Deer be Gone

 I think Cole and I have given new meaning to the term "Weekend Warrior." This past weekend was Memorial Day weekend and I had a list a mile long that I wanted to finish around the house.

• Clean the garage   'check' 
• Wash the cars
• Strip, Wash and Stain the Deck    'BIG check'
• Finish hutch    'check'
• Finish Map on wall   'almost check'
• Add plants to raised bed    'check'
• Plant deer proof plants in the new flower bed in front   'check'

I guess this list gives you some insight as to what has been happening around these parts. We rocked our house out and most of all we stained our deck! I had no idea how intensive this would be when we got into it!  I will share more details in a later post but boy.... what an accomplishment!!!

What I want to share with you today is our new flower bed in the front of the house. Remember how I told you a while ago that we have deer?.... Lot's of deer!!! Well I have been really gun shy to plant anything in this bed for fear of it being munched to death. So after several weeks of researching and talking to some of the local garden centers in town I have decided to plant an herbaceous garden in front. The master gardeners at the Sunday market told me that there is no such thing as a "deer proof" garden, however there are deer resistant plants. Then there was a guy at our local farm and garden store who told me that deer hate lavender and rosemary. YES! I thought to myself I love lavender and it smells so good! It was then that I decided to buy several lavender plants which I got at our local Sunday market 5 for $20. Nice price huh? Then I also bought some baby tears and a spreading succulent and several rosemary bushes. Then I weeded the bed a bit and went to town planting.... Here is a view of the yard before we dug out a bed. This will make mowing the yard a ton easier too!

Here is a side view after..... Those taller plants are the lavender. They should bloom in about a week or so.

There it is all dug out.

Lavender.... I can't wait for the calming aroma.... We need it...

 Here are the baby tear and succulent plants that should spread nicely as a ground cover...

Oh yeah... Here is a mole hole... What the ..... Cole and I are beside ourselves... We do not want moles. If you have any tricks as to how to get rid of them TELL US!!!!

Here is a picture too of our raised bed with more plants in it!!! We check it all the time. I can't wait for the day when we can harvest food out of it... Oh the sweet joy... PS please take note of the new fence around the bed... Our attempt at dog proofing, so far so good!

Ok so again here is a before picture.....

And after... I think it adds curb appeal... One baby step at a time...

I would of never considered myself to be a weekend warrior or ever thought that I would want to be. But the satisfaction we get when we sit back and say... Hey WE did that ... It feels SO good....