Can you check with the neighborhood commitee and see if temporaty fencing is allowed. Electric fencing around the garden perimeter may be viwed differently than encosing your yard with an ugly permanent fence. You could also put in four corner posts in your garden and string rows of heavy fishing line between the posts and say it is a trellis for peas (which the deer just happened to eat.) You might find one of two things, either others are having trouble with deer eating their ornamentals and would view favorably on electric fencing, or that they don't want ugly gardens in the neighborhood and will be against whatever you want to do.

I have deers which come right up to the house to feed if there is something they like. Plants which they have refused to nibble on and are suitable for your afternoon sun area are... Foxglove - Digitalis - any kind. There are many, some more perennial than others. Can be toxic if eaten in large quantities. The deers just walk by it. Monkshood - Aconitum. Beautiful, but is toxic if eaten and can irritate the skin. My dogs avoid it and my child is well aware that this plant is to be left alone. I have several kinds which bloom at different times. They are nice plants! Astilbes - Nice foliage and flowers, all sorts ranging in height, flower colour, and hue of foliage. Columbine - Aquilegia. Again a wonderful range of colours. Joe Pye Weed - Eupatorium. The Pupurea Maculatum is the most stately. Beautiful in huge clumps/mounds/drifts. There is also the Chocolate which has dark leaves and white flowers. Thalictrum - Similar leaves to Columbine, but much taller with clusters of small flowers giving an appearance of a much larger flower. "Puffy' flower look. Bleeding Heart - Dicentra. Some are short and act as ground covers spreading slowly blooming in white and rose, and then there is the Dicentra Spectabilis. Check it out. Some perennial geraniums would do well in that area considering your zone. The deers won't touch mine and I grow Johnson Blue, Splish Splash, Purple Heron, Orion, etc. I am also establishing Ostrich Ferns which they don't like. I'm sure there are others, but those come to mind right away. Remember that the deers here don't like those particular plants, but yours' might (Except for the toxics.) I will be removing a hosta garden established 10 years ago before the deer population got out of control here. I refuse to cater to them since there is enough food in the area.

The south side of my house is an area 6' wide by 35' long. My neighbors have a 6' fence on their side, so it creates a long, narrow heat trap of sorts. It gets the least amount of snow and wind, and the most amount of light so I think I could store the pots there over the winter. They'd probably not get much snow on them, if any at all, so mulching around the pots would be necessary to protect from the cold. Our average low at our house is around 10* nights, sometimes it gets lower. We've dipped into the negatives a few times, but that's the exception, not the rule. The other option would be underneath my deck. It's about 3' off the ground, with a cement base underneath it. We don't usually clear the snow from the deck. It piles up the 3' high at times due to the wind. They'd not get any snow on them there at all, but they'd also get very little direct light. Might be warmer air under there with all the snow above. It's also blocked off on all sides except the south, so no wind underneath the deck. I know my dog lives under there in the winter, I assume because it's warmer. I'll have to pay closer attention this winter and see what I discover. I might try planting a few pots of herbs this year if I get a chance, but more likely than not it will have to wait until next spring. I'll definitely find out where to obtain some straw bales for the herb bed. That's definitely doable, thanks for the suggestion. Can't be too difficult to find in my neck of the woods :) If I have thyme and oregano in pots, will they not provide seasonings over the winter? What would be the difference between having them in ground or in pots?

Wish there were more of you. I am too far from you, I know, and the property is already being hunt managed. Around here, though, the main form of deer control is I-66. They just don't make enough bullets. Hank