Outdoors

10 Deer-Resistant Plants

April 27, 2016 by Heather Leister

Welcome, I’m so glad you stopped by!

Do you have frequent visitors to your yard? Visitors that may not be very welcome…because they’re eating your landscape?! Oh, deer! If you get these visitors like we do, we are here to help! We’re sharing 10 beautiful plants you can add to your flower beds and containers, that deer will leave for you instead of taking for a snack.

Several years ago we moved to a new area with a well-known urban deer population. The city’s deer herd was notorious for visiting yards and sampling the local landscaping. In the beginning, being in the midst of the deer was a treat. We had never lived in an area with this much access to wildlife.

The novelty quickly wore off as our plants began to vanish.

Plants that had thrived for years in our old yard were no match for the deer’s appetites. It became clear that we had to adapt our landscaping or our yard would continue to serve as a 24-hour deer buffet.

Through research, trial and error, we found deer-resistant plants that grow in our area. There are still a few deer delicacies planted in the yard (I just can’t give up my hostas!) but for the most part we’ve been successful in keeping them away.

When looking for a deer-resistant plant, a good rule of thumb is to choose something fragrant, prickly, or poisonous to the deer. The deer won’t always obey this rule, especially if they’re hungry and food is scarce, but this is a good place to start. Here are 10 deer-resistant plants that thrive in a variety of environments.

10 Deer-Resistant Plants

FRAGRANT PLANTS

1. Lavender

Are deer eating everything you plant? Try these 10 plants that are deer-resistant, your landscape will thank you!

Lavender is always an excellent choice for a deer resistant plant. This hardy, fragrant perennial requires little water and maintenance.

2. Salvia

Are deer eating everything you plant? Try these 10 plants that are deer-resistant, your landscape will thank you!

Salvia is another perennial that produces a strong fragrance which deer find extremely unpleasant. The plant comes in a wide variety of colors and is a strong perennial that will be easy to care for year after year.

3. Yarrow

Are deer eating everything you plant? Try these 10 plants that are deer-resistant, your landscape will thank you!

Yarrow plants are not overly picky about soil requirements, making them an excellent choice for many people. Bright, colorful flowers bloom throughout the summer, but the deer won’t be tempted to snack thanks to the strong aroma produced by the yarrow leaves.

4. Butterfly Bush

Are deer eating everything you plant? Try these 10 plants that are deer-resistant, your landscape will thank you!

Another fragrant, drought-resistant perennial, Butterfly Bush is an excellent choice if you are looking for a flowery, deer resistant shrub. It grows quickly, produces a large amount of blooms, and does well in almost any type of soil.

Click NEXT to see which beautiful prickly plants will keep deer away!

Salvia image courtesy of Rawich at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Lavender and Yarrow images courtesy of wikimedia commons
Butterfly Bush image courtesy of staticflickr

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How to Plant a Spring Flower Bed

April 1, 2015 by Becky

Planting a Spring flower bed may seem like a daunting task if you’re new to gardening, but we have 10 easy tips and tricks to help you create a beautiful, inviting space in your yard.

1 -Lay Out Your Plants Before You Buy. Today’s planting actually started out on the floor in the nursery of Western Gardens. I laid out all of my plants on a cement square to help me decide how much I needed for the space to be planted. Once I had what I needed, it was easy to load up and head to the flower bed!

2- Clean Up Your Flower Beds. I always start every planting by cleaning up what’s already there. It seems simple, but it makes a big impact to just clear away old debris. 3- Add 2 Inches of Compost Over Top of the Flower Bed. No need to work it into the soil, the nutrients will work their way down to your plants’ roots. We could almost just stop here, at this point the bed already looks so much fresher and cleaner! The fun part is next though, so let’s get planting!

4- Use an Auger to Plant Bulbs. One of my favorite tools is a bulb planting auger. It’s an attachment that fits a standard-size drill, and it makes planting bulbs SO easy and fast! {You can pick one up at your nearest Western Gardens.} Just drill down about 6 inches, drop your bulbs in, and fill back in with soil! Bulb planting at its finest. And simplest.

5- Add Unique Plants like Veggies! I am always looking for ways to plant veggies in a landscape, so I took some along. Lettuce for some extra green, and some sugar snap peas to put on the trellis. It’s a great addition because it’s unique and beautiful, and who doesn’t want a sugar snap pea on their way out the door?

6- Incorporate Unique Elements that you might not always see in a flower bed. I found a trellis at Western Garden Center that went perfectly with the yellow front door and bistro table on the patio. Always try to find cool things to throw in a landscape, but never force it. If it doesn’t go with the flow, don’t try to make it work.

7- Adjust Flowers Prior To Digging. Before I dig any holes for my flowers, I lay them all out in the bed still in their containers. This is the time to make changes and play around with design. One important tip I always give is, take 10 steps back, take a deep breath, and look at what you are about to do. Adjust now before it’s too late!

If everything looks perfect, take your hand shovel, and dig into that bed! All the hard work is over now, so it is time to get everything into the ground. 8- Before the flowers go in the ground, gently tear part of the plants’ root systems…it will encourage the roots to grow into the surrounding soil instead of circling itself (like it’s been doing in the container). 9- Once all your flowers are planted, quickly give it a drink of water. If you’re planting when it’s hot outside, there’s a good chance those plants are in shock. Watering them right away will help them get established in their new home.

10- Don’t Be Afraid To Try Something New! We can’t wait to see those Sugar Snap Peas on that trellis! Now grab a lemonade, pull up a chair and enjoy your beautiful new flowers… and enjoy a sugar snap pea for me!

Plants in this post’s flower bed include: Sugar Snap Peas, Lettuce, Pansies, Prim Rose, Ornamental Cabbage, Ranunculus

{We are often asked what kind of compost we use in our own gardens. We recommend Bumper Crop all natural organic soil builder. It’s great for veggie gardens, flower beds, planter boxes, and pretty much anywhere else you want to put it!}

Raised Garden Beds

May 17, 2014 by Becky

Raised garden beds have become very popular in recent years, and for good reason. Growing more food in less space with less work sounds too good to be true, but it’s not! If you are thinking about taking the plunge and building raised beds for your garden, we’ve included links to 12 different tutorials for raised beds.

Why Raised Beds?

Less Compacted Soil. Roots (and worms!) need air space in the soil to grow, so if you’re stepping in your garden beds, you are compacting the soil and destroying that important air space! For more information about compost and soil amending, see this blog post all about it.

Deeper Soil. The deeper the roots can grow, the healthier your plants will be and the better your harvest. It is often suggested to line the bottom of your garden box with cardboard or black weed barrier cloth, but this will prevent your roots from growing as deep as they want. Try it without and see how your garden grows!

Weed Control. Your veggies will be further from the grass and weeds in your yard, but you will also be able to plant more densely…crowding out weeds that would otherwise grow.

Grow More in Less Space (with less work!) Traditionally, our gardens have always had narrow rows for plants and wide rows for walkways. There is no real reason to design your garden this way, except maybe because it’s how your grandparents gardened. If you have wider rows for your plants, you can fit much more than if you were to plant single rows. Utilize your space more efficiently and you can grow more in your garden than ever before!

Here is a great link to another good article about raised garden beds and on how to build a raised garden bed.

Check out these great tutorials for raised garden beds!

Garden Box Collage

Rectangle Garden Boxes | Vinyl Garden Boxes

U-Shaped Garden Box | Narrow Garden Box

Long Garden Boxes | Cinder Block Garden Box

Garden Box with Brick Border | Tall Garden Box

Rolling Casters Patio Box | Painted Garden Box with Cage

Raised Garden Boxes | Vertical Pallet Planter

Let us know what kind of raised beds you have in your garden, or what you plan to try!

Happy Gardening!

Tips for Early Spring Gardening

April 11, 2014 by Becky

Haven’t started thinking about your garden yet for this year? Still deciding if you should start your very first garden? Looking for some inspiration? Now is a great time to start, and we want to make it easier by giving you a few tips we’ve learned over the years. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned gardener, you should find something helpful!

Start Small

If you have never planted a garden before, start small so you don’t overwhelm yourself and give up. Choose 3-5 of your favorite veggies or fruits. If you have more favorites than that, choose the produce that is the most expensive to buy at the store or farmer’s market!

Make it Easy

If you are starting your garden from seed, you want to avoid regular soil, which can carry diseases that your tiny seedling won’t be able to combat well. Use a seedling starter mix. We like to add some water to the mix before pulling it out of the bag! This way it stays evenly moist during the germination process.
Mike from our Sandy store demonstrated this on a great gardening segment for our local news channel. You can see him adding the water here before they pull any potting mixture out of the bag. We are working on getting a link to the actual video so we can show you his other great tips!

Protect

If you want to get your veggies outside and into the ground right now, just be sure to protect them from frost. A wall o’ water is a great way to protect individual plants, the wall of water surrounding the plant will insulate it from any cold nights that will hit. The average last frost date in Utah is May 15th, so a good rule of thumb is to protect your tender plants until about Mother’s Day.
Ever tried to fill a wall o’ water? It can be tricky! Check out our quick video tip to see a fast & easy way to do it. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more great gardening tips!

Grow Boxes

If you are trying your hand at container gardening/grow boxes/raised beds, make sure they are the right size for you! You should be able to reach into the middle with your hand…so when you are building them, measure with the span of your arm. This is so when you are weeding, caring for your plants, and harvesting, you will be able to reach comfortably into the center of the bed.
If you are doing a vertical container garden, make your boxes a few inches smaller than this so you can reach the fruits & veggies that are growing up high.
Try to get 8-10 inches of soil in your grow box. The roots of your plants will be happier if they can get this far down into the soil.

Compost

Add a 2-3 inch layer of compost to your garden beds, the nutrients will seep down into your soil, and weeds will be kept at bay.

Pace Yourself

Try to do a little gardening every day, rather than saving it all for the weekend. Weekly gardening can seem overwhelming, but 15 minutes a day will keep the weeds down and spirits up!

There are as many good gardening ideas as there are gardeners. If you have a great tip you want to share with us, please leave us a comment! We might just feature you in an upcoming blog post!

Happy Planting!

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Campfire Starters

July 21, 2012 by Becky

We have little kids. And even though we camped a lot when I was a kid, the thought of taking four kids ages 7 and under out into the wilderness just doesn’t appeal to me yet. I think it will soon, but probably not until we’re out of the baby stage. Because camping with a baby just sounds hard.

But I’ve heard of a bunch of different DIY ideas for campfire starters. And since I love the idea of camping, I decided to try the ideas to see which one is the best. Because I’m not opposed to campfires…and we can do that in the backyard! Then the kids can all have a bath and go to bed. Which sounds perfect.

I tried four different starters. I had everything on hand except for wax, so the only additional purchase I made was about $3 at the craft store for some paraffin wax. I used 1/3 of the wax, so the additional cost for these was just under $1. Not bad for 27 campfire starters!

The first one I made was just dryer lint stuffed inside toilet paper tubes. Dryer lint and cardboard are both flammable…and then you’re reusing what would otherwise be trash. Great idea.

The second one was cotton rounds dipped in wax. Super light weight and small, perfect for camping. Especially backpacking.

The third one was dryer lint stuffed in the cups of a cardboard egg carton, then covered with wax. Again reusing something that would be garbage.

The fourth idea was dryer lint (are you seeing a theme here?) in paper muffin liners, covered with wax.

Making them was super easy, and quick too! I went and bought my wax at the craft store. It was $4.29, but with my 40% off coupon it was just under $3. Love a good deal!

It came with three bars of wax, so each was just under $1.

I cut one of the bars into three pieces and then put it in a double boiler (I got a clean, empty can of beans out of my recycle can, and put that in a pot of simmering water).

When the wax was melted, I started by dipping my cotton rounds. I tossed them in the can, and when they had soaked up some wax (about 3 seconds), I took them out with my long tweezers and let them dry on a piece of tin foil. I’m sure waxed or parchment paper is great, but I keep my tin foil next to my stove, so that’s what I used.

After I dipped 10 cotton rounds, I used the rest of the wax to pour over my egg carton and muffin liner lint cups.

I didn’t know how much to pour on, so I just used enough to cover most of the dryer lint. Until I ran out. The last one didn’t get very much wax.

The only thing left to do at this point was test them! I wasn’t planning on any campfires, so I grabbed my tinfoil from dipping the cotton rounds, and I tested my fire starters on the grill!

The only prep needed for any of the starters is to rip a cup off the egg carton, and tear the cotton round about half way down the middle. You just need some of the cotton fibers exposed so you have something to light.

It was windy when I tested these, but I figured that was more of a real life scenario for camping anyway. It was tricky to get the toilet paper tube and muffin paper starters to stay lit. No problems at all with the cotton round and egg carton cup.

Once they all caught, they lasted a lot longer than I was expecting. The toilet paper tube burned for 5 min 30 sec, the cotton round for 6 min 20 sec, the egg carton cup for 9 min 50 sec, and the muffin liner for more than 12 minutes.

So which one is BEST? It depends.

Toilet Paper Tube: No additional cost, but the fire doesn’t burn as hot or as long (notice the flame size & intensity compared to the others).

Cotton Round: Cheap and easy to make, and is the smallest to store out of all the starters.

Egg Carton: Burns hot and long, but if you take the whole carton, it’s the bulkiest to pack. However, if you just rip a couple off the carton to take camping, it’s convenient to store.

Muffin Liner: Biggest surface area, so it burns the longest out of the four. You can even stack them to pack with your camping gear, which is pretty convenient.

I think we’ll plan a campfire night this week with our kids so I can test these out somewhere a little more exciting than the grill! And since these are made from household items & garbage, I’d say it’s a pretty great thing!

Get the Kids Involved!

May 3, 2012 by Becky

We asked for ideas to involve kids in the garden, and had such a great list of thing to do that we had to share! I’ll definitely be using some of these to get my kids excited about gardening. Thanks to everyone who contributed!!

Becky–I pay my kids a penny per rock to get all the little rocks that creep into our garden from our neighbors yard. Sometimes I pay them a penny per dandelion head too!
Laurie–When my kids were little I paid them a penny per snail—solved our garden snail problem in a hurry!
Jami–We have a million pine cones in our yard, so I give each kid a grocery bag and tell them to see how many they get. The winner gets a treat…the winner always gets 3 treats so they can share with their brother and sister!!
Solducky–Going on bug hunts! A good chance to teach the difference between good bugs and pests in the garden too. And then I can squish the squash beetles or other pests.
Renee G–I used to have my boys make veggie pictures and then we stapled them to wooden popsicle sticks to label the rows in our garden.
Ruthann H–My four year old helps me by pointing out all the “nasty” weeds (goat head thorns) he also points out all the poop in the yard. Such a helper!!
Sarah B–I got a set of child-sized garden tools for my 4 year old and gave her her own little patch to work in. She chooses what to plant and gets to learn the ins & outs by working her “garden!”
Jenette–I let the kids pick what kind of garden they want to plant. My daughter did a pizza garden and my son did a ratatoulli garden. They each have their own grow box and take care of their garden from seed to harvest and preparation. They have so much fun doing it! They are very possesive of their gardens and make sure the weeds stay out and the plants get the water they need. Great way to teach responsibility and a self-sufficiency skill!
Kammi B–We give our kids plants and seeds as gifts, like at Easter time or for birthdays. They sometimes will get a little hand shovel or gloves to go with them. Each year they get a spot to plant their own garden items. Sometimes their spot requires a little bit of weeding so we make that a family activity. I have to remind them to water their plants every once in a while, but it’s so rewarding for them to see that they grew something all by themselves. Even more rewarding when they can eat what they grew! Also, in the summertime we have fun making an “only from our garden” dinner. We eat only what we pick from the garden. Gets us to go out and pick our veggies and fruit, and plan a meal together. My kids are much more interested in what we plant, and how we take care of our garden now.
Jane C--I remember as a kid getting paid at an aunt’s house a penny a weed. But my favorite thing was picking raspberries! It is always fun to know you are helping to grow something you can eat later!
Melissa–We have weeds that grow from bulbs in our garden. In order to get my little brother to dig out the bulbs as well as the plants, we have hidden arrowheads and other fun things in the dirt by the plants.
Paula–We got our kids interested in gardening by letting them pick seeds and plant them on the condition that they had to help water and weed. And they were excited to see their results. My daughter started by helping with planting a watermelon, she was 4 at the time.
Deanne–Our favorite Primary teacher Lani gave her little 3 year old class a lesson on water and what a gift it is from Heavenly Father. She gave the kids each their own watering can, I can’t tell you how many times our little grand-daughter is bringing it to me to help me water outside. When my girls were little each had their own row in the veggie garden, some wanted to plant veggies, but one liked flowers the best so she planted those. We would go on snail hunts and stick them in a big ziplock and leave in the sun to cook. The kids got a kick out of that. They foam up, sick I know, but kids like that kind of stuff. Two out of the three are great gardners in their own homes now.
Katie–I have my boys see if they can get up to 100 weeds…we have a very weedy patch of gravel. The 7 year old easily made it and then decided he wanted to go to 1000! He got up to 475 in one day. My friend asked what they get for doing this. I said, “Um, the satisfaction of pulling 100 or 1000 weeds.” No prizes necessary, but I might copy the penny per rock idea for rocks that make their way out of a pathway into the lawn.
Tobi S--I worked in the front yard weeding, but this time I had my three little granddaughters help me. They picked up about 100 pinecones and made a bundle of money. After that, they got right into the dirt with me. I gave them a spade or fork and boy did they have a ball kicking up the dirt. At one point, Bella started to collect Rolly Pollys. A little later I asked her where the Rolly Pollys were and she opens her little sweaty hand and had about 20 poor little guys in her palm. I had her put them back into the dirt. I worked in the yard for over 2 hours and they never left me, sweet little darlings.
Eric F–While we were out working in the yard the other day our sweet 2 year old decided to make a beautiful bouquet of pretty yellow dandelion flowers. She is not quite old enough to really understand what is a weed and a planted flower so we are happy to let her wander around the yard gathering her “beautiful” dandelions while we do the dirty work.
Melissa W–Heres an idea: Give the kids a bucket or bag, whatever is easy to hold, and whoever can collect the most unwanted garden/yard items in 10 minutes gets a prize
Jeremy–Make a game of “HORSE” out of it, like the basket ball game. 1st kid does something, say like pick 10 weeds in 30 seconds. Kids after have to do that. If they don’t complete the task in the set amount of time, they earn a letter, and so on…..
Tisha–We split our family up and see who can fill their buckets full of weeks first. My girls LOVED that. I think they loved that we got rained on too. They keep asking to do it again and we shall, the weeds in my parking strip are fierce.
Megan–I have always thought that involving kids in the whole growing process is neat. Start by giving them a choice of plant/flower/veggie, etc. they want to plant, then that can be “their” plant to take care of, weed, water (with guidance), and see how it grows and develops. It gives the child purpose and responsibility.