Suebot - don't think i'm going to tell you anything that somebody else hasn't said, but since i've had too much experience with deer & rabbits, i figured i'd concur with the remedies that worked for me. i used to live/learned to garden on nantucket and martha's vineyard, where the deer are at least as unreasonably tame and probably more abundant than they are in ct. i've heard stories of people standing 10 ft away from them yelling at them while they chomp on their hydrangea flower buds. one woman i was talking to claimed she saw the deer attacking her dalmation!! anyway, my first thought about your original message was are you sure all damage is due to deer and not rabbits? - when they stand on their hind legs, they can eat quite high - on a couple of my client's properties on the islands, i had more problems with bunnies than deer, especially with my daylilies & echinacea. so, i also found success with the deer away spray products; i can't remember which one i used, but i believe it had garlic & mint in it and i actually liked the way it smelled. the directions said to spray every couple of weeks (??), but i found that i had to spray every couple of days or so & definitely after a rain. it was pretty time consuming. unfortunately, my other success was fencing in the gardens. i just tried to be decorative about it - i used nice cedar posts with caps, bird netting @ 4' high (you can't really see it, so the garden still looks nice), i hung rope along the top of the netting (for a nautical look...). I did throw netting on top of the gardens in the spring until things grew too tall, but i have to admit, the deer hopped in a couple of times (- that would've been a mess i kind of would have liked to see). i now live in maine and have a large cutting garden in my back yard, a good distance from my house and i use the bird netting as the fencing (simply because it was the only fencing i could find that would be high enough in one piece) and it works (doesn't handle snow load, though). i see deer in the back and they walk right around the garden. chipmunks are now my problem. unfortunately, my true feeling is that if the deer want to get to something, they will. sorry to be so lengthy, good luck. just out of curiosity, do you have phlox and is it being eaten - that always gets destroyed the worst for me. -mara

Spirea magic carpet - dwarf shrub, shouldn't need pruning. Blue oat grass - cut Miscanthus adagio - cut quickly. Mine already had new growth in center that will get cut when you chop! You need to cut grasses BEFORE the new growth in center is serious. Heuchera Palace Purple and pink coral bell - self cleaning, cut any stalks, and just remove unsightly leaves later in spring. Caratostigma plumbaginoides - you can leave this, new growth will cover old. Cut anything that doesn't look good. It's a ground cover, so you want the old stems to wander, they're probably rooted. coreopsis zagreb - cut coreopsis moonbean - cut Geranium biokovo - leave it alone, remove visible old leaves after new growth. astilbe - several diffent colrs - cut dead stalks ophippogon niger - I don't have this, try combing out dead blades with fingers Artemesia silver mound - If base is scraggly, cut back hard. brunnera - old foliage should 'melt' into ground. hellebores - remove only the dead leaves later. Are these blooming? Gallium - sweet woodruff - no action Acorus ogon - gold flag) - comb old growth out with fingers chelone hot lips - cut stalks to ground carex bowles golden and platyphilla - new growth will cover old, comb out old with fingers Anemone sylvestris and robustus - cut Senecio yellow spring flowers ?? Hakonechola macra lots of this - cut (great grass!)

ilene-84, Happy Birthday to your Dad! Is he a WW II vet? I hope all the medical issues are behind you and your family now. Spring is around the corner and it's such a great time of year. And, I'm sure when your kitchen is all done, it will be great simply because it has been a labor of love. It's good to know I am not the only one sleeping terribly. I wake up every day with a terrible headache and neck pain. I also wake up in the middle of the night repeatedly adding up cabinet sizes, trying to make a list of events of what should come next, what goes and doesn't go, if I do this then I have to do that and the infamous DID I MAKE A MISTAKE and what are my options now if I decide to change the layout. I started keeping a pen and paper on the night table to be able to jot down the ideas and make notes. However, one kitty is a pen thief, the other is a paper tearer. So when I get up to find the pen, big doggie has to come over and inquire as to what I am doing but more so to make sure he is not missing out on a food tidbit. Then DH starts in, what's wrong, is everything okay . . . it's so pitiful I have to laugh because I would cry. Now I try to get back into bed and find out that another kitty has stolen my warm spot and I just can't bear to move them so to the couch for me where I wonder, I just left that bed with all of them so how did we fit on there before! At least I'm off the kitchen biz. So much for the couch idea. There is usually the shy rescue cat there who so prefers DH to me. Then if I manage to lay down, it's impossible to get my back comfortable but then I finally fall asleep out of sheer exhaustion and then there is DH waking me, come back to bed, you know the couch is no good for your back. Argh . . just leave me be! This is a daily routine for us. I almost want to quit my day job and get a night job just so I don't have to go to sleep. I am sure also that the massive amounts of junk food I am eating is not helping the situation either. I am actually craving veggies so I don't know what that says about the diet. But in the end I will have a nice enough kitchen that I have built out of a labor of love. I am so looking forward to cooking again for us so hang in there! Christine, thanks for sharing your perspective on things. I must say you must be one strong resilient woman! You go girl.

Phoggie - your symptoms sound a lot like mine. I have/had arthritis and was on medication but they would always stop working or I would start to react to them. I wasn't ready to move on to the new medications and when I reacted to the last one I looked into the natural route. Two years later, after mastering my diet (for me, no gluten, no dairy (although I can handle whip cream (no additives) in my coffee and a bit of parmesan cheese), pea protein, soy, and recently just eliminated nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, all pepper including chili powders and paprika or any derivative) and officially, this past week I have no indication of anything! Before eliminating nightshades I had a lingering tightness but full use of my body which I was happy with but I know nightshades cause problems so I got rid of them. My joint issue is the last to resolve buy everything else resolved rather quickly - my heartbeat is normal (unless I cheat then it gets a little rapid for a couple of hours) but it was like yours, very slow (in the 50s) now it is good at 65, blood pressure, skin conditions (psoriasis and rosacea), hair grew back (it has been thinning for years now), no more sleepless nights (well, sometimes I have a few days where I get limited sleep but I'm not tired during this time, I just have less sleep?), regular periods and no more signs of endo., no fatigue, no aches (I would always get a feeling on my skin that it hurts, like I was at the beginning stage of a flu). I has been remarkable. I noticed things like canker sores and I asked my GP if my food had something to do with my conditions (before doing this diet) and he said no. I tested anyways:). Glad I did. My Rheumy is much more supportive and says "great" and is a bit curious. And my bloodwork shows no sign of inflammation or anything indicative of autoimmune conditions. Just google results of elimination diets and you will see so many personal stories of success. There are so many resources and support groups on line.