Our neighborhood has too many deer. The number of deer families has more than tripled since we moved here. Deer are not a native species, but since they are cute as well as destructive then the local government does not provide any way to deal with them.
During the past two years their crowding has caused them to eat even the English ivy, daphne, and sword ferns in our front yard (three plants deer normally do n0t eat).
So we've been planting hellebore. It's now the only plant that's safe.
A local nursery, Northwest Garden Nursery, is one of the foremost hellebore breeders in the world. So at least we get an unusual amount of variety with the one pretty plant the deer won't eat.
A few weekends ago we purchased eight more hellebore. They have been sitting in their pots, waiting to be planted. Yesterday I planted two in the back yard. Today I'll plant the other six in the front yard. These are the perfect days, since it is finally dry enough that I'm not hurting the lawn by walking on sogginess, but still wet enough that digging is very easy.
Perhaps I'll even attack the winter's new blackberry invasions, too. (I weeded the first spring crop of dandelions yesterday.)
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