Visiting family in Cass county MN zone 3 b. The amount of native flowers are amazing. I need to take pics. Yarrow, birdsfoot trefoil, fireweed, ostrich fern and others.
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I post this to give hope to those with intense deer pressure. This is a largely neglected/unmanaged native garden with very high deer pressure in Annapolis, MD. I was here and weeded once at the end of May and then just this week. It has otherwise been untouched this year. This particular garden (3 tiers, a chunk out of the picture) took about 1 hour to weed, it wasnāt bad at all. The deer live in the adjacent woods. I started revamping this fall ā24, but it was mostly planted last spring and fall. There are still 3 patches of some sort of crap to get out that can be seen here, TONS has been removed. There were two plastic āweed barriersā in here as with all the old gardens on this property. One under 8ā of mulch and only a little soil, and then a much older one about 6ā down under heavy clay with rock hard, dead soil beneath that one. In 2024, I spent countless back breaking hours removing these from all over the property (another sloped garden this large and many smaller ones) until finally getting some paid help. That was a mistake as they essentially just chopped it up, and then I had to go remove it all āagain.ā Scary grey soil under the older ones. Every few years for the prior 15 years, landscapers had been paid large sums to try to plant all these gardens, and virtually nothing lived except horrible rhizomatous weeds that couldnāt have cared less about all the plastic tarps. Discovering all the plastic barriers answered that mystery. Poor suffocated roots in dead soilā¦
But! With the barriers gone, more than just horrible weeds can grow, the native roots are breaking it up, and the soil is actually alive again! I can gently push a shovel into the ground (miraculous) to plant and see worms, color and life.
Itās been a learning curve of what is actually deer resistant out here. Many supposedly toxic/deer resistant natives are mowed down here. Each season I rethink and add. The pictured garden is a little schizophrenic from tier to tier because of having to leave clumps of grass crap and not being allowed to condense a lot of spread out hibiscus on the top. This area pictured will only have a few changes this fall. 3 areas are going to get a lot of grasses and solidago. Tons more coreopsis being added all over along with more milkweeds, various ornamental native grasses and monarda punctata that does well. Smooth oxeye blooms profusely untouched in another large garden along with boneset, swamp milkweed and rattlesnake master. Amsonia, blue false indigo and native grasses also do excellent here. Aromatic aster seems to be allowed to bloom while other asters are a waste of money. Most of the Mistflowers are allowed to grow, spread and bloom. Rudbeckia, liatris and so many others are a lost cause, echinaceas can at least bloom, but stay very small from all the deer pruning. Then there are things that do great one year (untouched) and are mowed down the next ā Iāll never make sense of that!
If I could replant this particular garden now knowing what I know, I would do 2-3x larger drifts of various grasses, milkweeds, coreopsis, solidago, amsonia and aromatic aster. And the BFIās. None of the other stuff.
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In containers or in real ground? Currently all my remaining CA natives are in containers
In ground, Iāve definitely seen monkeys fall from overwater. My theory is they fill up the container so fast they drink it dry no problem. Having a similar 100 degree bloom experience with some Salvia spathacea though I donāt think thatās technically native this far north
Looks great!!!
What is the soil like there? pH? nutrients?
Amsonia hubrichtii is so unhappy with my soil. Iāve actually moved it now to a pot in potting soil and itās doing better.
This year, my milkweed were chowed down by snails instead of monarch caterpillars which was a bummer. They recover well from being eaten, but the snails eat them at a different time so they donāt bloom.
Do you have favorite grasses? l think I see some kind of sedge (which I suppose isnāt really a grass, but it looks like one) and some little bluestem. Other recommendations for attractive deer-safe grasses?
The deer seem to leave most of the native grasses alone. However, Iāve discovered that Beaked Panicgrass (which is actually native to my area) is deer food and some people here plant it specifically as deer forageā¦ It does spread rhizomatically and survive anyways, but you might not see it because it gets eaten so fast.
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The soil is terrible. It was the hardest, dead grey/green clay that had seen or some rare places itās sand. Now, itās brown/red clay and nice. I havenāt tested pH, but probably on the acidic side since the natives do well. Totally a guess.
Thatās a bummer amsonia hubritchii doesnāt work in your area. Itās very popular around here and does well.
Grasses in the picture are purple lovegrass, pink muhly and little bluestem. There are also switchgrasses here that do great. The stuff you might think is sedge is the remaining crap to be dug- or was because I decided to spend 2 hours killing myself digging most out this morning. In the fall, Iām adding ānorthwindsā switchgrass and adropogon ternarius in addition to more of whats here. just placed my first order at The Pollen Nation because I could order in 5ās which is great since I needed a lot of 5 groups and then at most 25 of something.
You could easily make a gorgeous native grass garden! The native grasses love nutrient-poor soil. They all have such beautiful colors and become striking in fall. Indiangrass is another great one I just havenāt had the right place for it. Prairie dropseed is very gracefull in fall and Iāve seen some designs with āriversā of that running through the rest and looks so beautiful. You have space, so I would make very large drifts of whichever you like the most paying attention to the fall colors and staggering heights with purple lovegrass more towards the front since itās your shortest. Happy to help if you want to messages me 