Situation #1:

Beautiful home built on a swamp.
(Click on photos to see a bigger photo)

A view of the main cottage garden. This garden is planted with herbs that deer hate and perennial flowers. The perennials are full sun plants that prefer cool nights.

Solution:

The owners wanted gardens to surround this house. The gardens needed to be in a style similar to the house. We planted cottage gardens composed of plants that were native to this area or at least close relatives. Anything planted here, needed to love moisture, cool nights, a relatively short growing season and be unpalatable to deer. A native stone walk goes around the house and ends in a stone patio area. We also built a round deck adjacent to the patio to provide more space for entertaining. We added treated timbers along the edge of the drive to channel the flow of water from the roof which has no gutters. A low dry laid stone wall edges the cottage garden areas.

The area in the lower left of this photo is Forest Service land that had to be seeded with a native grass and wildflower mix approved by the Forest Service. It is doing very nicely and the flowers are beginning to bloom. The cottage garden is also doing very nicely. No deer nibbling at all. This photo was taken Mid-summer 2000.

The photo above appeared in an excellent book printed in Late Summer of 2001. 'Redesigning the American Lawn' by Bormann, Balmori, and Gaballe. ISBN 0-300-08694-6 Available through Amazon.com