The big snow of early January, about six inches.

 

It’s time again to order seeds and plants. My prime goal this year is reducing deer and rabbit losses. They were terrible through the drought summer we had in 2024, and this January’s sequence of heavy snow and arctic cold has kept the snow on the ground, and meant more branch-tips on my evergreens getting nipped. My shrubs are sad-looking, but I hope they’ll fill out well in spring.

Deer spray is a nuisance, but this year I’ll try filtering it so the fatty stuff that makes it stick to leaves doesn’t clog and break my spray nozzles. I’ve found some wire cloches to order, and for my smallest starts, the cotinus, red osier dogwood, and fothergilla I’ve planted at the edge of my yard, those ought protect them through summer. I’m trying to make my deer defenses a little prettier and more invisible, because I’ve been using rabbit-fencing cages and a ragtag bunch of stakes, and it doesn’t make the garden elegant.

I made a space I call Daylily Island, where I moved all the daylilies and several heucheras. I can put up some decorative fencing, and maybe enjoy the blooms without having to hustle out and spray them every time it rains. (Which doesn’t keep my daylilies from being eaten, anyway.) 

This is what I’ve ordered, with item numbers, from Pinetree Garden Seeds. I’ve shopped with them for years; they have good prices, quick service, friendly people. As gardeners know, inflation has really been crazy in plants and seeds. (I remember the 90s, when a quart perennial would cost maybe $7.99.)

 

544 Anise Hyssop perennial

551 Chives perennial

547 Catnip perennial

48003 Narrow Leaf Echinacea perennial

58502 Mountain Mint perennial

624 Dusty Miller annual

728 Baby Sun Coreopsis perennial

62103 Carpet Mix Cosmos annual

62106 Sonata Dwarf Mix Cosmos annual

62203 Showpiece Mix Dahlia annual

73707 Mellow Yellow Echinacea perennial

959 Strawberry Fields Gomphrena annual

70902 Burning Hearts Heliopsis perennial

70808 Helen’s Flower Helenium perennial

640 Giant Imperial Mix Larkspur annual

65501 Safari Red Marigold annual

65506 Giant Yellow Marigold annual

77705 Prairie Sun Rudbeckia perennial

77702 Indian Summer Rudbeckia perennial

69801 State Fair Mix Zinnia annual

 

There are a couple things on this list that I’ve seen deer eat: the dahlias and the coreopsis. Those need protection, but deer don’t really like them. Dahlias have that piney smell, and seem to be eaten later, during the fall-fattening-up time. Coreopsis can be eaten to the nubs, but I think the culprit is rabbits. Heliopsis, rudbeckia, and coneflower will get the flower buds nipped, but start toughening up and getting prickly as they mature, so the flowers begin to survive.