Category Archives: Urban gardening

Deer Proof Plants

perennials, pest control, Urban gardening, vegetables

Recently I was invited to visit Ms L’s garden so she could share with me her thoughts on some renovations she had in mind. I really enjoy visiting gardens, so I was pretty geeked to have been invited. She admitted due to a lack of time (you know that job-thing we all have to do?) the garden wasn’t looking how she’d like it to. Having recently retired, Ms L is ready to really dig in and whip the garden into shape. It seems now her largest challenge are the deer who aren’t as gracious as they should be considering the amount of her plants they consume. Since a 10ft high fence around the suburban corner lot isn’t really an option, I read up on suggested “deer-proof” plants.

Deer Proof Plants Don’t Exist

Yes, you read that right. No plant is deer proof. As suburbia creeps further and further into natural areas, habitat loss is an issue for a lot of wildlife. Deer are crowded out of their habitat, and pushed into home gardens. Something has to replace food they can no longer find, and boy your hostas look delicious. If its been a hard winter in our area and deer are hungry enough, they will eat any plant in the garden before starving.

Plants Deer Find Less Appealing

However, like your grandma’s marshmallow gelatin casserole, there are plants deer don’t find very appealing and would rather not eat unless necessary. According to an MSUE article Smart Gardening to Deter Deer, the animals “tend to be put off by fuzzy, coarse or “fern-like” foliage, and leaves or stems with strong odors or spines.” During the first season in the garden, these plants may suffer initial damage as they are taste-tested.

Deer Resistant Perennial Plants for Sun

The majority of Ms L’s garden is in full sun. She requested suggestions for perennial plants so she would not have to replant each year. Here are some plants I will be suggesting to add to her garden.

  • Rockcress (Aubrietia deltoidea) – spring
  • Lavender (Lavandula spp.) – summer
  • Yarrow ( Achillea spp. ) – summer
  • Lamb’s Ear ( Stachys byzantina ) – summer
  • Threadleaf Coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata) – summer
  • Native Spicebush ( Lindera benzoin ) – spring
  • Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) – summer
  • Rose campion (Lychnis coronaria) – summer

Deer Resistant Perennial Plants for Partial to Full Shade

  • Bleeding Heart ( Dicentra spectabilis ) – spring
  • Foam Flower (Tiarella cordifolia) – spring
  • Lungwort (Pulmonaria spp.) – spring
  • Barrenwort (Epimedium spp. ) – spring
  • Snakeroot ( Cimicifuga racemosa ) – autumn

Deer Resistant Annuals

Ms. L also has many full sun raised beds, some of which she would like to dedicate to edibles. Here are some veggies and herbs that have a better chance of being passed over by deer.

  • Hot Peppers ( Capsicum annuum )
  • Cucumber ( Cucumis sativus )
  • Nasturtium ( Tropaeolum majus )
  • Most root vegetables
  • Dill
  • Chives
  • Fennel
  • Sage
  • Thyme
  • Mint
  • Parsley
  • Garlic

Resources:
Smart Gardening to Deter Deer
Deer Resistant Vegetables and Herbs

The GrowHaus

gardens for good, Urban gardening, vegetables

I had the privilege to attend another Garden Blogger’s Fling, this one hosted in Denver, Colorado! I’ve never visited the city or state. In addition to meeting new Flingers and reuniting with known Flingers, I was able to be present in a gardening environment completely new to me. I flew out to this year’s Fling a day early, allowing me to attend the group dinner/reception held the Thursday evening before the official start of the Fling. This year’s dinner was held at The GrowHaus.

Grow Haus in Denver Colorado

Healthy Food is a Right, Not a Privilege

According to their website, the GrowHaus defines itself as “a nonprofit indoor farm in Denver’s Elyria-Swansea neighborhood.” It’s vision is “to catalyze a neighborhood-based food system in our community that is healthy, equitable, and resident-driven.” I was quickly smitten. I truly believe gardens can be powerful tools for good. My own city’s Urban Roots is striving toward very similar goals.

The GrowHaus Market

The GrowHaus produces and distributes healthy food. Like Urban Roots, immediate residents of the area receive discounted prices. Since the neighborhood is 83% latino, all signage is displayed in both Spanish and English. At the front of the building, a wonderful market is maintained to sell fresh produce.

Hydroponics Farm

Hydroponics Farm

A hydroponics farm has been running year round at The GrowHaus since 2012. Most of the greens, including lettuce, arugula, kale, and chard are grown. With a system of troughs and liquid fertilizer, the hydroponics farm produces an average of 1,200 heads of greens per week while using 90% less water than traditional farming practices.

Aquaponics Farm

Aquaponics System at GrowHaus

In partnership with GrowHaus, the Colorado Aquaponics team maintains a 3,200 sq ft aquaponics system. The picture above is a smaller-scale model exemplifying such a system. Aquaponics mimics a natural ecosystem in-so-far-as the by-product of one species supports the growth of another. As show in the model, the water containing waste from the fish is pumped into the plants’ troughs. The plants utilize the nutrients from the waste and clean water is returned to the fish tanks.

Mushroom Farm

Tucked away in what looked like a 200 sq ft, dark closet was the mushroom farm. Control of humidity, temperature, and gas exchange combined with a vertical approach to gardening allows the GrowHaus to supply residents with crops of healthy mushrooms.

Gardening as Education and Outreach


If each generation remembers to honor our ancestors and builds those that will still come, we will be able to strengthen ourselves and improve not only our community but also our nation and the world.

One of my favorite things to do beyond the act of gardening is TALKING about gardening. I often enjoyed chatting with neighbors walking by the garden plot at Urban Roots when I volunteered there a couple of seasons ago. Education about gardening is something everyone should have ready access to in their community. The GrowHaus seems to be a complete rockstar in this area with their food education programming for both the general public and those living in the neighborhood.

Wall Sign
The health of the people lies not in anything else, but in the religious and inviolable respect for the rights of each and every one of the members that compose it. -Esteban Echeverria

In addition to food education, the GrowHaus understands the important aspect of engaging the community it wishes to serve. I’ve noticed some community gardens struggle to establish. A common thread I’ve seen in these cases are a group of well-meaning gardeners building a garden plot and telling the neighbors what they need. Instead, the more successful community gardens have sought out leaders living in the community, engaged its members, and listened to what the community really wants from their garden.

wooden rainbow flower

And that idea brings me to my very favorite part of gardening… the naturally intertwined ideas and practices of caring for oneself, your community, and the environment through gardening. With work done by The Grow Haus and the neighbors themselves, a discarded community and food desert is being converted into a bountiful and sustainable garden for its residents.

Reference Links

Visit from the Tree Fairy(ies)

autumn, the Lot, Urban gardening

The Lot is located under 2 miles from the center of our little city. Our neighborhood is older than the Burbs, with our home being built in 1923. At some point the entire street was planted with norway and silver maples, all of which are at their mature height now.

Since we’ve lived on the Lot, we have had a norway maple in the easement at the South side of the house. The tree helped to shade the porch and home during the hot summer months. In the winter, its absence of leaves allowed the sunlight to help warm the south side. The maple would also keep a gardener cool when she wanted to work in the south bed midday. It was a pretty sweet deal.

However, also during the time we have lived here, a wound in the trunk of the tree has grown progressively worse. The best guess we can make is it was backed into by some past neighbor. We really, REALLY didn’t want to send in a request for its removal until it had to go. This spring was the season.

As all other trees on the street were leafing out this past spring, the norway maple on the front of the Lot was not. Also, the wound on the tree had be weakening the middle of the trunk and the tree was beginning to lean toward the house. All signs pointed to a phone call to the city and a request for the maple’s removal.

Monocultures in Urban Neighborhoods

During our time with the Urban Forest Project, the Other Half and I learned this approach of planting a street as a monoculture (a single type or family) is not the best idea. This became evident to city planners when Dutch Elm Disease in the 1950s and then Emerald Ash Borer in the early 2000s caused entire streets of those trees to be removed at a time.

The city now selects trees that can withstand the harsh urban conditions, chooses trees with the correct height as to not grow into power lines, and aims for a variety of species for the neighborhood. With a diverse population lining a street, the chances of a future tree disease or pest causing the removal of all the trees at once is slim.

A Gift of Gingko

The Other Half and I had been exchanging ideas for a replacement tree for the majority of the season. After removal, it would be another 18 months before the city would plant a new tree (with no charge to us) to replace the norway maple. However, I’m impatient, so we were going to offer to purchase and plant a replacement. We’d simply select a tree from the city’s list of approved trees.

But this morning the universe had a different plan as a Citizen Forester volunteer knocked on our door. A neighbor a block or two down had applied to and received a mini-grant to have trees planted in our neighborhood. There was a lone ginkgo which had been passed over by a neighbor who did not want trees in his/her property’s easement. The Citizen Forester had noticed the white mark on the dying maple (city code for “remove this tree”), and wondered if we wanted the ginkgo. Um, yes please!!

The Maidenhair Tree

Ginkgo biloba, or the Ginkgo, is the sole surviving genus of the order Ginkgoales and is considered a living fossil. This ancient order of plants, believed to have been present 150 million years ago, have characteristics of both ferns and conifers. The fan-shaped leaves of the Ginkgo resemble fronds of the plant genus Adiantum, or the maidenhair ferns. The leaves are also often in two lobes, which is how it picks up the “biloba” or “two-lobed” in its name. The tree was cultivated in China and Japan because of its religious significance, but no natural stands of Ginkgo are thought to exist.

The cultivar ‘Autumn Gold’ is the one now situated in the easement on the Lot. According to the Missouri Botanical Garden website, this ginkgo grows up to 40 or 50′ and makes a great shade tree. It will have green flowers (all current ginkgo cultivars are male) in the spring and gold leaves in the autumn. It requires full sun so the south side of the Lot is an excellent location for it. Due to the low maintenance required and the tree’s ability to tolerate air pollution, the Ginkgo makes a great tree for an urban environment.

Ginkgo Guardians

So now it is up to the Other Half and I to care for our new sapling. It was delivered as a ball and burlap tree, so I’ve already been out there a few times to fuss over untangling its branches. Those are often squished a bit from being bound against the leader with twine before being stacked on delivery trucks. This whole weekend we are supposed to finally get some seasonal rainfall, so the tree should get a good drink. The leader, or vertical stem on top of the trunk of the tree, is a bit crooked. However, the trunk is straight, and I’ve seen leaders straighten out over a few years once the tree is growing in its new location. Next year we’ll make sure it gets watered well throughout its first summer. I’m looking forward to helping it get settled and integrating it into the crazy garden that is the Lot.