I am thinking about mixing this summer squash variety in with my annuals in pots up around my full sun front entry. It needs to be staked, but it looks so attractive. I also grow herbs in pots and have perennial sages, rosemary and thyme.

https://www.burpee.com/squash-summer-rise-and-shine-prod600100.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=pla&utm_campaign=PLA_NB_PMax_Vegetables&utm_content=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2a-O4MDr_AIVlI7ICh01OQFREAQYASABEgKQbfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I don’t have much space left for new things. Really need to thin stuff out. I grew the moonflower vines from seeds for the first time last year (bought them as plants the year before). Need to start them sooner inside. They started to really bloom just before the first frost. I am also going to try pumpkin on a stick for the first time. I think they would make nice Fall decoration if it works.

Sometimes, I think sweet potato vines got me thinking of this matter. LDo you think that's influenced us?

I really love squash and pumpkin foliage, it's so lush and flowing! Both of your ideas are great.

I'm going with corn, because I'm always looking for height in the garden. So why not?

I rec'd some saffron crocus bulbs, but they didn't really come at the right time of year. A fall bloomer, fat healthy bulbs beginning to show some growth sprouts were delivered almost December. They are in pots on my chilly patio and growing well. I have no idea if they will produce flowers this year and the resulting saffron strands. I really should have a different planter for them too and will have to be looking for one with room for them to produce 'kids'. Maybe something long, not wide.

I'd like to try some Piennolo del Vesuvio heirloom tomato seeds that I read about. Not that I have their volcanic soil (know where I could dig some, there is still ash and evidence of St Helens on the way to White Pass). They are supposed to be keepers if hung on their vines. I'm not even sure where I'd grow them without fighting the deer....the deer that will walk up on the slate right to my front door for my geraniums, or stand nibbling 1' from my office window while I yell at them through the glass. I've never seen a deer come up on the little deck off my bedroom but its in shade by 4 PM. I certainly wish I had a little greenhouse but may not be in this years budget.

I am trying to grow some Athens Bleeding Heart and Codonopsis Lanceolata from seed. I find I'm very drawn to herbaceous vining plants. I have a climbing Monkshood that grows 15 feet high and then dies back to the ground. There is something magical about plants that grow that much in a single season.

Saffron sounds really special!

The deer don't eat my tomatoes, Hawk moth caterpillars do. I love them so much, I don't know that I can stop them from eating them. This will be the first year I grow Black Krim. I'm really not adventurous in the tomato realm. Maybe somebody in Hawai'i can send you some soil?

Hopefully I'll be growing a small area of native perennial wildflowers and ornamental grass. I've planted some lupine, asters, prairie clover, wild bergamot, spotted bee balm, coreopsis, and little bluestem grass. And some milkweed, and a well-separated area for cup plants.. Hopefully they'll awaken in the spring.

Last fall I removed most of the grass from a 300 sq ft area in front of my house, and if it succeeds, I'll remove the rest of the grass (over my septic field) and plant that area too. I don't like to garden - this is my attempt at more of a native wildflower meadow than a front garden.

Rob, I've grown all kinds of monkshood but think I just have one plant here in this garden. I've never had an issue deadheading, shaping, collecting seeds. I rarely wear gloves. No animal has ever touched it and no person has ever become sick or rashy from it. I think it gets a bad rap for being toxic. Of course I wouldn't eat it.

The one time I had an issue with my hands from a plant it was helleborus. I was opening pods with my thumbs to extract the seeds and had an uncomfortable burn that lasted about three days.

Our deer leave little untouched. Even if its something the adults don't want, the fawns will taste absolutely anything. When I go out to scold them, I can walk right up to them telling them they can''t eat that. They'll 'kind of agree', then grab one more bite and stand in front of me chewing.

I rescued an nameless clematis from my neighbors mower (with his permission) and put pieces of it in two pots in a rack outside this office window. It was growing well, until the deer ate it to the soil when we were away one day. It's beginning to sprout again but I still have no idea what it is. In the 10 years we've been here, its either fallen to the deer or my neighbor - not recognizing it - has mowed it.

Trying 3 new varieties of tomatoes this season - started very late because of Hurricane Ian. For years I've grown a most delicious slicer, Tomande, but now nobody reputable seems to have seeds anymore. I need tomatoes that are resistant to everything.

I'm woefully behind in getting them in the ground too - the vines are almost 3' long. I did get 4 planted last week, but I have about 7 left to go. It's been so hard to motivate. I had a batch of new varieties of cabbage and broccoli ready to plant when the hurricane arrived and we had to evacuate, and I lost them. Fortunately, it's not too late to start more, and I still have seeds.

I just plant wildflowers and sunflowers. No maintenance. It rains just enough here I don't have to water the garden very often. And I get the wildflowers quite thick so no weeding is necessary. I've become a lazy gardener who is tired of spending money of annuals the die each year, or perennials that die because the weeds that I don't have to time get rid of, kill them off by choking them.

A fellow gardner gave me several of his established, bushel sized, double black and double red hollyhocks. I hope they survived the winter. Then I planted 370 Daffodil bulbs. Both should be deer proof.

Nothing really new but I am going back to an old favorite: Sungold cherry tomatoes. I've been trying to stay away from hybrids so I can save the seeds but decided to grow these anyway. It's been years since I've had them in my garden.

I ordered a couple apple trees. A honeycrisp and a macoun to pollinate it. I have fruit trees but I just planted them last year and they are all still small and fruitless. My SO suggested I plant a couple apple trees this year so I am going to give it a shot. Last year I planted peach, plum, pluot, blueberries and figs. Just this morning I ordered a couple more Vego raised garden beds. I got the biggest ones this time. The 3 I got last year are 3.5 feet x 6.5 feet and 34 inches tall. The ones I just ordered are 4 ft x 8 foot and 34 inches tall. I really love them and am looking forward to filling them with yummy things. I grew collards, cabbage and broccoli for the very first time last year and always plant tomatoes,cucumbers and bell peppers as well. I planted some green beans last year and they did okay but not great so I am going to try again this year. This year, I am thinking about maybe strawberries and onions. I got more raised beds honestly because I needed to rotate the brassicas as I am told not to keep planting them in the same spot year after year. I knew that about tomatoes and other nightshades but did not know about the brassicas until recently. So while the brassicas are in the new beds, I can move the bell peppers and such into the older beds. I usually grow them in small pots. I hope they do better in big beds.

We live in a wooded area so when deciding where to put the beds, I do have to consider where the critters are least likely to bother them. So far the deer and my neighbors resident groundhog haven't bothered anything of mine. My neighbor has a huge red pear tree right on our property line that always produces masses and masses of pears that she does not pick so the deer like to go over there and eat the pears. Ever since George adopted us I have not had any mouse or chipmunk problems either.

Both should be deer proof

There's a series of YouTube videos of a guy with a back yard full of tame wild deer that's about the cover he is building for a foundation bed he made. Because the deer ate the daffodils he had in it to near the soil line.

Deer proof plants are those inside of effective enclosures.

Huckleberry seeds coming and don't know a thing about them. Last year I tried beets and failed miserably but will try again this year. I know what you're thinking, how could he fail growing beets but I did.

@rob333 (zone 7b) I agree with @morz8 - Washington Coast monkshood gets a bad rap for being toxic. I've handled it and collected seed and have some seeds germinating now. I bought my climbing monkshood from Far Reaches Farm. When I decided to collect seed I asked them if I should take any precautions or be concerned. They said they'd never had any issues and commented that if there was a big problem then the growers in Holland, who grow thousands, would all be dead. :o) You don't want to make tea out of the flowers, but as to regular handling it's not a problem.

This is the regular monkshood.

The climber.

And I just ordered 3 of these from Digging Dog nursery - Aconitum x cammarum ‘Stainless Steel’

Embothrium ...The deer don't eat the neighbors Hollyhocks or Daffodils. NEVER had deer eat either at ALL the houses we've lived at.

Quote"

Daffodils are the king of deer-resistant bulbs. They contain an alkaloid called lycorine that is distasteful and even poisonous to deer, rabbits and other mammals. And if you think daffodils are all the same yellow blooms, you haven't been keeping up! Nov 8, 2022 "

My garden is steadily shrinking (like me, nyuk) each year. I have put one large plot (~30' x40') to bed by covering it entirely with about 6" of pine needles and leaves. This should keep any weeds at bay and put the plot in an on-hold mode. Now I am thinking that I could plant a few assorted melon hills in this plot and just let them sprawl over it with little maintenance. What would be "new" is adding hills Honeydew and Crenshaw melons to my usual staple of Ambrosia cantaloupes.

btw, our daffodils are about 4" high now and have never been bothered by deer, we have a lot of deer here.

It's great to see all the plans and actual plants happening! It's like growing season is upon us. Yay!

That monkshood vine is gorgeous. I have avoided poisonous plants almost completely (foxglove were ok and I don't worry about kids eating bulbs that are in the ground) for the last couple of decades. Child is now in their young 20s. There were plenty of plants without them. But, I've begun adding them in. Nicotiana has become one of my favorites. I have one Datura. I didn't plant it, but it ended up in the perfect spot, so it's stayed. Thank you bird? Or however it got here.

I've learned to coexist with the deer. I spray the things I truly cannot live without. It's safe for kids, and pets, I think it's pretty much made of rotten eggs? But it keeps the deer at bay. It's the pansies they tend to eat around here. I think squirrels are known for eating daffodil bulbs. But I could be wrong 😉

I put up 7' tall netting around the lilies.....THOSE the deer will eat....the bulbs are yummy to pocket gophers. We have a gopher trap and don't allow those on the property. I also spray a few ditch lilies with the deer fence spray. The deer problem we DO have.....they rub their antlers on Juniper trees, taking off branches. I put French drain pipe on the trunks of trees, they eat bark too.....helps a little. Otherwise....some neighbors have green houses.....we don't.

Luckily the herd of elk don't bed down here often. The neighbors dog bothers them.

Today, it's 7F. Overnight, sub zero, 2" new snow. It will be June before daffodils bloom outdoors.

Kathsgrdn, Sun Gold is a regular in my garden. Has been for the past 20 years. I tried a lot of different heirlooms over the years and have settled on the ones that performed best --- Indian Stripe and Cherokee Carbon. My determinate tomatoes are all hybrids.

I have a fairly small kitchen garden that also includes flowers and host plants for butterflies and hummingbirds. The tithonia seeds have germinated and are now in the cold frame. Will start zinnia seeds tomorrow then tomatoes, hot peppers, and Thai basil around the 10th of February.

Not sure what I’m going to put in the 32 sq ft plot I’ve been relegate to after getting kicked out of the daylily bed. It’s been heirloom tomatoes the past couple of years but looking for something different. Whatever, it’s got to be deer and rabbit proof. I considered melons on some type of support to limit their sprawl.

What deer will eat will depend on the individual deer and how crowded they are.

Couple of things.

Alternative food for hawkmoths are grapevines per my state conservation department. Some people do plant sacrificial tomato plants to move the cats to.

Unless the huckleberry seeds are from a friend they are most likely garden huckleberry's and not the woody shrub. They are a member of the same family as tomatoes so if anyone in the family has problems with tomatoes be cauctious.

I planted fruit trees last year and between drought and the deer they are all stubs. Be aware that deer like to use small trees to clean the velvet from their antlers along with eating some types. The deer really liked the wraps I placed around the trees to prevent the rubbing and I still need to find where some have gone to.

I keep thinking maybe I'll grow two tomato plants, one of them I'd cover with netting. If that's enough to keep them off, that's what I'll do. They decimated both plants last year.

Yes, I am highly anticipating growing a couple of buckets of pot on my deck this summer. It becomes legal in my state to do so starting sometime this summer!

Finally, after all these long decades of persecution!

I enjoyed reading about your plans for the garden. I had to take down some trees in the backyard which resulted in sun in more spaces and an opportunity to create more planned landscaped areas. I have to relocate the hostas to the shaded areas which I will combine with hydrangeas and other shade tolerant plants. Initially, I was planning perennials but until I have a feel for how things will thrive in the sunny areas, I decided to go with zinnias. I also need to get a contractor to recreate a stone patio and build desperately needed steps to the garden in another area.

After two consecutive summers of failure in the tomato patch, I think I will skip this year. Put my tomato growing on hiatus. My very healthy looking tomato plants either produced no fruit or just failed to grow, They did not die or have disease. Even the plants in the pots did not produce. Different varieties. It is just plain weird.

I have used the deer and rabbit defense in granular form. It is very effective. However, now I have a company spray a concoction every 3- 4 weeks which is effective also.

I'm been moving more toward open pollinated varieties the year and this year. I have 5 new open pollinated onions, a couple dating back to the late 1700's, growing under lights now, along with a hybrid onion variety I'd like to replace. I'm going to do Celery again this year after a semi failure last year, I did grow it OK but didn't know enough to get good tasting celery, I do now.

Someone mentioned planting POT, I don't use it anymore but my state may legalize it this year and I'll grow it for kicks if they do. They already allow retail sale of gummiess now. Michigan's retail prices dropped from $280 per oz. down to $100 per oz. when they legalized it because of a supply glut but I'm not looking to sell it, just grow it because I can, and I would also climb a mountain just because, if it was in my backyard.

I'm going to try a round of sweet corn this year. I haven't done so in years. But I think I might have the old rink enclosed in the willow enough to keep the deer out. I'm not sure if it's quite deer proof yet, but I can always cut more willow to weave in if I need to.

I've been dithering around with the notion of ordering a couple hazelnuts and a couple pomegranates to put in out back, but haven't put in the orders yet. I need to do so soon if I'm going to go for it.

Butterfly peas in blue and white are new this year. I had one little blue one last year, and it was pretty enough that I ordered seed to grow a bunch of them.

Think I might buy a tomato plant this year for the kitchen garden. I usually grow one plant for snacking on that's in a container. I also grow other processing tomatoes out in the gardens. But I think I might start the processing toms like usual, and buy something fun I haven't grown for a while or before to snack on.

If I had to guess happy, I'd say your fertilizer type (lush foliage, sounds nice! but is an indicator) is making your tomato plants unhappy. You could experiment? Less nitrogren, more potassium/phosphorus. Tomatoes are pretty picky.

https://www.allaboutgardening.com/tomatoes-not-setting-fruit/

What's a butterfly pea? I think pea plants are my favorite flowers. Looked it up. I like!

rob, I'm not sure a perennial bed is a good place to grow corn. Corn gets very tall, needs a lot of added nutrients, especially nitrogen, and has to be grown in a patch of at least four rows in order for pollination to occur. If you want to get ears of corn, I would grow it somewhere to itself, not in a bed with other plants.

Butterfly peas have pretty flowers and growing habit. And they are also mostly edible and make nice tea.

I did buy some snapdragon seeds for this year, even though I never seem to have any luck with them. I also can't remember who I bought potato seed from, no email in my inbox. I'm 99.9% sure I bought them but no idea who from. I also probably need to check the one sweet potato that I wrapped in the garage to make sure it's okay. I'm going to start slips from it next month.

I also found some new vining flower I had never grown before when I went through my seeds last week to plot out my garden. Now I don't remember the name of them.

Kath remember the $1000 I loaned you? If not you said you'll pay me back Sunday, remember?