Category Archives: urban deer

sharing the garden

evergreens, months 01-03: winter, perrennials, urban deer

Flower Count – day 2 – bergenia

03/02/2012 svseekins 2 Comments

In some ways I should like bergenia more than I do. It has good traits that usually rank high in my books.

bergenia - pig squeak — photo by SVSeekins

Evergreen
Winter flowering
Drought tolerant
Low maintenance
Inexpensive
Hardy to zone 4
Shade tolerant

I do celebrate the blooms when they arrive.

This year I realised that the deer celebrate those blooms, too. Hmmmm. No wonder the bloom time seemed so short. Deer don’t seem to snack on the fleshy leafs, so the patches survive.

bergenia - elephant ears — photo by SVSeekins

Elephant ears is a common name for this plant. Kinda makes sense because of the large, rounded plant material.

Pig Squeak is another nick name. Apparently it makes a noise when rubbing the turgid leafs, but I’ve never noticed.

In other gardens I’ve been impressed with a occasional lovely display of colourful foliage, or strikingly large blooms. Perhaps those were other cultivars than the one in our yard.

In mid-summer the patches look kind of ratty, and I don’t really care for that. C doesn’t like them much either, so we don’t pay them much attention.

I reckon bergenia does a fair job as a ground cover in really tough spots of the yard. For now they’re safe. There are higher priority areas around the garden. That is until I somehow find some horticultural treasure that would suit that space better.

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Flower Count

attracting birds, months 01-03: winter, months 10-12: fall, perrennials, urban deer

Winter Winner: Viburnum Pink Dawn

12/28/2011 svseekins 9 Comments

Viburnum bodnantense, Viburnum pink dawn garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Just when it seems all the trees are bare & the skies will be permanently grey, these small pink flower clusters catch my attention & bring on a smile. They even offer a sweet scent! For these 2 reasons alone the Viburnum Pink Dawn wins prime Real Estate at the edge of the shrub border of our short driveway.

Forsythia & Viburnum bodnantense in sept. — photo by SVSeekins

Right through to late summer it’s just another green shrub earning space in the garden by working as a privacy screen. As there’s so much else urging me to explore the garden, this shrub blends right into the background. Through autumn its green leaves take on a coppery tinge offering seasonal interest. Like many other deciduous shrubs in our garden, that’s nice… and counts as another reason to keep it around.

fall color of Viburnum pink dawn garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

But in winter, especially at Christmas, when we come & go between the dry vehicle & the warm house, we hardly enter the garden at all. At the driveway’s edge, Viburnum bodnantense gets all the attention & appreciation. The rest of the garden is pretty much ignored.

Viburnum Pink Dawn in December garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

It will hold its own for several more months, sharing the spotlight with a sequence of spring bulbs: the early snowdrops in January, the crocus in February, and daffodils in March. What a winning strategy. I’m not likely to question its value to the garden or reconsider its highly visible position near the driveway.

The first time I noticed one of these winter flowering treasures was when I moved to the property on Cedar Hill. (I’m sure the shrub is still there today)

It had maxed out at 10 feet tall.
In the summer I enjoyed the privacy it gave us as we sipped wine under the front porch.
In the rainy winter, I held off the blues with its promises of spring.
Birds nested in it, even though it was right beside the house.
The deer left it alone.
It grew slowly, so required very little maintenance.

Viburnum bodnantense, Viburnum pink dawn, Viburnum spring dawn, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwestiburnum pink dawn garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

It was definitely a keeper. Even the Royal Horticultural Society in Britain had given it their Award of Garden Excellence. When we started our search for a new property, it was right near the top of our ‘want’ list for the new garden. I tried taking cuttings several times with no success.

Viburnum bodnantense, Viburnum pink dawn, Viburnum spring dawn, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

After we moved to our new home with no viburnum, D.Smart gave us one as a house-warming gift. What a wonderful way to start a Friendship Garden.

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Other January gems in the Pacific Northwest:

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attracting birds, evergreens, months 10-12: fall, urban deer

Strawberry Tree vs Urban Deer

11/24/2011 svseekins 9 Comments

arbutus unedo flower in autumn, strawberry tree, garden Victoria BC — photo by SVSeekins

They’re evergreen – that’s a big plus in my book.
They have pretty little flower clumps – a 2nd season for interest. That’s another plus.

arbutus unedo berry in autumnstrawberry tree, garden Victoria BC — photo by SVSeekins

They even have edible fruit! Well, it’s not tasty, but it is edible. And dangling strawberry-like fruit hanging from a shrub is funky – a 3rd season of interest.

That’s 3 plus signs! They seemed a perfect choice for my shrub border.

They’d give the yard some privacy from the street.
They wouldn’t be too tall to interfere with utility lines overhead.

I had to have one! Okay, 3 – because they’re so cool.

It turns out the deer think strawberry trees are cool, too. And delicious.

arbutus unedo protected from deer — photo by SVSeekins

For the bushes to survive & grow to any height, I resorted to protecting them with stucco wire. It’s worked well. Instead of being deer pruned, knee height, struggling little bushes, they’ve grown over my head in just a couple of years.

I think they’re kind of pretty. And the dangling strawberries are definitely funky. But the ‘protective custody’ sort of ruins the ‘nature at its finest’ vibe.

arbutus unedo - no protective cage — photo by SVSeekins

I removed the wire protection from the 3rd tree this summer. An experiment.

Strawberry Tree vs. Urban Deer.

Blooms only on the top section.

Fullness trimmed out of the lower section.

My guess is that the deer can only reach so high while they’re helping out with the pruning.

Now the experiment continues with crossed fingers. Hopefully, the deer will leave some of the lower branches through the winter. Otherwise, this strawberry tree might end up being shaped a little less like a shrub, and a little more like a tree.

There’s a word for that, isn’t there? A standard?

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