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Helen Chesnut’s Garden Notes: Deer resist resistance attempts

Dear Helen: The unprotected parts of my garden were ravaged by deer this summer. They ate plants that are on all the “deer-resistant” plant lists I have. What to do? K.D. Gardeners in deer country find such lists most amusing.
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This hastily improvised fence protects a vegetable garden from neighbourhood deer.

Dear Helen: The unprotected parts of my garden were ravaged by deer this summer. They ate plants that are on all the “deer-resistant” plant lists I have. What to do?

K.D.

Gardeners in deer country find such lists most amusing. If they are hungry or thirsty enough, deer will eat just about anything. Every time I suggest plantings that deer will most likely leave alone, I’m deluged with tales of deer devouring the plants I’ve named.

Harsh conditions such as a severe winter or a long, hot, dry summer make almost all plantings vulnerable to predation. Deer whose normal water sources dry up in a hot, dry summer such as the one just past will consume foliage and flowers for their moisture content.

An adventurous deer made it over the back fence into my garden this summer, after contractors subdividing the adjacent property removed a deer barrier and the back fence neighbours’ dog, ever alert to any intruder, was away for a week.

Until a friend came to help me extend the fence height with netting, that big buck browsed on my roses and apple trees, beans and kale, as well as on overwintering broccoli and cauliflower transplants I’d just set out. He did not touch a long row of calendula.

Ivy is usually on deer-resistant plant lists. A neighbour’s ivy, grown as a ground cover around a maple tree, is routinely chomped down to woody nubs. Deer will commonly leave zonal geranium foliage alone but eat the flowers. I’ve been regaled with laments over demolished rhododendrons — another plant on deer-resistant plant lists.

After contractors removed the neighbouring deer barrier, deer did not enter either my or the neighbours’ garden until Jasper, their part-wolf dog, was absent on holiday with his owners.

I’ve often been told that a fairly vocal dog is a good deer deterrent. Otherwise, the easiest and least expensive option is probably exclusion by black mesh fencing, which is most effective if it’s 240 cm (eight feet) high. Pieces of flagging tape need to be attached at intervals, to make sure the deer can see the dark fencing. In certain lights, it can be nearly invisible.

Dear Helen: I’m hoping you can give me the name of a perennial plant I saw this summer. It grew in a clump of stems, about 90 cm high, bearing cream leaves dramatically marked with dark green veins. There were yellow daisy type flowers, but the beautiful foliage was what drew my attention to the plant.

C.B.

Your plant is most likely a Heliopsis called Loraine Sunshine, a perennial uniquely outstanding for its variegated leaves. The plant is worth growing for its foliage alone. The summer-long flowers are a nice bonus.

Heliopsis is one of the longest blooming among the tall, daisy-flowering perennials. They are reliable, long-lived plants with strong, sturdy stems that are good for cutting.

My Loraine Sunshine plant never disappoints. I do monitor it through the summer, though, and shore it up with one or two unobtrusive stakes if some of the outer stems begin to falter.

 

Dear Helen: I’m wondering why the healthy tomato plants in my new greenhouse produced so poorly this summer? Someone suggested it was the high heat inside the structure, but I have always understood that tomatoes thrived in heat.

M.G.

Tomatoes do grow and fruit well in warmth, but the unrelenting heat of recent summers has caused temperatures inside many greenhouses to become hot enough to damage tomato flowers’ pollen.

Temperatures over 32 C (90 F) will sterilize tomato pollen. In these past very hot summers, some people have chosen to grow their tomatoes outdoors to avoid the extreme heat levels in their greenhouses.

Garden events

HCP workshops. The Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd. in Saanich, is offering the following workshops. Details at hcp.ca. To register call 250-479-6162.

• The Art of Bonsai: Advanced Class, Saturday, Oct. 6, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Learn techniques for nurturing your tree in this hands-on class. HCP members $40, others $45.

• Advanced pruning, Saturdays, Oct. 6 and 13, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. This outdoor workshop will teach basic techniques as well as advanced strategies for pruning shrubs and small trees. Members $90, others $110.

• Willow chair, Sunday, Oct. 7, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Make and take home a bent willow rustic chair. Members $250, others $275.