Wildlife and Gardens - Part 7

your dog, the neighbor's dogs as well as raccoons; all of whom will be certain that if they just dig down far enough, they will find that juicy tidbit you buried for them.

The best deterrent for voles is a cat. Years ago, I used to have six cats and never had a vole problem. When the last of them went to cat heaven, suddenly I found huge clumps of Hosta that could be lifted straight up; their roots completely gone. Luckily, this plant will re-root if planted immediatelly....but....that's no fun for you or the Hosta. Now, I have cats again and no more voles.

Bambi is my nemesis. I don't mind deer munching their way through the woods, but I do object to them using my borders as their deli. Many lists have been made of deer resistant plants. In almost every one, I can find a plant or three that my local herd relishes. Generally, they will avoid plants with poisonous or highly aromatic leaves; but not always. If they are hungry, they will try anything. New members of your herd may develop a taste for something the others didn't like. Keeping ahead of deer is, indeed, a creative challenge! Whitetail deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are not migratory, so when their numbers get too great for their territory to support, they starve; they don't move on to a new area. Since there are no predators in the suburbs, except automobiles, herd size keeps increasing.

For some years, draping plants with plastic bird netting worked, although it was a real mess when plants grew through the mesh and, sadly, I lost a couple of black snakes who got entangled in the mesh. One winter, however, heavy snow pulled the mesh off the plants and the deer discovered they could move it and that was the end of its usefulness.

I have also had good (knock on wood) results flinging a refined sewage sludge fertilizer called Milorganite all around - they don't like the smell and, so far, have left the plants thus treated alone. This has not worked for some people and may not last for me as they could get used to it. It needs to be "flung" again after heavy rains. Just about any of the The copyright of the article Wildlife and Gardens - Part 7 in Shade Gardening is owned by Marge Talt. Permission to republish Wildlife and Gardens - Part 7 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.