Wrong!

July 27: 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 I've got two new ones today.

• "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.

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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Previous entries:

• "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.

• "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.

• "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.

• "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.

• "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.

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.

This might actually work

I planted 26 Albion strawberry bare roots along with one Montana plant. Half of the Albions died, for which I blame everyone and everything but myself. But now there are new plants coming online. There are seven Albion runners at various stages of making new plants.

Two of them are in the east planting bed in the greenhouse, which is good since there are many holes to fill there. One is in a grow bag at the house, and I will be able to direct it to root in the other grow bag, which has only one strawberry plant. I will probably have to sacrifice a good-sized borage that I started in that bag when the second plant died, but what are we raising here, strawberries or borage? The interweb says borage is difficult to move because it has a taproot, so it's probably doomed.

The other four runners are in the most inconvenient location, the two smaller hanging baskets in the greenhouse. I have a four-inch pot perched in one of the baskets to catch the first runner that appeared, and it has some good-looking leaves and the beginnings of roots (visible at the bottom). I actually had to cut another runner off of this one because it had nowhere to go, which is that stub on the right.

The other three runners from the two baskets are being directed into a new basket between them in which I have placed three 4-inch pots. (Red, of course.) My 6-inch landscape staples are too long for the pots so I used bent paper clips. I do have some 4-inch staples on order but they won't be here for 10 days.

So far the harvest is two berries with two more mostly red and several days away. We are not being inundated yet, to say the least. If I clipped off the runners perhaps the berries would come faster. But I would like to get about 13 Albion plants to replace those that were lost. And I would like the Montana plant to send out a couple of runners so I can get more copies of that, but no such luck yet.

Along the lines of "What are we raising here?" the nasturtiums inside the greenhouse are taking over. I trim them every day, and I took out two plants that were shadowing others. I found a lot of alyssum under there after I did that. Here is a nasturtium flower, of which there are many:

I planted nasturtiums in two of the outside window boxes, and two of them have come up in each box. They are not huge yet. I also have alyssum in those boxes, so I'll probably have to do more pruning starting in a week or so.

Playing the hand you are dealt

My overarching feeling about the greenhouse season so far is that aphids make your life miserable if you insist on growing certain plants in certain locations. I was spraying the greenhouse pepper plants every day with soap, which I'm sure wasn't good for them as they don't seem to be growing. The past week or so the spraying seems to have shifted to the marigold buds next to the pepper plants. A bud gets covered with them, I spray them down, and an hour later they are making a comeback. But MAYBE they are going after the marigold buds now instead of the peppers so MAYBE companion planting for pest control isn't total garbage. I don't believe that yet.

Other marigolds less than five feet away do not get aphids at all. They are outside in the window boxes. The tomato plants that are a few feet in the other direction, inside, have not had aphids since I wiped out a few that were going after the young stems. There are different types of aphids, and right now I have the ones that like marigold buds, but only inside.

In my designated flower bed (southeast), the marigolds also have aphids and have not grown as much as the others across the room. The sunflowers are growing, slowly. The sunflower plants in the big pot six feet to the north are 20 times larger. I have one scraggly zinnia in the flower bed where there should be at least five. What is prospering in that bed is the nasturtiums, to the extent that I took out two of the plants to allow the alyssum to thrive, which it has since then. Instead of zinnias filling the front windows, I have coleus plants in 6" pots sitting on the sills. Ya'know what, if zinnias don't prosper there but coleus do, I should plant more coleus. I have five more that need to be potted up, maybe I should just stick them in the bed next to the window. I've also considered planting the harvested allium bulbs in that front strip, but it might be too damp to plant them now. In any event the allium wouldn't flower until next spring. The zinnias, alyssum and nasturtiums in the outside window boxes look healthy but are still small because they were direct seeded after it got somewhat warm. (But it never really gets warm here. Maybe on August 15.)

Half of the strawberry plants died. Some of the ones that survived are sending out runners, two of them in the east bed but also the two in the smaller (14") greenhouse baskets. I'm going to try to get the runners to root in 4" pots, which takes a bit of effort with the hanging baskets. There is one 4" pot perched inside a basket, and I also hung a new 10" basket between the two strawberry baskets and will put three 4" pots inside that basket. So far I have harvested two Albion strawberries, one from a greenhouse basket and the other from a house basket. Both were a bit tart, but not bad. I guess I should leave them for a few more days after they are 100% red.

I did get two new 10" baskets today, identical except for color to the green ones that I'm using for the sedums. One will be trying to capture strawberry runners, and I potted up the other one with a thriving Supertunia Vista Bubblegum:

Bottom line: If something doesn't want to grow in a particular location, try something else or try somewhere else. I'm not going to keep trying to grow peppers in the greenhouse if it doesn't work.

Potato

This is my first time growing potatoes. I stuck three Yukon Gold pieces in a 15-gallon grow bag inside the greenhouse April 4. According to the interweb, they should be done in 90 days, which would be eight days from now. The plants are green and vigorous but haven't flowered yet. Flowering is not necessary to produce potatoes, but this lack makes me wonder if the timeline is off. I really want the plants to die so I can harvest the potatoes and get that big grow bag out of the middle of the greenhouse.

Also in that part of the greenhouse:

• The big container of Teddy Bear Sunflowers. I planted three seeds to make sure something grew, and all three came up. I'm not going to thin them. Compared to the other two locations I have sunflowers, these are the most vigorous.
• The 10-gallon grow bag with dill, in which I recently planted a cucumber in a Jiffy pot. Same story with the cucumber, I planted three seeds and all three came up. The other two went into hanging baskets, as planned, leaving one extra.
• Two pots of mums, one of which is doing better than the other. I pruned the bigger one June 10 because it was becoming very large. The image was taken before the pruning:
  
  
  
  I hope the fall flowers are worth it. I sort of don't care about the mums and I'm not going to make any extra effort to overwinter them again. Last winter I buried the big pots in the greenhouse beds, but the coming winter they will just be sitting on the ground. If they die, they die. If they don't die, I will have to think about dividing them next spring...but I really don't want more mum pots.
• I installed two SANSI grow lights and started off by putting Echeveria 'Lola' and Aeonium 'Florens' in big ceramic pots under them. The Aeonium is supposed to go into summer dormancy, so I put it off to the side and now have a new pot with six Supertunia cuttings under that grow light.
• Also in the area is a 15-gallon grow bag with cold-hardy succulents. This is a test run for converting the southwest planting bed to succulents, which will require a large change to the soil. I'll have to remove more than half of it and heavily amend it with pumice and coco coir. I think all of the greenhouse beds need to be loosened up to drain better and could use some amendment. Not to the same extent as for succulents, but something. This would be difficult to do in the strawberry bed unless I dig up everything and replant it, but the others will be empty this winter.

I left this part of the greenhouse open so I could put big containers there. I would do potatoes again, but maybe outside. It became massive quickly. I've considered moving the big bag to the house behind the shed before harvest. I ordered a nice new hand cart to replace the flimsy one I've had for many years, but I don't know if I will be able to lift the bag in and out of the truck. If I attempt it, I need to stop watering for a few days ahead of time.

Hard, not hardy

Hard herbs have been my latest emphasis as the plant activity has shifted from the garage to the greenhouse to outside. A hard herb generally grows on a woody stem and requires cooking to bring out its flavor. They are similar to succulants in that the soil generally doesn't have to have a lot of organic matter in it, but it does have to drain well. Hard does not necessarily mean hardy. Rosemary, at best, is Zone 6 and would not survive outside here in Zone 5. However, Thyme is rated to Zone 4.

I was surprised to find out the oregano plant I've had for a few years actually is Greek Oregano, so of course I had to get an Italian Oregano (right) at Nana's Thursday. Marjoram is related to the oreganos, and one of the Marjoram seedlings (left) has grown large enough to be potted up. It looks like I'm going to have to prop the Marjoram against that stick for a while to get it to grow straight:

I sprouted the Rosemary on the left from seed last winter. This is the best of six pots of various sizes, and we don't use that much Rosemary. The Sage on the right is another Nana's purchase, about two months ago. I bought that plant because I wasn't sure my two existing Sage plants were going to recover from last winter, which they spent in a bed in the greenhouse covered with straw mulch. One did not survive, and the other looked to be infested with something and took a very long time to bounce back. It is fine now, living in the greenhouse outside barrel.

This is the list of my various herbs, starting with hard:

• Greek Oregano
• Italian Oregano
• Marjoram
• Rosemary
• English Thyme
• Bergamot/Monarda/Bee Balm
• Sage

Soft herbs:

• Basil
• Borage
• Chives
• Cilantro
• Dill
• Parsley (trying to sprout)
• Peppermint

I had my small camera and it was cloudy, but I wanted to get at least one hummingbird image today. I had the 70-200mm Galapagos lens on a converter attached to the little camera (Canon M100), so was able to get this. Soon when the weather is better I will take a better camera, lens and tripod, and try to get this fellow on the salvia or butterfly mint. This is a male calliope and I believe is the one I see 95% of the time. There was one flying around inside the greenhouse today for a minute, and after a few moments of confusion he escaped back through the open door.

Bodyguard

"In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."

-Churchill           

Landscaping in the deer-rich environment of Red Lodge, Montana is nothing short of wartime. Nothing will keep them from eating things that they like (or spitting out things they decide they don't like) except a high fence or a solid wall. At the greenhouse, I put some plants outside next to the barrel, including two coleus I was able to grow from seed. I thought if I surrounded them with things that they really don't like, like rosemary and peppermint, they would not find them. They did. One was chewed down to a nub, and the other was yanked out of its pot and only three inches remained of a plant that was probably nine inches yesterday. These might bounce back, and I still have some other sprouts, but now I know coleus are a plant I cannot have outside unprotected.

I do still have one outside. This is a table on our back patio right next to the house. The coleus that I purchased from Proven Winners Direct is on the right end, behind a bodyguard of mint, and next to two Monarda which are related to mint. But a Monarda that I planted in the ground was sampled by deer, and I had to put a covering over it. The Monarda at the greenhouse, which is at the center of the outside barrel, has not been disturbed. I want to plant the two Monarda next to our shed. I know that they will not like them, but that doesn't prevent them from yanking them out of the ground before they decide they don't like them. Vandals, they are.

Lavendar is another plant that the deer are not supposed to like. I planted one in the back of the house recently, and did not put a little fence around it like I did with several other recent plantings. But I did put a bodyguard of sage in front of it. So far so good.

Announcement

Coleus are not deer resistant. That is all.

Baskets

I've been shooting for this day for months. I put up six big brackets, replacing smaller ones, and hung the six petunia baskets at the house. I also hung two strawberry baskets.

It is sort of anticlimactic. It's just six baskets but they consumed me for months, and truly avid gardeners do so much more. I have three such people in my own family. I also have been planting perennials to fill in blank spots around the house, put herb pots on the patio, and have a table of succulents tucked under the patio roof.

I also moved the third tomato grow bag to the house, and moved all three tomato bags to the south nook behind the garage. I suspect the west wall where they were doesn't get enough sunlight.

Now I can walk around the greenhouse without bumping my head on a tunia basket. We are into production of tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, onions, strawberries, cucumbers and finishing up on peas. The broccoli is as it always has been, looking strong and producing nothing. I don't have anything demanding that space so it can continue on to its destiny, whatever that might be. However, I planted some dill seed behind the broccoli where the peas used to be, so eventually I might give up on the broccoli and let the dill see the light.

On the flower front, the marigolds are blooming, the nasturtiums are growing almost too well and have started to flower, there is alyssum scattered around and is growing but not flowering yet, the zinnias have mostly sprouted but are taking forever to grow, and the sunflowers are at various stages. The salvias and butterfly mint are attracting the hummingbirds, and I need to get some photos.

In addition to basil, herbs are at various locations: Thyme, rosemary, sage, monarda, borage, chives, velveteen, peppermint, marjoram, even stevia.

And of course there are the succulents. They may take over all of the space in a few years. And although I have shut down public access to this blog, I started a new blog just for them.

When I go through the list like that, I realize I do have a lot of stuff, not just tunia baskets.

Finally

I've been working on making petunia baskets for the house for months. Many months. Today I hung the first two, although they are not in their final location. I still have to put up the new brackets that are replacing brackets half as long.

This is the Royal Velvet Supertunia with a Blue Vein cutting mixed in. I also brought over the Latte and Really Red basket. They aren't spilling over the sides yet, although the Vista Bubblegum/Jazzberry and the primary Blue Vein basket are.

Unless I get sidetracked, I'll get the new brackets up tomorrow and move the other four baskets over, along with at least two strawberry baskets. The bottom of the baskets, here and in the future, is a few inches above my head, about 6-2. That should be high enough to evade the deer.

Never Mind

Due to weather in Chicago affecting our flight connection, our trip to Pennsylvania has been cancelled. I dropped by the greenhouse to see what had happened in the 10 hours I was gone, versus the expected six days.

The sprinklers apparently went off at the appointed times, and as expected the four seed trays in the mini filled up with water. I put wicks in each of them to drain them, and three of the four worked. The fourth fell down, leaving the cucumber Jiffies sitting in water all day. So I put the wick back more securely.

The indoor peas are getting swamped by aphids, and the adjacent brocolli is doing nothing. It may be time to rip both of them out and put something else in that corner. I have three cucumbers and only need two for the baskets, so I might put the other one there, along with one more basil plant. I might seed a different type of basil that didn't respond to seed starters.

Here is a picture of a fox that went through the lot next to us yesterday. I don't have anything else to post so why not?