My advice on how to protect tulips from deer

 Happy spring everyone! To my pleasant surprise, our test bed of tulips have managed to flower before being destroyed by deer. I have two tips on how you may be able to enjoy these beautiful flowers briefly before they are devoured. Tip one: Plant your tulip bulbs as close to your house as possible. Deer seem to be wary of getting too close to structures. Tip two: let your dog out at random times during the night to do their business. This will make any nearby deer very anxious so they will be more likely to steer clear of your place. We've already taken plenty of pictures of these impressive flowers because we know that any night they could disappear.

Sowing seeds for late winter and early spring

 Spring is almost upon us. This is the perfect time to sow a specific type of plant seed that enjoys a period of cold vernilization. The ones I'll be sowing are:

Poppies (of course)

Larkspur

Bachelor Buttons

Chamomile

Lupine

Snapdragons

Also sown was some Hulless Oats, Spring Barley and Orchard Grass to fill in any gaps in the overwintering Winter Wheat. Be sure to check back each week for updates on how all the plants are progressing.

Garlic can survive temperatures of -1 Fahrenheit with snow cover

 My test plot of garlic has not only survived the winter here in USDA growing zone 6b, but looks great. As a huge bonus, the deer seem to have no interest in them. The only downside is that the elephant garlic (actually a leek) didn't survive our coldest night of the whole winter of -1(F). This little plot of garlic was put in due to curiosity of if it would grow completely unprotected at the edge of our property. I'm happy to have found an edible crop that can stay in the ground during the winter and can even deter deer.

Daffodils are more deer resistant than Dutch Irises

First of all, happy March everyone! I went to check my flower bulbs today and found that my Dutch irises had been eaten to the ground. Of my 63 plants, only 3 of the irises did not have the tops eaten. Right next to the irises, the daffodils are perfectly fine. This was a hard lesson learned because I had high hopes for the Dutch irises to not be bothered by deer. A did get a nice little surprise while checking the bulbs though. There are a few orange crocuses coming up. When I bought a mixed bag of crocus bulbs, I was hoping there would be some orange flowered ones included and it looks like it worked out well for me. I'll make sure to get some pictures once they fully bloom.