The phlox after deer visit.

Sending sympathy - very distressing :((

OH Deer. sorry.
The animals are very unpredictable I don't have anything larger than Badgers,but the squirrel is this year showing little sign of eating the chestnuts green on the trees for the past decade they have striped the lot by the end of July each year

Thank you for the sympathy Sheila. I might get a pink potentilla shrub in that space. I have nice yellow one and deer ignores it (so far).

I know what you speak of Bjs. I have 2 big hazel nut shrubs (big as trees) and have not got a single nut in 12 years. Squirrels and Jays strip it when it is still green.
I had to pick ours plums even they were not completely ripped as they started to disappear quickly. I planted couple of crab-apple trees for them but they ignore them. Go figure.

:-( Thanks for the sympathy Homebird. XX

They are beautiful while they last. I even sprayed them with the commercial anti-dear "stuff". They ignore it. I already (successfully) substituted hostas with Kniphofia uvaria. They will not eat that and I like it :-)

They ate my garlic tops Homebird....so I do not think it would but I will have to find some lavender essence because they hate that plant. Some people told me that they water their roses with lavender scented Epsom salt and it works. I am so doubtful but I will have to try that.
She was here this morning , looking so innocent. It is very dry (for several months) and probably fresh green plants hard to find. I just noticed yesterday that we have twin fawns around and they will have to eat too. I am not a plants collector so I am trying to find plants they do not favour (and they are few). In a way they do add a charm to this woodsy area. I have much bigger problem with rabbits this year.
Sorry for my long chat.

Oh no !!
I turned on the outside light a few weeks ago to see a little roe deer in the garden luckily it seemed to be grazing on the grass !, looked the next day and no plant damage and haven't seen it again the bigger mystery is what's digging big holes in our lawn !!
It is nice as you say to have the wildlufe though , hope you find some deer proof plants :-)

No need to apologise for a long chat Klahanie . . . it's always good to share a problem. You're right - the very dry soil (like concrete here) is making it very hard for the wildlife to feed. I'm happy to 'share' if only they wouldn't nibble the plants we love!

Do you have your property fanced Simbad?

Sheila thanks. Sometimes it feels good to have it off the chest. I guess I was at that point.

No we don't Klahanie at around 200ft by 80 it would cost a small fortune , its very rare we see deer here we are in the middle of a small town, we do have a fairly high hedge round the garden of hawthorn ,blackthorn etc but the last deer we saw here jumped that no problem lol.
It is nice to see the wildlife and most of them don't usually do a great deal of damage,no more holes last night, fingers crossed it was just the fox cubs we saw a few weeks ago going through their rowdy teenage stage lol .

That is a good size property and you grow lots of neat plants. Lots of different and interesting daylilies. Hope who ever was digging your awn is gone. We do not have foxes on Vancouver island .

Wow! They did a good job on them Klahanie. Such a shame. Although mine are nearly finished now due to the dry summer we've had, I would have been devastated to get up to this.

I love phloxes Thorneyside. One of my favourite garden flowers .I have quite a bit of them. All inherited from previous owners. They attract these creatures and then they munch on plants that they usually do not favour.
Will have to rethink my gardening as I am not winning this battle.

Commiserations, Klahanie.
It must seem like an oasis to the deer when everywhere is so dry. Do they have a favourite foodstuff that you could seed out by the forest edge or would that just encourage them?

I do not want to encourage them too much right now but will rethink and replant the main garden with less tasty plants. They even stripped most of my dahlias this year and they usually leave them alone. Even forsythia was munched on which is unheard of. It was very dry but rains are starting soon. We had little bit last week.