Wildlife .

[hattie43]

I know we're very lucky to have lots of wildlife but I cannot create a garden or grow plants / flowers without it all being eaten .

The worst culprits are the deer and now I've just seen molehills .
Any ideas please as to how to get them to leave my flowers alone .
Thankyou

Watching with interest!

I've gardened with roaming muntjac and rabbits and it really is a case of picking your plants carefully and 'giving up' on some of your favourite plants because they won't make it.

e.g. foxgloves will not be eaten by anything because they cause heart failure.

Other things I grew without issue were thorny roses, peonies, fuscia, agapanthus, alliums, bridal-wreath, choisya, rosemary, lavendar, buddleia, hellebores, dicentra, scabious, thyme, lilies, bearded iris...

Thankyou that's a good selection of plants to try . They have very brazen , two deer were walking up the garden when I was chatting to a friend the other day .

Good luck!

Alliums smell of onions (understandably) and so I used to plant them everywhere to disguise the scent of tastier plants. That does mean I didn't have a very florally scented garden, though...

I have loads of mole hills, but I’ve read that having moles is a good sign ! It means the soil is good, has lots of worms and the moles aerate the soil as they tunnel through. So on balance it’s good to have them ! I use the earth from the air hole mounds for compost. My ‘lawn’ is pretty shit anyway with lots of moss.

What plants are the deer eating ?

There is a section on the RHS website of deer-resistant plants.

I will admit, it was a bit of a relief when the deer stopped coming in our garden! I assume someone sorted their fencing out, as they used to be regular and greedy visitors! They ate my poor black elder, it never recovered.

No interest in the potentilla, or the spiraea.