Guest Rant byWendy Kiang - Spray
I mean , I get it … but I do n’t really get it . The lawn is meticulously manicure , the stonework beautiful , and within the adorable iron garden gate ( top by an additional 4 foot of cervid netting ) , the lilies are improbable and happy , the shrubs lush and immature . However , I ’m consider that if there needs to be so much pest aegis around it – it kind of takes away from the mantrap of the plants . I examine not to be too judgmental . I ’ve written several blog posts now about how horticulture is a subjective art . Still , I ’m always taken aback when I see garden in full flush , confined by that bed of black veiling . Passersby merely can not bask gardens while they ’re behind the veils of deer netting ! Is n’t there another way ?
I go past this sunken shade garden often . It ’s really , really pretty . Really . This concealed gem is in a particularly wooded section of the neighbourhood and we do have lots of cervid . I ’m sure there are issues and I ’m sure the gardener was feed in up with her garden being constantly nibbled down to nubs . But ugh … the netting …
This webbed container belongs to my friend Grace , who has convert her integral front and side yards to perennial garden . As you may imagine , her place has become the all - dark smorgasbord . Last week , the deer topped her lilies , phlox , and quite a few lettuces and beetroot too . She was devastated . She covered half the garden in netting as an exigency measuring rod . She ’s going to hear to practice her deer nebulizer more often but if that does n’t work , she ’s already priced the price to surround her garden with a deer fencing . She inquire me – Thoughts ? Suggestions ? I told her I hope it would be a very last resort . I would n’t desire to see a mesh fortress around her garden . She replied that gardening is such an important part of who she is , that even if it ’s not pleasant for passersby , she ’d rather garden within a fortress than not garden at all .
One facial expression at my hostas and you may see that I obviously have no solutions . In fact , I have a few ‘ Bela Lugosi ’ daylily that have been in the ground for 3 year now and I ’ve yet to see a bloom because of the deer . I hear those daylilies sure are sensational . What I have point out is that my hellebores are intact and everything behind them is hunky-dory . I ’ve take that cervid will avoid cross over plant they dislike , such as hellebores . Perhaps alternatively of a stake and net roadblock , it might be useful to try butt against a garden with plant that deer are averse to . Then again , the deer have become so brazen .
Still , there ’s catch to be a solution somewhere between the Fort Knox method and the open smorgasbord . ( And my dada ’s method of found tall stakes with bar of grim - green Zest soap hanging from them is not what I ’m talking about ! )
Wendy Kiang - Spray isa freelance garden author and is working on her first volume about growing and cooking Chinese vegetables . She garden in Rockville , Maryland and volunteers with the DC Master Gardeners .
