<p>“I no longer eat anything planted in the ground/yard. You have no way to know what has been dumped in the soil. I grow all edibles in pots or raised beds.”</p>
<p>I know what’s been dumped in my yard. Horse manure. 
My lot used to be a part of a horse pasture. dylanr, where do you live that you have to worry about radioactivity?</p>
<p>sewhappy, a bear! I’ve always one to go through my yard, I’m jealous. The bad news is, I don’t think anything keeps the deer away. My dog runs out to the back yard when the deer are there, and the deer just ignore her. Then I go out and yell and clap my hands at them, and they ignore me too, unless I actually walk up to them. They’re so brazen.</p>
<p>This bear looked very full in the tummy and sort of sluggish. I have no idea what it had been eating. It sort of waddled across the yard while our Jack Russell napped.</p>
<p>Had no idea moving to NJ would be this “wild.”</p>
<p>Remember the “Sopranos” bear?</p>
<p>sewhappy, try moving to my neck of the woods in the greater Seattle area. The very first day of classes at the new school D came home with a note about a bear sighting near the school. :eek:</p>
<p>I hope the bears don’t make it to Ballard- I didn’t plant my blueberry hedge as a lure.</p>
<p>
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<p>From what I hear, the northeast is returning to pre-Columbian levels of wildlife. The national news reported this morning that a mountain lion has been spotted roaming near Norwalk, CT. That’s purely amazing.</p>
<p>Regarding less fearsome creatures, has anyone heard anything about using “DE” to get rid of slugs around hosta? I don’t know the first word, but the E stands for earth.</p>
<p>Mountain lions love babies and kids. Once we went to a private safari while vacationing in Colorado when my kid was little. There weren’t many kids that day. When the mountain lion spotted my kid, s/he really perked up. </p>
<p>DE- Diatomaceous Earth I know it works against grubs. Haven’t used it against slugs.</p>
<p>you are probably thinking of this
[Diatomaceous</a> Earth](<a href=“Golden Harvest Organics”>Golden Harvest Organics)
I haven’t used it, but it is supposed to work well. I am hoping I have too many birds to worry about slugs- haven’t seen many of them yet.</p>
<p>EK, I think the big freeze and long, cold spring were not too kind to the slugs. I’m not complaining.</p>
<p>My biggest rant is that everything seems to be at least 2 weeks behind schedule! Last year I was picking alpine strawberries in my yard on Memorial Day, but this year my groundcover is still covered in white blooms!</p>
<p>Thought I’d post what my neighborhood is doing (well, so far about 6 of us - but hopefully more!)</p>
<p>One neighbor made up a “neighbors sharing with neighbors” flyer - the idea is for neighbors to share their extra “bounty” - be it things bought at the market, things from your own personal garden/ herb garden - whatever.</p>
<p>We have set up a little “station” near our front sidewalks individually. I used shorter plant hook I had and a basket with a hook on it. When you have extras, you place it at your station. Then, as anyone is out walking the neighborhood - we have a lot of dog walkers - neighbors are free to partake in your goodies! </p>
<p>Today, on my walk I had the opportunity to choose from mint, flat leaved parsley, green onion, a special mint used for mojitos (that neighbor even provided extra recipes in a plastic ziploc - I’m impressed!) and some lemon thyme. In my basket (filled with water) I offered extra cilantro, curly parsley, oregano and chives. </p>
<p>I hope the idea catches on - especially when everyones zucchini starts to produce!!!</p>
<p>We are new in our home so this is our first spring/summer season. There seem to be rose bushes. They’re small with pink roses that somehow the dear are getting at despite the thorns. I’ve sprayed with Deer Off and am hoping they’ll recover. I’ve never grown roses before. Any advice on how to feed them?</p>
<p>We have coyotes and foxes in the area. Also very large turtles which my neighbors warn me can bite. It’s a jungle out there!</p>
<p>sewhappy, roses and wildlife do not mix well. Can you find a picture of a rose similar to what you have? Rose care can depend on the type (most roses are a pain in the rear to take care of).</p>
<p>I am pretty rough on my roses ( transplant them when ever the mood strikes) but some are hardier than others. I have had good results with native roses- nootka & gymnocarpa, Queen Elizabeth floribunda, Medallion, Honor & Peace tea roses but we don’t have deer chewing on them.</p>
<p>For those who do- here is a list of deer resistant plants.
[Lawn</a> & Garden: Landscape Plants Rated by Deer Resistance](<a href=“http://njaes.rutgers.edu/deerresistance/]Lawn”>Landscape Plants Rated by Deer Resistance (Rutgers NJAES))
it may be easier just to find something the deer don’t like as much, instead of trying to repel them from dessert.</p>
<p>Re deer & plants, I have had good luck putting our rose canes or barberry canes around prized plants. The deer don’t like to be pricked any more than we do. </p>
<p>Emeraldkity4–that chart is great! A quick look confirmed my experience with deer. Now if there were one for my adolescent ground hog…</p>
<p>abasket, what a nice idea! I have a sidewalk median strip and I plant my herbs there, so anyone is welcome to what they want. I also have blueberries out there and I do notice people taking a few as they walk. Mostly it seems to keep the dogwalkers from allowing their dogs to do their thing on my property, for which I’m grateful. I do occasionally put out extra produce with a “take what you can use” sign. My pumpkins were very popular last year (I grow sugar pie pumpkins–they’re small, but twenty pumpkins (from one vine!) is still too many). </p>
<p>I always freeze the tomatoes I can’t eat–just wash them and cut them into quarters and put them into ziplock bags to freeze them. To use them, I thaw, run them through the blender, and make “fresh” tomato sauce but boiling them to the right thickness. They usually run out around February.</p>
<p>This will make everyone crazy but Portland turns out to be rose-gardening nirvana. I have always struggled to have a few roses in the garden in both Massachusetts (Boston suburbs) and Seattle–I always thought roses had to be high maintenance. Here in Portland, roses grow like weeds. People plant climbers to cover telephone poles, and they do. I have lots of rose plants and they’re easy here. I cut them back hard, they come back, they bloom, they look gorgeous, I’m done. Even black spot if not that much of an issue. (I did throw out one rose that just didn’t get the memo.) My neighbor across the street has a hedge of deep red roses–so the view from my dining room is of a fifty foot strip of blooming roses, all summer.</p>
<p>dmd, you should also mention that Portland’s official nickname is “The City of Roses”. :)</p>
<p>My DH loves roses, and to make him happy, I’ve planted quite a few in the front yard which is facing south, so my roses do well. There is a rose called “4th of July” which gets covered with fabulous red and white blooms that do look like fireworks. Another favorite of mine is a hardy, disease-resistant rose appropriately named Fragrant Cloud. It opened the very first bloom yesterday. I cut a few flowers, put them in bud vases and use them to scent the house. No Glade candles needed! I’m still searching for the rose called 777 (yup, after the airplane; it came out the year of the 777’s inaugural flight), but cannot find it anywhere.</p>
<p>Added: anyone who is into rose gardening should invest in a pair of real rose gloves. They are expensive ($30-40), but your hands and arms will thank you.</p>
<p>I have had good luck ordering weird and hard-to-find roses from this nursery: [Roses</a> Unlimited 2005](<a href=“http://rosesunlimitedownroot.com/]Roses”>http://rosesunlimitedownroot.com/) They charge a bundle for shipping but the rose did well immediately and has already put out its first bloom this year.</p>
<p>Thank you, dmd. I will give them a call. By the way, if you google, this is NOT what the 777 Rose looks like:</p>
<p>[Our</a> Roses](<a href=“http://www.vintagegardens.com/rose_content.aspx?cat_id=21&product_id=4535]Our”>http://www.vintagegardens.com/rose_content.aspx?cat_id=21&product_id=4535)</p>
<p>This is close, but the ones sold at Molbak’s were more purplish (it says on the page that flowers change their color depending on the weather and bloom stages):</p>
<p>[The</a> 777 Rose](<a href=“http://eurodesertroses.com/the777rose.aspx]The”>http://eurodesertroses.com/the777rose.aspx)</p>
<p>It looked very, very pretty IRL.</p>
<p>Abasket, what a great idea. I wish I could grow cilantro here, I think it is just not hot enough as my master gardener friend says she has had no luck either.</p>
<p>BB- would rose gloves work against blackberries?</p>