I live on acreage, part of an old-growth spruce forest. As a result, we have lots of deer and sometimes elk, sometimes the entire herd of 40 during late summer when the golf course gets too dry to graze. I love flowers, although I can't grow many under all the trees. I had a big truckload of top soil delivered three years ago so that I can have a big flowerbed out near the road where there's lots of sun. People walk our road as it's somewhat sheltered from beach wind, and I get many comments on my flowers, and the lovely green sweep of the yard (almost an acre to mow, a constant round of mowing it in sections).

I only plant flowers that deer and elk don't savage. The most prominent bloomers are dahlias and daisies, with dianthus (pinks) coming in as less showy. In the spring, I have masses of daffodils, some of them beautiful doubles. I also have lilies, lavender, and butterfly bush. Since my flowerbed is often under water during winters, at least the lower part of it, I do lose some dahlias every winter because their tubers rot. When I plant new dahlias or pinks in the spring, both deer and elk will often pull them up before they've rooted, then spit them out. I imagine they're thinking, "Why did she plant this? It doesn't taste good at all." Elk especially will walk along a row of plants and pull each one out, then spit it out in disgust. No real damage as long as I check and replant every morning. I really don't miss the flowers that I can't grow because the deer would chew them right down. Every year, I try at least one new flower to see if it won't become deer salad. I do have wild fuchsias that grow tall enough to reach the gutters on the house; the deer nibble at them, but they still provide lots of blooms...these are old plants, not as tender as fuchsias in baskets fresh from a nursery. I've not yet had any deer come up onto the front deck to sample hanging baskets, even though there are only three steps. I do wish I could grow carnations and pansies, but it's rare that I even think of them. Pansies aren't gobbled up by deer as often as they're flat mowed down by our huge banana slugs. Sluggo discourages the small dark brown slugs, but banana slugs seems to survive anything!

Two years ago, it occurred to me that I have huge hydrangeas, planted decades ago, so I bought two plants about two feet tall, with several blooms each. They looked lovely in my flowerbed...until I checked the next morning: there were only stubs of stems sticking out of the ground. I surrounded each with a chicken wire cage, so that they could have leaves if not blooms. This spring they had pretty well outgrown their cages, so I removed the wire...and found stems the next day! I think I'll just leave them as is and see if, over time, they get tough enough to not be the perfect salad.