skip to main content

A fawn popped out of my perennial garden this morning!

13 years ago

Okay, you know you have too many deer when you're standing on your deck in the morning, mug in hand, still half asleep, and the bejesus is scared out of you by a tiny spotted fawn leaping madly over your flowers to get away. Yipers! It was bedded down under my monarda! Cute, adorable, wonderful to see, but please tell mommy deer to find a new daycare ;)

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (7)

njmomma
13 years ago
So glad I'm not in deer country anymore. I was constantly spraying my gardens so they wouldn't eat everything. Plus, constantly checking myself and my kids for ticks - which there were some.
Very cute creatures, but I'm glad I don't live with them anymore.
0
DYH
13 years ago
It's that time of year again. The fawns are born right behind our screened porch and I watched one learn to stand up and nurse last week. Cute, but the fawns will taste and tug on plants that the adults leave alone.

Yesterday morning, a doe and new fawn walked along the driveway within twenty feet of me (and my greyhound) without a worry in the world. My greyhound doesn't chase or bark, so she must look like a deer to them!
0
Related Discussions
peak perennial season in my garden
Q
Comments (6)
GrandmaChris, I do have hellebore orientalis (Lenten rose), 3 patches of them which have been blooming since April. Their flowers remain on the 'bushes' and their leaves are fresh and deep green. I also have several different sedum cultivars including Autumn Joy, Matrona, Bertrand Anderson, Purple Emperor, Vera Jamison,also Kamtschaticum and spurium Fulda Glut which are both low growing and I use as ground cover and edging plants. The Kamtschaticum has bright yellow flowers late spring to early summer and deep green foliage which is more or less evergreen. The spurium is in bloom now and has rosy pink flowers and variegated foliage. The heliathus is my garden is lucky to be alive. Every year my plan is to shovel prune it because of how heavily it self seeds. Instead I have allowed my original plant and two self starters to remain purely for the late season color they offer. In late spring I do reduce their height by half to somewhat control their spread. They are prolific. When I wrote my initial post I did not remember to mention the gailardias which will bloom until frost as long as I continue to dead head, and the cushion mums which along with the gailardias and sedums and salvias take up residence in my 'hot' bed which slopes down from the rear of my shed, is in full sun all day and the drainage is therefore excellent. The mums overwinter beautifully. I have been made fully aware of just how much color I will have come late summer simply by posting about what I thought would be lacking. GrandmaChris, thanks for your response which helped trigger a sadly aging memory. Now if I could only understand the directions for posting photos-I would love for you see my landscape.
...See More
Help! Morning Glory is overtaking my Garden!
Q
Comments (43)
I have been fighting this purple morning glory for years, pretty sure it is this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipomoea_indica. I thought it was beautiful when I first saw it too. It has choked out all my other climbing vines, passiflora, jasmine, honeysuckle, strangled fruit trees, completely obscured climbing roses, etc, etc. I spend at least half my time in the garden pulling it, it comes up in long ropes. It has taken over much of our block in, yes, San Francisco. It climbed in the space between my house and my neighbor's, and actually made it's way through the walls and started growing in the basement! My neighbor recently had her roof fixed, and the roofer said it was covering both roofs, he was kind enough to pull them off of her roof and our roof, where it was growing on top of the solar panels. This stuff is serious, and much more pernicious than the delicate blue morning glory. I have not used pesticides in my yard, so maybe I'll try the pulling the leaves technique, although there are a TON of leaves. Has this method worked for anyone else? I was thinking of trying to make a biodynamic solution out of the rotted plant, so I may try that in conjunction with something else. I think my neighbor is ready for the pesticides... This is a different plant than the much milder bindweed. If you are in a place without frost, be very careful about growing this weed. I will try to post some pictures soon, was going to do a whole blog post about it because this is one weed I don't want anywhere near my compost. OK, I'm calming down... now... Here is a link that might be useful: The Lazy Composter
...See More
Wonderful WIldlife Morning in the Garden
Q
Comments (18)
Larry, I love the photo. Our deer aren't as thin as yours, but they were that thin, or even worse, last year. Yesterday when Tim came home from getting a haircut he came in with a bag of deer corn and we put some out for the deer this morning. I put the deer corn right by the back compost pile near the deer trail and the deer were there eating it 10 minutes later. It was the same herd that I described in the first post on this thread. They didn't come until about 7:45 a.m. Something is scaring the deer and rabbits because they are becoming very scarce in the evenings, and don't come out in the mornings until well after sunrise. This is a change in their pattern that has occurred within the last week. Yellow Cat, who was a feral cat for a decade before he settled into our place, adopted us and retired from being wild and self-sufficient won't even leave my side right now, and would stay inside the house 24/7 now if I'd let him. When he starts hiding out inside like that, or sticking to me like glue outdoors, that's another sign the predators are getting too close to the house. I haven't seen any or heard any, but we had a coyote hanging around a couple of months ago. Likely it is a coyote that's scaring them. Susan, I've never seen native passionvine on our land nor have I ever seen it anywhere in Love County. It might grow down in the wild river bottom areas, but we've been down there on fires and on drowning searches/recoveries and I've never seen it there either. Remember that we're more of a grassland than woodland type ecoregion, although there are some stretches of woods along the river and along creekbanks. I wish we had native passionvine here. We do always have gulf frits, though, so there's got to be passionvine someplace. My guess would be it is more in the eastern part of our county because the soils there are better and there's more woodlands along the river. I've seen giant, black and spicebush swallowtails this summer, but not very many of any of them. Usually they are as thick as flies, so I really miss having the usual hordes of butterflies around. Carol, That sounds like a great way to shade your pepper plants. As hot and dry as y'all are there, I know they must really appreciate that shade. My peppers wilted a couple of days in June when rain hadn't fallen and we were over 100 degrees but haven't wilted since then. They do get shade from the pecan tree beginning between 2 and 3 p.m. and that seems to be helping keep them happier this year than they were last year. Dawn
...See More
My garden is really popping these days (pics)
Q
Comments (6)
Hi HighAlt, I had Gaillardia 'Burgundy' about five years ago, but they died off in the winter. I read that they were more sensitive than other Gaillardias to being too wet in the winter. They like dry. Too bad, because it was a very nice, long-flowering plant. It's interesting that my short Gaillardia volunteer has so much red/burgundy color in it. I think it's a bit different than the actual 'Goblin' cultivar -- I think mine is slightly taller, but nowhere near as tall as the normal variety. So, hey, maybe if I propagate a bunch by cuttings, I could have naming rights! Anyway, I think Gaillardia is such a great flower with a very long bloom season, but people don't seem to appreciate it as much as I do. They're extremely variable from seed, so I will be taking cuttings of the ones I like and want more of. A few years ago, I had a few that came out with trumpet-shaped petals, just like the 'Fanfare' cultivar. Somehow, they died off. I even had one come out pink and white, which would have been great to propagate. But it never came back after winter. My Coreopsis flops over way too much. They're covering some other young flowers I planted by some of them, and I'm going to have to cut them back soon. Been trying to enjoy them a little longer first, though. Yes, there are lavenders planted among mine. They look good together. This week, there are a lot of other flowers blooming, too, so that photo of the longer flowerbed doesn't quite do it justice -- it had too much yellow a few weeks ago when that was taken. My Shastas are the 'Little Princess' variety, but I don't think they're the best ones. Their bloom season is only 3 weeks or so. I'd rather have 'Becky' as I've read that she blooms much, much longer. Just saw your other post -- cool stuff. Glad to have inspired you!
...See More
flowergirlwa8
13 years ago
Well...last night as my daughter was running a deer off our parking pad out front, another deer was out back. Both were after the roses. When they were all run off from the yard, they calmly continued to graze in the side meadow. There were six of them. They are soooo tame. One year one of the does kept leaving her fawn in the long grass in the meadow. They have even bed down in various parts of our yard. So pretty, but such pains in the u know what.
0
a2zmom_Z6_NJ
13 years ago
I guess I'm grateful that my deer aren't nearly that bad. I'm three blocks from the county park and they walk through my garden on the way home, but I don't get that much damage all things considered.
0
jayco
Original Author
13 years ago
Yup, they are pretty tame. We've got a ton of them, they looove our property, and our three standard apple trees do not help! During apple season I swear they stand underneath and wait for apples to fall.

I do spray most everything -- but not the monarda, which deer do not like, except I guess this fawn didn't know that and chomped down a few, as Wonbyherwits noted.

The funniest thing was that, after it ran away, it stopped and looked back at me, ears wide, its expression saying, "What the f--- is THAT?"

Some days I curse them but on days like these I figure there is some payback.
0
prairiemoon2 z6b MA
13 years ago
No deer here in our neighborhood. That has to be difficult to garden. I wonder if there is any reason to think that if you planted their favorite foods in property nearby, that they might leave your garden alone? Maybe not. I guess if I were trying to garden near deer, tall net fencing would be the only option, right? It's too bad though that we couldn't come up with a strategy to live in harmony with the deer, so we could garden and they could eat.

I would find it amazing to see fawns.
0
jayco
Original Author
13 years ago
We live in a rural area with a lot of woodlands, so it's their favorite habitat. There is a lot of food they like nearby, but they tend to move around and browse, so you can't really do much to keep them away unless you build a fence. Because of how our property is laid out, a fence isn't really feasible or affordable for us... so I spray the plants they like in the summer, and put netting over them in the winter, and I accept that I'll get some browsing damage.

Seeing the fawns is very nice, though. This morning I saw it with its momma, racing around the field with its new legs. Extremely cute.

The harmony of deer in nature has already been disrupted by the fact that we've killed off all their natural predators. So now they are over-populated and are destroying a lot of plant life, hardwood saplings, habitat for other animals, etc. IMHO the best thing to do now is to hunt them humanely and eat them, the way the wolves would do if there were still wolves here.
0

Related Stories

PLANTING IDEAS Want a More Colorful, Natural Garden? Try a Perennial Meadow

Spend less time tending and more time taking in the sights by improving on Victorian and prairie garden designs

GARDENING GUIDES Top 12 Summer-Blooming Perennials for Deer-Resistant Drama

Can you have garden color, fragrance and exciting foliage with hungry deer afoot? These beauties say yes

NATIVE PLANTS 10 Essential Native Perennials for the Great Lakes and Upper Midwest

By Pollination Press LLC

These adaptable native plants thrive in a variety of conditions and will provide flowers throughout the season

GARDENING GUIDES 10 Cold- and Heat-Tolerant Perennials and Shrubs for the Arid West

By Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting

These flowering native plants shrug off the cold of winter and heat of summer while adding beauty to the drought-tolerant landscape

GARDENING GUIDES Great Design Plant: Knock Out Roses

By J. Peterson Garden Design

As glorious as their high-maintenance kin for a fraction of the work, Knock Out roses make even beginners look like garden stars

KITCHEN DESIGN 91 Kitchen Banquettes to Start Your Morning Right

By Bryan Anthony

Slide into one of these stylish breakfast nooks and stay awhile

FUN HOUZZ 14 Gardens Straight Out of Fairy Tales

By Luisa Rollenhagen

Escape into landscapes that conjure the magical worlds of folklore and literature

GARDENING GUIDES Attract Hummingbirds and Bees With These Beautiful Summer Flowers

By Annie Thornton

Roll out a welcome mat for pollinators to keep your landscape in balance and thriving

FALL GARDENING Why Fall Is the Best Time for Planting

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Spring is overrated for planting. Starting plants in autumn has advantages for both garden and gardener

GARDENING AND LANDSCAPING Garden Tour: Colorful, Serene Woodland Near Boston

By Becky Harris

Exuberant perennials, outdoor rooms and a surrounding woodland come together to create a beautiful landscape in Massachusetts

Sponsored

More Discussions

Your MAY 2024 highlights

58

I need to make my front door look floral.

5

Does anyone realistically need 200 foot of garden hose?

32

JMs in the spring

8

Anyone have issue with dahlias not breaking dormancy?

4