planted plants. Remember the Cuphea I planted on Sunday? She ate about 1/3 of one Cuphea the first night. Then she nibbled on another one. And by the time I bought these milk crates and got them out there this afternoon, she’d sheared them all way down to the base. And she ate all the bloom buds off of the 3 mums, too. She did leave the Mexican Oregano alone, though.
Sigh.
I’m hoping that the only reason she ate the Cuphea was because it was young and tender and newly planted, and that she’ll leave them alone when they grow a little bit. After all, I thought the mums would be safe because I have two of them that have lived in the same spot in pots for a YEAR untouched. They are big ones, so, I’m crossing my fingers and hoping they grow big and woody and taste terrible!
See how little she left me?
While I was planting all the plants for the deer to eat for dinner on Sunday, I also dug up several volunteers and potted them. The first two, L to R, are probably not going to make it, but the last 3 are Crape Myrtles and should be a beautiful fuchsia color if they came from the seeds of the nearest tree. (Though I do have a row of white ones far away — just my luck — these will be white when I want them to be fuchsia!)