An old gardener learns some new tricks

Because most of my gardening experience has been in the desert, the prospect of getting to grow an English-style cottage garden when we moved to Dayton, in 2012, was beyond my wildest dreams.

Little did I know there would be a constant running battle with the wildlife for dominance, beginning with the squirrels and deer.

The squirrels made quite a summer production out of tearing the immature walnuts off the tree in the back yard, and chewing them, and spitting them, and running around burying them in the yard for later.

We had many little walnut trees popping up everywhere, but nary a nut for ourselves.

And they attacked every bird feeder we had with a ferocity one has to see to believe.

Having tried every remedy we finally purchased a "squirrel proof" feeder.

It was quite a sight to see one of them squeeze himself inside the cage of that feeder, to get at the tasty morsels inside.

Then there are the does, and their offspring, who take up residence in the woods behind the house.

I love the English roses, particularly the David Austen roses and so, apparently, do the deer.

I looked out the window one day and there was Bambi happily munching away.

Last month I decided to naturalize the area between the back yard fence and the woods with daffodils and grape hyacinths. I turned my back, and one of the does had her nose in the bucket looking for a treat.

I said "shoo" and she slid back into the woods, but I know she watched, and she knows where I planted every one of those bulbs.

We had a pair of raccoons that made their nightly sojourn through the yard.

Tomatoes and apples would go missing in the night.

We have a very old hardly productive cherry tree. One spring the tree was full of cherries until a flock of cedar waxwings came, from God knows where, and ate them.

Did I mention voles?

I planted fifty red tulip bulbs and none survives today.

They also wreak havoc with the iris that my husband arduously cares for.

He is usually mild mannered, but I have seen him apoplectic with rage over the damage they cause.

One morning he was trying to drown them with a hose.

Let's talk turkey.

We didn't have any in our part of town until three years ago.

It began with one hen. Then there were eight. Then there were sixteen. This year there will be thirty two, and so on.

If necessity is the mother of invention then I now have some remedies.

A big wind blew the top out of the walnut tree, so we removed it.

We replaced the faulty fence with orchard fence.

We put stove pipe around the fruit trees so the critters can't get a grip.

We put a bell system on the bird feeders so the squirrels can't get up to the feeder.

We apply Chile powder to the vole holes. (Thanks to Deb Callahan for that tip.)

Now I understand which plants are deer resistant, plants like; hibiscus, currant, quince, elderberry, and lavender.

We spray the other plants with a concoction of deer-proof spray.

Recently, the garden catalogues have begun to arrive in the mail.

This is always a favorite time for gardeners, especially with snow on the ground.

I have been looking closely at plants that might fill out an ornamental bed in the front yard, and I have to say, for the first time in seven years, I am feeling a little smug.