Emerogork2, what lovely bulb flowers you have! If mine turn out half as beautiful as yours next spring, I'd be happy. We are back from the nursery. This is our plan: - 1/2" chicken wire underneath the bulbs - "basket" style (soil would, of course, be layered first on top of the wire, then bulbs); - 1" chicken wire on top of the soil, then add mulch to cover it. A nurseryman advised us to get garden staples and we bought some before seeing pitimpani's post. We had an "aha!" moment and wondered why we didn't think of a simpler solution such as bricks, but I guess it's part of being a newbie gardener. We will still use a few bricks and save some staples for the future. Thanks a bunch to all! What a wonderful forum.

Yesterday one of my planters was dug up and plants here and there. I tucked them back in muttering unflattering comments about squirrels and watered well thinking that might deter the critters. Awoke this morning to a big pile of soil and plants on the ground. Decided that I would tuck the plants back in and put out the plastic knives. Surprise, there was a mallard duck nest with a bluish egg in the planter! Sorry, squirrels. Disturbed plants got put in another container and duck nest will stay. Thought the mallards were nesting away from our yard this year. This is very late but they are welcome.

Do your grackles stay year round - sometimes just taking the feeder down for a few days will push them to give up and move on - I have to do that with starlings at the suet feeder in the spring - otherwise your feeder and seed mix would certainly be appreciated by the jays and cardinals.

The deer eat me out of house and home during this time of year. Why wouldn't they? The snow is several feet deep with a hard icy crust on top, and it's still well below freezing all the time. They have already eaten all the berries they can reach from the crabapples, they've already cleaned all the sunflower heads from the fields. Here is food, easy to get to (as long as the dogs are in the house), and tasty. We put out sunflower seeds and corn for the deer, the resident herd (about a dozen deer) can eat it in ten minutes. We feed the birds, the birds and deer empty 10 feeders in two days. To me, it's part of life in the country. I love watching both birds and deer and I take a deep breath and go buy more food. The newspaper recently had an article that February and March are the most critical times for the deer - they are running out of accessible food. If eating my bird food helps even a few of them get through the winter, good for them! There are those who say we should not feed the deer - it spreads disease, and there are too many deer anyway. The disease issue seems to be significant only where large numbers are feeding in a very small area. As for numbers, the hunters do their best to take care of that problem in the fall. As for eating my garden plants in summer - for the most part they stay out of the yard in summer - there's food in the fields and there's dogs in the yard. But, they do eat some of my flowering plants. Again, that's life in the country. I learn what they like less and plant more of that. Or I spray my roses with a repellent. So, another vote for feed the deer. And enjoy them. Look at this lady's beautiful eyes, how could you resist?