Almost Moved

The exchange of plants between the house and the greenhouse in preparation for autumn is closer to the end than the beginning. The two south-facing racks in the heated garage are getting full, and I counted 60 succulent pots today. The number does not include multiple Aloe Vera, 'Velveteen,' Coleus, and a couple other things. Here is the east rack with three shelves under grow lights and the Aloe Vera up top.

This is the west rack with two grow lights and Coleus and other things up top. The grow lights over the four big bowls are only two-footers, so I'm a little concerned about that. (I have three 3-footers and three 2-footers for the shelves.) Eventually I will add another grow light at the bottom to light up another shelf, but I still need it at the greenhouse for another month.

I was hoping to keep the closet in the garage free for propagation and didn't want to move anything in there now. But this is propagation, 39 succulents and one Coleus. There is no natural light and there are two types of grow lights.

In my office in an east-facing window are 22 succulents and cactus, with the Haworthias and Crassulas comprising the majority. Not pictured is a somewhat lackluster succulent leaf bowl, and eight Coleus cuttings in water which are starting to develop roots.

The rest of the succulents are at the greenhouse, mostly Sempervivums and other hardy plants. 'Lola,' 'Topsy Turvy' and a couple other tender succulents have yet to make the move, but that will happen soon. They could survive in the greenhouse with it heated to 50, but I need the room on the bench for plants that are still sitting outside. Most of them are hardy herbs like oregano and thyme so there is some leeway there, but eventually they will have to come inside. As I was fiddling with the irrigation today I needed to get up on the ladder to reach the cucumber baskets, so I took this image of the bench and the two shelves from on high. Sempervivums up top, 'Velveteen' and other stuff down below. I still have way too much 'Velveteen' and will have to sacrifice perhaps eight pots to the cold.

Not pictured, taking up room on the ground in the greenhouse are six geranium and petunia pots, one strawberry grow bag, two pepper grow bags, a big grow bag that had Teddy Bear sunflowers but now is in onions, the deer resistant salvia/Vermillionaire combo bag that the deer chopped down every chance they got, a cucumber in a grow bag, and the two large hardy succulent containers. That's the type of stuff that I'm working around as I bring things in from the house and outside. I need to chop down the six large petunia/geranium pots into perhaps six much smaller pots, but for various reasons that won't be for another month. I have two tomato grow bags at the house that I was excited to see are at death's door, which means I won't have to find space for them. I would be happy just to harvest from them for the next two weeks, then chop them down. There are still the four tomato plants in the greenhouse beds that are healthy.

I was fiddling with irrigation because there are now 16 baskets in the greenhouse; six large Supertunia, two small Supertunia, two cucumber, four strawberry, and two sedum. All except the sedum benefit from irrigation. In about a month, the Supertunias will be potted down, the cucs will die, the strawbs (hopefully) will go dormant, and I'm not sure what to do with the sedum. The mist rained down on the 'Berry Blues' Sempervivum, which not an optimal situation but makes an interesting photo.

My tomato whisperer brother only got three tomatoes this year due to a home construction project, so this is the one and only year will I beat him. This is German Lunchbox, a plum-sized tomato that did the best for me this year.

And finally, after I had knee surgery in December I spent much of the next several months (ok, 10 months) watching gardening videos on YouTube and getting ready for the first full season of the greenhouse. The 800-lb. gorilla of gardening videos is Garden Answer with Laura LeBoutillier (who is just 5-foot-4 and does not weigh 800 lbs). I just clicked on her September Garden Tour and it already has almost 136,000 views in 16 hours. She has more than 2 million subscribers. She has been around for about 12 years, and her most popular video is from eight years ago, "How to Plant Potatoes!" which has 6.8 million views, more than the viewership of the CBS and NBC nightly news. Some people on sad platforms like Reddit (I have heard) apparently are jealous that she has the time, motivation and resources to do nothing but make gardening videos, and that she gets support from plant companies like Proven Winners. Those people must be success-hating dolts who think that food and flowers magically appear in stores without the help of human ingenuity and grit.

Pruning

The Supertunia baskets were getting both windblown and overgrown at the house, so I took them all to the greenhouse yesterday and pruned them for one last time this season. I cut them back to the edge of the basket, which is more than they were pruned in July, but I thought it was best for now. I also pruned the two small tunia baskets, all of the larger Coleus, the tomato plants, and took a few whacks at the geraniums. Here are four of the big baskets, back in the greenhouse where they began almost five months ago.

When I was in the greenhouse today, I heard a crash outside and went out to find one of the hanging geranium baskets on the ground. And a guilty-looking deer standing nearby. I'm not 100% sure the deer knocked the basket down because I had been fiddling it earlier to get the window closed. And it was rather windy today. Out of an abundance of caution, I took the both geranium baskets inside. There are no available hooks so they are sitting on the ground. Those two baskets aren't officially mine and eventually will get a severe pruning and moved out to my brother's tunnel greenhouse for the winter.

Late in the day I took a geranium/tunia combo pot, two pepper plants in grow bags, and one of the three strawberry grow bag to the greenhouse. The strawberry bags have underperformed and I might just let them die, concentrating on hanging baskets and the planting bed next year. I am going to have to find room for two more large petunia pots, the other two strawberry bags (maybe) and perhaps two tomato plants that are currently outside at the house. (The strawberry bags are low priority. One of the tomatoes might be close to the end.) Everything will fit, but if I put everything in there, some will not get good light. If I had any sense, I would cut down my potted petunias and geraniums and wedge them into smaller pots. Really, all I need to do is preserve my geranium, the 2025 purple hybrid petunias, and (if one survived the latest deer attack) the 'Red Lodge Red Vein'™ volunteer.

As mentioned previously, I removed the middle shelf from above the bench so the lower shelf would get more light. I did move the lower shelf up a notch to give a little bit more room for tall plants at the back of the bench. All of the Sempervivums are in the greenhouse now, and most of them will overwinter. On the top shelf are all the Semps in 4- and 6-inch pots. The two in 8-inch pots are on the lower shelf, and there are three in larger containers down to the right (mostly) out of view. Most of the tender succulents have been moved to the garage or my office, but the big bowls and a few individual pots remain on the right side of the bench. The left side of the bench is occupied by various stuff that has been outside until now. Projected low tonight is 43, and I do have the heater set for 50, which is mostly for the benefit of the Coleus. Considering that the greenhouse usually stays six degrees warmer than the outside, the heater should not be too busy. The long-range forecast still doesn't show any lows in the 30s, but 40s are becoming more common.

Planting cucumbers in hanging baskets worked very well. I haven't kept track but we've gotten at least six cucs like this one from the two baskets, which is good but not overwhelming. I also have one plant in a grow bag, and it has not produced anything yet but it seems on the verge.

Gratuitous Teddy Bear Sunflower shot. The plants in the big grow bag got taken down by some sort of blight weeks ago and the one behind the shed hasn't done much, but the row of plants in the greenhouse planting bed is in full swing right now. We cut one every few days for three little bud vases in the kitchen.

And here is the Thanksgiving Cactus just after taking the ride back to the house. It was at the back of the greenhouse bench where it was out of direct light, but still some of the leaves are light-stressed red. I've had it a year and it has grown, but I don't think it looks that healthy. I really wonder if it will flower this year. Or make it to next year alive.

Packed

The Supertunia baskets are back in the greenhouse for one last revitalization before the inevitable end. I don't mean death, I mean severe pruning and transplanting to small pots for overwintering. I HOPE that isn't necessary before late October.

The baskets, particularly the four in the back yard, were getting lopsided from the wind and from reaching for the light. I fertilized them today and plan to prune them tomorrow. I don't know if all six will go back to the house at the same time, but I can envision rotating two at a time at our front door, weather permitting.

With 16 baskets hanging from the rafters (six big tunias, two small tunias, four strawberries, two cucumbers, two sedum), it is getting dark in there. If the two geranium baskets currently hanging outside on the west wall have to come inside, they will have to sit on the floor because there are no more hooks. Lows in the 40s are becoming more frequent, but we are projected to avoid the 30s for the next two weeks or so. When the 30s threaten, I will have to find room for the three 2025 petunia pots, two tomato grow bags and two pepper grow bags. And the geraniums. (I don't care about the three underperforming strawberry grow bags.) I have moved a lot of the tender succulents back to the house already to free up space on the bench on the north wall.

This spring I installed three shelves above the bench, but the shelves were too close together for the plants on the two lower shelves to get much light. I bit the bullet today and removed the middle shelf, and the sunlight now reaches all of the lower shelf. That is, if there aren't tunia baskets blocking the sun. I might raise the bottom shelf a notch to give a little bit more light to the aloe and Thanksgiving Cactus that usually sit at the back of the bench.

Sunflowers

The Teddy Bear sunflowers are going great guns inside the greenhouse, producing multiple blooms per plant, but for old times sake I planted one conventional sunflower in a grow bag behind our shed. It has one big flower, and is probably at its peak now. I stuck my phone inside the cage, because everything in our yard is caged against the deer, and got this snapshot. This morning I saw a couple of black-capped chickadees checking out the flower. I'm sure they will be back when the seeds are more developed.

Compare and contrast with a Teddy Bear from a few days ago.

Our average "First Frost Date" is usually given as around Sept. 12, so even though there are no freezing temperatures forecast in the next 10 days, I am getting ready for winter. The tender succulents are going from the greenhouse to the garage or my office window. The cold-hardy succulents such as the Sempervivums are going the opposite direction, from our back patio to the greenhouse. I have taken cuttings of Coleus and will start taking cuttings of petunias, and will try to propagate them in water. I have transported my geranium pot to the greenhouse. The Plectranthus 'Velveteen Aromatic'™ and peppermint that were outside the west wall of the greenhouse have been moved inside. I have moved two of the three grow light strips from the greenhouse to the garage, so now I have five grow light strips in the garage. One remains in the greenhouse and will move when I transport the 4-inch pots of petunia propagations and other stuff.

Next on the list is transporting the main stash of petunias, six baskets and three pots, from the house back to the greenhouse. We were supposed to have high winds today so I took down down the six baskets and stashed them in the shed, which doesn't have enough light for them, so I need to move them soon. At some point I will give the petunias a severe trim and try to pot them in 6-inch plastic pots for overwintering. I have four fairly large Coleus plants at the greenhouse, and only one of them ('Wicked Witch') is going to survive intact. As mentioned, I have already taken some cuttings and will do another round before they are allowed to succumb to the cold.

With two 4-shelf units in south-facing windows in the garage (with six grow lights), two east-facing windows in my office, and a couple of west-facing windows, I MIGHT have enough room to put everything. I'm going to try to preserve the closet in the garage for seed sprouting come spring. The priority is to make sure all of the succulents make it through the winter. The more petunias and Coleus that make it through the winter, the less I will have to spend next year, but ultimately those are the expendable, replaceable plants. And when I watch Corey on YouTube, he shows me an Under the Sea 'Barracuda' Coleus that makes me want to throw all of my plants away and just buy that.

The plants in the beds at the greenhouse have varying fates. I plan to heat the greenhouse to 50 degrees until mid-November, then dial it down to 10 until April. The strawberries in the east bed will overwinter, and I hope the four hanging baskets also will survive the winter. (I have decided the strawberries in the three grow bags will not.) In the southeast bed, the alyssum, sunflowers, Coleus and Bachelor's Buttons will be allowed to succumb to the cold. That bed will be planted with herbs next year, with hardy herbs such as oregano and thyme overwintering. In the southwest bed, I have cut all the blossoms off the big tomato plant so it will not set any more fruit, and have set a deadline of October 9 for the pepper plant and the remaining onions to finish up. I will remove half the soil, mix in pumice and coco coir, and overwinter Sempervivums in that bed. The west bed has the majority of the pepper and tomato plants as well as a patch of cilantro. I'll keep that going as long as possible, perhaps to mid-November. Next year I probably will not plant tomatoes and peppers inside the greenhouse. The west bed probably will get the sunflowers and other flowers next year. I plan on raising most of the same stuff next year, but a lot of it will end up in pots and grow bags instead of taking up valuable bed space.

It may be too early for an assessment of the year, but I feel like I overwatered a lot of things. I need to be more careful about that, particularly in the greenhouse beds. Even when the top of the soil looks dry, the moisture meter usually says the soil is moist a couple of inches down, and very moist when I stick the probe in all the way. Anything that is established does not need water every day, and in fact probably could thrive getting water only every three or four days. Especially now that it is getting cooler, I am trying to scale back. However, the hanging baskets and the outside pots/bags generally need all the water they can get. At most I can skip a day.

Another Rotten Day in Paradise

On the last day of August we are already in that season where I have to keep an eye on the forecast lows. It was supposed to get into the 40s last night, so I had the greenhouse heater connected and set at 50. It came on at 2:00 AM and cycled until the sun came up just after 6:30. My outside thermometer bottomed out at 43 degrees. The forecast is for lows in the mid-50s the next few days so it will be a while before the heater is needed again. Afternoon temperatures were in the 70s today and it was just perfect at the greenhouse.

The Bachelor Buttons aka Cornflower finally bloomed yesterday. I have never grown these before and was a bit surprised that the plants are almost two feet tall, so I'll keep that in mind for next year.

Looking through the greenhouse windows at Coleus, Teddy Bear Sunflowers, cucumbers and strawberry baskets.

I haven't kept track of the hummingbirds for a few months, but I would venture to say this is a young Caliope. It is feeding on an agastache which currently resides in a grow bag. I probably will transplant it on the south side of the house yet this fall near another agastache.

The fawns sure are cute when they aren't destroying my Vermillionaire.

This Coleus is in a greenhouse planting bed and I want to keep it for next year. Rather than dig it up, I have taken two cuttings and hope to propagate from those.

As soon as the green spot in the middle fills in with yellow, I'll cut this Teddy Bear for a vase in our kitchen.

Tunia Rankings

I did Supertunia rankings July 13 and six weeks later it is time to revisit. Here are the latest rankings:

1. Vista Jazzberry - Vibrant magenta purple. Still #1. I will build several baskets around this next year.
2. Vista Bubblegum - Pink. Moving up from #3. It is so vigorous.
3. Hoopla Vivid Orchid - Purple with white edge. The biggest mover, up from #5. Took over its basket when Priscilla faltered.
4. Royal Velvet - Deep purple, unlike anything else I have. Down from #2 just because the success of Bubblegum and Orchid are hard to ignore.
5. Blue Vein - White with blue vein. Down one spot from #4. Very vigorous, great pairing with Royal Velvet, but can get ragged.
6. Really Red - Holding steady at #6. Good combo with Latte.
7. Latte - Ivory white with dark veins that almost appear brown. Still at #7. Solid, not spectacular.
8. Honey - Blossoms shift from yellow to salmon and some other colors, but I continue rating it at #8 because the flowers often look a bit wilted.
9. Priscilla - Purple and white double. Still at the bottom. Got overwhelmed by Orchid in their basket, double flowers do not self-clean very well. I have a separate little pot that looks OK, but is nowhere as vigorous as other varieties and I have to deadhead it.

The only one I would not use in a basket again is Priscilla. Honey could be rated near the top when it is at its best, but it seems to need ideal conditions.

I neglected to rate the 2025 purple petunias that I overwintered. They are in large pots, two by themselves and one with geraniums. They make a tremendous mound and looked great until the deer figured out how to get through the cages. If I slid them into the above rankings, I would put them on par with Blue Vein, but I don't know if they would work in a basket. Last year they were in baskets and didn't do much until I got the greenhouse and put them in pots. Here is one of the pots on Aug. 2 before the deer got to it.

August 30: Honey is #8 because it is inconsistent and often looks wilted. If it always looked like it does in this image, it would be in the top half. This is the back patio, with Honey and a taste of Jazzberry closest to the camera, Royal Velvet with Blue Vein hanging down, Blue Vein with a dash of Royal Velvet, and Bubblegum/Jazzberry off in the distance. The other two baskets flank the front door.

Cuttings

Even though it is still August, here in the high country I have to get started on overwintering the Coleus that I want to keep for next year. The forecast low on Sunday is 44, and our average first frost date is September 12. Watch any YouTube video about Coleus propagation and usually it will recommend rooting cuttings in water. So I started yesterday with three Coleus I have in the planting beds at the greenhouse.

Today I tackled the one that is at the house in our bedroom. Actually it is two. I started most of the Coleus (except ColorBlaze 'Wicked Witch') from seed, and two seeds sprouted close to each other. I didn't notice that there were two different types of leaves until perhaps a month ago. I want to keep them both, so I did cuttings today. I ordered a dozen glass bud bases from Amazon, and they are bigger than typical bud vases. They will be able to handle anything I throw at them. Here are the before and after images.

I also did two tunia cuttings, another Coleus, and even a Sedum 'Wildfire,' so I have nine cuttings going right now. I don't know if the Sedum (or anything else) will work, but this is all part of the grand experiment. I figure I need 24 tunias next spring, so will try to save the existing plants in smaller pots and fill in the blanks with cuttings. (I might order 12 more bud vases.) If there is anything I learned this year from the tunia baskets it is that one or two plants per basket probably will produce a lopsided basket. (The Vista Jazzberry/Vista Bubblegum basket was the only exception.) Three plants per basket * eight containers (six baskets and two pots) * $7 per plant = $168. (Supertunias were $7 each at Nana's this year.) The downside is I will have to spend nine months taking care of the salvaged plants and cuttings to display them for three months.

Right now I have six Coleus cuttings and eight pots. Not all of the pots will be overwintered. Among those I started from seed, the healthiest, bushiest plant is in our kitchen, but the coloration is absolutely boring. The leaves have a muddy brown interior blending into drab green edges. As plants got moved between the greenhouse and house several months ago, it ended up inside the house and happened to thrive. It is not an interesting plant. I will probably keep five pots (three 'Wicked Witch') and the six cuttings, and will take 2-3 more cuttings. Complicating matters, I need to keep the pots and cuttings in the house instead of the garage as Coleus do not tolerate temperatures below 50.

I also have two variety seed packets, a Burpee that I used this year and a Botanical Interest that I just got. Around next March/April, I will start two 6-cells of seeds from the two seed packets. I have determined I cannot plant Coleus in the ground unprotected, but I will cage a few, keep some in the house, and have a bunch in the greenhouse. I also might buy more ColorBlaze, with 'Golden Dreams' at the top of the list. If I get one of the three 'Drop' trailing varieties (Strawberry, Chocolate, Cherry), I could put Coleus in hanging baskets to compete with the tunias. I don't have a number in mind for 2027 Coleus plants, but it is certainly more than a dozen.

Right now I am teetering on which direction I want to go with the greenhouse. Do I want to grow things to eat (strawberries, tomatoes, peppers), or do I just say to hell with it and have one bed of Coleus, one of hardy succulents, one of herbs, and one of sunflowers/other flowers? I still would put some tomatoes and peppers in grow bags, and strawbs in baskets, but I am souring on the idea of maintaining a greenhouse to grow fruits and vegetables that are readily available at the grocery store or farmers market. Right now I have four very large tomato plants that have grown to the ceiling in the greenhouse, but they have yet to produce a single ripe tomato. The only tomatoes I have harvested came from a grow bag at the house. The strawbs have been underwhelming in the planting bed and grow bags, with the hanging baskets producing the best results.

When people visit the greenhouse, they don't say, "Look at those tomatoes." They say, "Look at those succulents!"

Writing these posts helps me make decisions. I would rather have a bed of Coleus interplanted with impatiens, or a bed of Sempervivums doing their bizarre stuff, than tomatoes and peppers that take forever to produce fruit. That stuff can go in grow bags on the south side of the house.

Rubicon

August 26:

• "Deer are not fond of peppermint. The strong scent overwhelms their senses, making it an effective deterrent."

The deer at the greenhouse finally did it. They crossed the Rubicon and sampled all three peppermint pots. I posted the following "Lies from the Internet" June 28 and have been adding to it ever since. The lies are that certain plants are resistant to deer, and peppermint always is at the top of the "resistant" list. I have two other peppermint plants at the house a mile from the greenhouse. The local deer have not sampled those. They are a bit darker green than the three shown below, and they are flowering. Whether the scent is more intense and they avoid them for that reason, or whether the local deer just have different taste, I do not know.

The greenhouse deer took another nip in the past couple of days at the Monarda, chives, Vermillionaire, salvias, zinnias and marigolds, all of which are on the "resistant" list. At the house, they tried but mostly failed to push through a cage to get at the Astilbe, apparently unaware that "The smell, texture, and bitter taste of astilbe flowers are distasteful to deer."

My list of truly deer resistant plants includes Plectranthus 'Velveteen Aromatic' (incorrectly known as Cuban Oregano), Garden Sage, Russian Sage, Rosemary, Greek Oregano (but not Italian Oregano), Thyme, Agastache, Lavender, and most succulents including Sempervivums and Echeverias (but not Delosperma and Aloe). That's it, that's the list.

August 19:

• Actually I can't call this one a lie because the internet hedges: "Basil is considered moderately deer resistant. Deer generally dislike its strong aroma and essential oils, but it is not completely deer-proof."

I got home from a week away today and the greenhouse deer decimated the two basil plants that were outside. (They also chewed the flowers off all of the deer-resistant marigolds. And they destroyed the zinnias for the hundredth time. I got NO zinnia flowers this year.) The deer at the house a mile away have not touched three basil plants that are outside. I'll probably secure the largest one just in case their cousins from down the road turn them on to basil.

August 8:

• Today's lie is about phlox. "Looking to add a pop of color that butterflies love but deer won’t touch? Meet phlox—your new favorite flowering perennial."

We have two plants next to the house that have been there for six years but have never flowered because the deer keep chewing on them. I identified them today with an app that said with 68% certainty that they are phlox. I put cages around them a month or so ago and they have been growing well, so we will see if we get anything this year. August 24: The deer bent the cage and chewed through the wire to take out one side of the one of the plants. Phlox isn't just a target of opportunity; they were working to get at it.

July 27:

• "Delosperma (hardy ice plant) is considered exceptionally deer resistant. Deer typically pass on these vibrant mat-forming succulents."

WRONG!!! I put one of my Delosperma outside the greenhouse to get it some more sun, hoping it would finally flower. The deer knocked over the pot in their haste to chomp on it. It got a good pruning but will survive...inside.

• "Nasturtiums are generally considered deer-resistant because of their spicy scent, peppery taste, and pungent oils."

WRONG!!! The nasturtiums growing in my greenhouse window box were consumed by deer in the past 24 hours.

Also today, the deer confirmed that they will eat Coleus (see below). My two larger Coleus 'Wicked Witch' pots have not been touched at the house, but the deer around the greenhouse ate the two smaller ones I had there, following up on an incident a month ago. One or both might bounce back eventually. I'm still waiting for the supposed toxicity of Coleus to kick in and take out some of the herd, but that may be wishful thinking. There may be a difference in acquired taste in the two deer herds a mile apart, but in light of recent events at the greenhouse I feel compelled to cage the two big 'Wicked Witch' at the house. August 24: I left one of the 'Wicked Witch' on the patio without a cage. It was surrounded by stinky plants like peppermint and oregano, but that was no deterrent. It will recover eventually. I moved the pristine one into Witness Protection inside the greenhouse for the remainder of the summer.

There were five deer around the lodge today, three adults and two fawns. I would walk toward them making threatening moves, and they would just stare at me. If I got too close, they would jog about 20 yards and look back at me. Truly town deer.

This just in: The deer at the house lopped the top off of our Stevia plant. But to be fair, Stevia is not considered deer resistant.

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June 28 original post:

• "Borage is highly deer-resistant. Its sprawling foliage and stems are covered in rough, bristly hairs that deer and rabbits tend to avoid."

WRONG!!! They ate a borage plant and half of a strawberry plant in a caged grow bag in the yard. Fortunately, I was already planning to remove that borage so a strawberry runner from an adjacent grow bag could root there. The other bag had a slightly taller cage and escaped unscathed. The strawberry plant might bounce back. I put a netting over the top of both cages and still should be able to root the runner there. Growing borage with strawberries is supposed to have a number of benefits which I'm not going to go into. Here is an image of a borage (with strawberry plants at its feet) inside the greenhouse where the deer can't get it. Note the plastic bars set up to keep them from poking their heads in if I leave the window open. Looks like I have to add a couple more bars near the top.

• "Black-Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia) are considered deer-resistant. Deer generally avoid them because of their rough, hairy texture and strong taste."

WRONG!!! They dove down into the two-foot cage and lopped off the top. It might come back. I will put netting over the top of the cage.

• "Yes, aloe vera is generally deer-resistant. Deer typically avoid it because of its thick, spiky leaves and bitter sap."

WRONG WRONG WRONG!!! Surrounded by acres of lush early-summer vegetation, deer at the greenhouse have sampled aloe vera on two different occasions. I'm leaving some aloe vera outside the greenhouse as an act of defiance, and in hopes that the reported toxicity will kick in and take care of the problem. Deer at the house (a mile away) have not sampled the aloe vera. July 1 update: The deer at the greenhouse chewed on both of the 'Tiger Tooth' aloes. As mentioned, they have their choice of lush vegetation the area, but they decided to sample plants with sharp spines. It would be like chewing on razor blades. This is ridiculous. At the house, a deer was seen sniffing an aloe vera on the back deck, so now all aloe at both locations are inside. The six at the greenhouse are lined up at the back of the bench because they are big, and to stay out of direct light. I noticed that all six have chunks missing. The two at the house made it inside sniffed but unscathed.

• "Yes, Monarda (commonly known as Bee Balm or Bergamot) is widely considered reliably deer-resistant. Deer typically avoid it due to its strong, medicinal, mint-like fragrance and slightly fuzzy leaf texture."

WRONG!!! They sampled a Monarda I bought and planted at the corner of our house. It will bounce back eventually, but that set it back significantly. I'm planning on planting next to the shed the two Monardas I have nurtured from seed since late winter, killing millions of aphids to get to this point. Right now they are aphid free and more than a foot tall. But I was waiting to plant until I got more fencing material, which I now have. We also have a landscaping project coming up and it includes three Monardas. (Update: They have been caged.) The deer at the greenhouse have not chewed on the purchased Monarda that is the centerpiece of the outside barrel. They prefer aloe vera 'Tiger Tooth' aloe. August 28: The greenhouse barrel Monarda and an extra one in a pot nearby have been given a trim, and not by me. They also grazed on the chives in the barrel.

• "Yes, Salvia (sage) is widely considered an exceptionally deer-resistant plant. Deer typically avoid it because of its strong, aromatic fragrance and slightly fuzzy, textured leaves, which they find highly unappealing."

• "Vermillionaire® (Cuphea hybrid), also known as the Large Firecracker Plant, is highly deer-resistant. Its tubular flowers have an unappealing texture and a strong, unpalatable scent that grazing deer typically avoid."

WRONG!!! I planted a salvia and a Vermillionaire together in a grow bag and the deer couldn't wait to take the tops off of them that night. The salvia recovered sooner than the Vermillionaire, but neither is near its original height. The salvia that have been next to the house for six years have been MOSTLY undisturbed, but sometimes the deer lop off a few flower stalks.

• "Yes, coleus are generally considered deer-resistant. Their textured leaves, strong natural scents, and the plant's mild toxicity make them unappealing to browsing deer."

WRONG!!! The greenhouse deer chewed on two coleus which I had outside. Fortunately they didn't completely destroy them and they have regrown from the stubs. I am hoping that the "mild" toxicity is understated.

• "Oregano is highly deer-resistant."

MAYBE!!! I'm not 100% sure, but I think they sampled my new Italian Oregano plant. I won't even let them have a chance at the Marjoram, which is milder. They have left the more robust Greek Oregano alone.

• "Yes, marigolds are generally considered deer resistant. Deer typically avoid them due to their pungent, medicinal odor and bitter-tasting foliage."

• "Yes, chives are highly deer resistant. Because they belong to the Allium (onion) family, they have a strong smell and pungent taste that deer instinctively avoid."

WRONG??? If they yank marigolds or chives out of the pot but don't actually eat them, does that mean they are deer resistant? Last year they pulled the marigolds out of the window boxes and spit them out. They were intact enough to replant. A couple months later, they did it again. It was too late in the year to bother replanting them. This year I planted the nastiest marigolds I could find, and they have left them alone. Also this year, they yanked a chive plant out of its pot and spit it out. I replanted it and it probably will be OK. August 25: I'm updating this from "WRONG???" to "WRONG!!!" They are definitely searching out the marigolds to eat the flower buds, and they are clipping the chives like grass.

• "Zinnias are considered moderately deer resistant. While deer generally avoid the coarse texture and strong scent of mature zinnia plants, they will happily eat tender young seedlings or the flowers if their preferred food sources are scarce."

Right (mostly)!!! What I disagree with here is other food sources are not scarce! They took out two of my six zinnia seedlings that were about four inches high in the window boxes, ignoring acres of lush vegetation surrounding them. August 26: I have about five zinnia sprouts in the window boxes that haven't gotten taller than four inches all summer. Any time one develops a flower bud, they eat it.

Usually these internet statements are accompanied by a disclaimer that deer will eat just about anything if that's all they have or if there is a drought. For the record, both my house and the greenhouse are surrounded by lush fields of vegetation that have received adequate rainfall this spring and early summer. They have no excuse. They are 150-lb. rodents.

So far the plants the deer have not touched are Agastache, Basil, Lavender, Greek Oregano, Rosemary, Sage, Russian Sage, Peppermint, Sempervivums, Thyme, and Plectranthus 'Velveteen Aromatic'™. I have 20 fuzzy, aromatic 'Velveteen' plants scattered around outside and they don't touch them. They also haven't touched my petunias...but they are in baskets eight feet in the air.

On a more positive note, it appears two of the four potato stalks are in the process of dying. They have leaned over quite a bit just since yesterday. That might mean the harvest is not too far away. We are just about at the 90-day mark, so apparently we are on track. They have not flowered, but flowering is not a required step to get a harvest. I'm excited, not just for the potatoes, but for getting that big grow bag out of the greenhouse where the plants overshadow their neighbors.

I don't plan on growing potatoes inside the greenhouse next year, but I might put the big grow bag in our yard next to our new trees, and the question is whether I have to fence it. "Yes, potato plants are generally considered deer resistant. Deer typically avoid grazing on them because the leaves are part of the nightshade family and contain bitter toxins (glycoalkaloids) that are unappealing." I like the part about the toxins, but I probably will fence them at least initially. Red Lodge deer have made a liar of the internet too many times for me to lower my guard.

Ladybug

At times this spring I wondered if I should buy some predators such as ladybugs or lacewings to go after the aphids that were infesting the peppers, sunflowers and others. Internet research indicates they are most effective in closed systems such as commercial greenhouses, but maybe not so much in a small private greenhouse that has the windows open. The beneficials can just fly away after you release them.

But they will come around on their own if they find something to eat. They aren't in the huge numbers than if you release them, but the natural method is more sustainable. And cheaper. I saw this one on one of the sunflowers in the grow bag.

Two days later: The sunflower head in the above image looks spent. All of the heads on the three Teddy Bear plants in the grow bag looked that way, and most of the leaves looked diseased. I didn't see a path forward to better blooms so I chopped the plants in the bed, leaving just a few green onions that have been living in the shadows for months. The Teddy Bears in the planting bed look much better and I'm harvesting blooms from them. The one Teddy Bear plant outside at the house also doesn't look great, somewhere in between the two groups at the greenhouse. There is one conventional sunflower at the house that is about to bloom its one bloom.

The results are in

Almost a month ago, I planted an expendable coleus in the ground next to the north side of the house just to see what would happen. I kept a cage over it for a while, and even though it had some bug damage it was growing and producing flowers. The cage did not have a top but the deer did not dip in to take a bite. Here it is yesterday morning just after I took the cage off.

Less than four hours later, this is what it looked like.

I saw a guilty-looking fawn fleeing the scene. I have to conclude that it would be foolish to plant coleus in the ground next year unless they are well caged. I have my ColorBlaze 'Wicked Witch' on the west side of the house in pots and am careful to have them caged or surrounded by lots of other plants.

The deer herds at the house and a mile away at the greenhouse have different tastes. I knew the greenhouse deer would eat coleus, but I was hoping the house deer would not pick up the habit. Oh well.