Acceptable Level of Damage

 For generations, gardeners and farmers have been talking about the "acceptable level of damage".   How much are you willing to share with the pests?  There is even a rhyme.

One for the mouse, one for the crow, one to rot, one to grow

Few of us would mind losing a tomato, or even a few ears of corn here and there.  But Nature has no self control and deer, racoons, squirrels even insects, will destroy an entire plant or crop with no thought for the future or sharing.  It always seemed stupid to me that Asparagus Beetles would work on an Asparagus patch year after year until they killed every last plant thus eliminating their own habitat.  I guess they are a bit like humans in that respect.

Yesterday morning when I came out the door the first thing I saw was some mulch disturbance.  Someone either stepped in the net or got a mouthful and pulled up the staple.  They moved on and the daylilies were safe!

Around the corner I saw hoofprints in the mulch edge and found that some of the Hosta and Coral Bells were trimmed.  The plants were also sprayed so they did not eat them all.  I went ahead and trimmed the rest of them off.  I enjoy the foliage more than the flowers on these anyway.

I took some time to clean up the wild daylilies (Tiger Lilies) along the front fence.  The deer got to these the end of May before I even started spraying.  Usually they don't want the hard, new buds and wait until they are plump and ready to open.  The early stems had time to dry all the way to the base which makes it possible to pull them out easily instead of cutting them.  There are still mid-season stems in there that are still green.

That's a lot of stems, but the border still looks nice.  Just think how nice it would have looked with twice as many blooms.  

I ordered some larger covers on Amazon to try for some of my free standing perennials to reduce the number of plants I have to spray.  It is nice when the plants are small and I can put the wire cloches over them and not worry about them at all for awhile.  These mesh covers are designed like little pup tents.

There are a few plants that they will fit over really slickly, especially the clump of Cheyenne Spirit Echinacea at the corner of the walkway that I pass by dozens of time each day.  It is in a vulnerable spot, and it is something that I enjoy very much.  Being able to set this cover over it each evening will ensure that I get to enjoy every bloom this season.

Cheyenne Spirit 2023

The covers have a front zipper which is meant for you to be able to reach in and harvest from a covered raised bed, but it make is convenient to rearrange taller stems like these Black Eyed Susans.  The covers are pinned down with earth staples and stack neatly on top of each other when removed.

One less thing to spray each night.

Elsewhere in the garden, my cucumbers are blooming.  This little leaf cutter bee arrived in a shipment from Crown Bees this week.  She spent all day with her face buried in a bloom.