Al - Thanks for responding! I will try sneaking up on it at night with a flashlight, but I really don't think it is something (a bug?) little enough to live in the soil of the window box - whatever it is has eaten 3 entire new impatiens plants down to the ground in one night in the past - that's a lot for bugs! Also, yesterday I replaced all of the soil. There was nothing visible in it. I have never planted bulbs there before, just plants. Yesterday I planted some daffodil, grape hyacinth, and spanish bluebell bulbs. I am waiting to see what happens. We are having really warm (in the 70s for the past week) weather, so the bulbs may come up this month or next month. This morning one of the hyacinth bulbs was laying on the surface of the soil - seemingly uninjured, so I hope that means it didn't smell delicious, and I replanted it. Jackie

Good luck with the dogs. My dog decided that the water gun was a great way to get a drink of water (she would catch the stream in her mouth) so that didn't work very well for training. I have foxglove and monkshood and we've kept an eye on the dogs but they've never shown the slightest interest. One of my dogs did try to eat some of the coco mulch when we put that down, but stopped when we told her. We don't use coco mulch in the backyard now as I didn't want to have to worry about it. I have a terrier and a dachshund so they aren't trainable to keep out of the garden areas. They love to run through the mulch and look for rodents. I worked around it by keeping a very thick layer of cedar mulch around my roses. The mulch is of the type that sticks together a bit so it doesn't scatter when they run. I learned this spring that I can't plant seedlings back there since they get covered in mulch and torn up when the dogs run through. I'm letting my seedlings grow up in safety in pots on the porch now and I'll plant them out when they are big enough to hold their own. Be sure not to use blood meal. My dog dug up my raspberry patch trying to find out where the blood was coming from. Otherwise the dogs have never shown any interest in any of my fruit (raspberries, cherry, peach). I don't grow any veggies.

Hello, everyone! I am a new member, and glad to be here. This is a long post, but it's worth reading, because it is a simple, inexpensive and permanent solution to the problem of rabbits eating your flowers and vegetables. I do cannot understand why so many people pass up this infallible solution for keeping rabbits and other small critters (and maybe deer, as well) from eating their flowers and vegetables. IT WORKS, PERIOD. Put in a blender the following, none of which need to be peeled or otherwise fooled with, except for the onion, which should be cut in quarters, to facilitate blending: 2 dozen habanero peppers 1 whole head garlic 1 medium red onion 1 tablespoon peppermint oil Add enough water so that it comes to about 4 inches above ingredients.(This really means to add enough water that ingredients will get as liquefied as possible.) Blend on highest speed until it appears to you that all ingredients are thoroughly liquefied. Add enough additional water to come up to the 1 quart mark on blender. Blend again at high speed for 30 seconds or so. Strain the mixture through a nylon stocking, or better yet, a nut milk bag, if you have one. It might even be worth your while to buy a nut bag expressly for the purpose of making this recipe. (Just do a search under "Not bag" or "nut milk bag.) But a nylon stocking will work. Strain mixture over a bowl through stocking (or nut bag) till no more liquid runs through. Then squeeze as much more liquid as possible out of what is still in the stocking. WASH YOUR HANDS AND UNDER YOUR NAILS VERY WELL WITH LOTS OF SOAP AND WARM WATER AFTER HANDLING THE MIXTURE. Using a funnel, pour the strained liquid into a 1 quart spray/stream bottle. Now you are ready to spray or squirt the mixture on your plants. Rabbits will NOT eat plants on which you spray this stuff. You don't need to over spray, but don't be stingy, either. Make sure whatever you spray gets a decent dousing. It won't take long before the critters keep away just because of the smell HOWEVER, you MUST be vigilant about using this stuff. After it rains, especially after a hard rain, spray your plants again. Whether it rains or not, spray every 3 weeks. If the smell wears off sufficiently, the rabbits will be back. Also, there will be young, "unschooled" rabbits coming along throughout the season, That's it. No rabbit fences, no dogs, cats, traps, etc. The main reason this mixture works is because rabbits will not take more than a nibble of a leaf with this stuff on it before they try something else. By the way, rabbits have a "favorites" list." So if you spray this mixture on whatever is their favorite item in your garden, they will begin eating whatever is second, then third, fourth, etc. on their list. So that means you need to spray most things in your garden, except for plants you know they won't eat, like tomatoes, for instance. I read the post about rabbits eating someone's tomatoes, and I would not believe it unless I actually saw it. The reason is that tomatoes, potatoes and other nightshade family plants have a horrible tasting poison in their leaves and stems. Rabbits simply cannot to tolerate it. Try a little nibble on a leaf yourself, and you'll see... Well, that's it: Capsaicin is the end of the line for rabbit problems, as well as other small critter problems. I think this stuff also works for deer, but am not sure. It may be that a mixture for deer needs to also have "putrefied egg solids" in it. THAT is something I would buy, not make!

Unfortunately, you're seeking an answer that can't be given. There really is no such thing as a 'deer proof' planting. Go to Google and do a search for 'deer proof'...then immediately do an advanced search using 'New England' to cull the initial hits you get for the local area. In both the initial hits and the advanced hits you'll find lists...lots of lists...of plants suggested for areas where the deer roam...and eat. But you'll also find, in almost each case, that the lists contain the caveat that the plants listed are not deer 'proof'. They're plants that some folks have had good success with, or plants that deer seldom eat, or plants that come back quicker than others...if at all. But everyone who makes such lists will also tell you that those lists change as easy as the deer appetite does. Deer will eat almost anything if they're hungry enough, and the weather has a lot to do with that. Experience will show that only (nearly) true defense against deer damage in the garden and yard...is deer fencing, and eight foot fencing at that. When the snow lies heavy and deep on the ground, a six foot fence can suddenly become an easily jumped four foot for the deer. The taller fence provides a little more defense. But here, too, there is that caveat...(nearly) true. The deer really do hold the upper hand here. We can only try to keep them at bay.