Cindy.
I am on that page also. I have started to replace areas with shrub type plants like Peonies. I also didn't replace plants along the borders,they can return to grass and make me very happy.

No more enlarging beds here either. Many plants will be dug and sent to the dump - some will be replaced by mulch and rocks. Preen and mulch are now my two best friends. This hot summer has taught us a lot!

I haven't quite reached the point of Preen and mulch yet but I do need the time to ponder what I can edit or replace.

Preen prevents weeds and mulch prevents the sun from giving life to weed seeds. At my age I need them both.

Editing can be a heartbreaker.

A heartbreaker indeed! I can never bring myself to tossing healthy unwanted plants into the compost pile. Always have to find a new home for them. Might be why my garden beds are too full.

I do the same thing. It's easier to discard a non-performing plant than to eliminate a good grower that just grows more than the space we allowed for it when we planted it.

I don't have the plant guilt I used to. There are some plants that just won't take here, not to mention originally planting in sun that becomes shade over time.
If they are struggling I toss them,. I havn't ever been able to relocate a plant with any success.

Interesting conversation... I just told my husband today that I'm thinning out plants next year. Mother Nature kind of kicked my butt this year! I realize that I have too much stuff and not enough energy to care for my gardens. I've decided mowing isn't really all that bad!

So glad I stopped all purchases of hosta, daylilies, Japanese irises (and more) a few years ago when I first felt gardening was becoming more of a job than pure pleasure.

ge1836 said:I hear your pain.
I didn't think I had room for more of anything but a fellow gardener made me such a deal I couldn't say no.
The lily has such a small footprint I found it easy to cram in more.
This is tiny snowflake



Tiny Athlete

Tiny Spider



Tiny Skyline

Tiny Icon

JoAnn do you have to spray lily for deer?

I thought my deer problems had been broadcast all over the website.
Liquid Fence worked 4 years.They got used to it
Repelzall (sp) worked 3 years then they just ignored it and ate as they pleased
Deer OFFdidnt last at all.
Deer have eaten most of the lilies and every hosta and phlox by mid July.
Next spring I will use Milorganite.
Many of my lilies have disappeared over the past three years and I am not replacing them.

I knew you were eaten out of house and home.....but there was that lily before my eyes.

I keep reading that lilies are safe....I was trying to prepare myself...

I got some leopard from Ken...so far so good...but they have not flowered....

Deer love Asiatics ,Orientals, Daylilies.
They wait for the buds to get to the day before bloom ,then they eat the buds.
Here are some pix from this year and last year
This is the Lasagna Garden 2015 nice clumps of lilies,this year all were eatn


The Livingroom garden 2015 and this year. Deer ate all the Forever Susans before they opened.

So sorry to see what the dastardly deer have done, Jo Ann!

I put down several wide swaths of Milorganite at every possible entry spot but the deer crossed over and it didn't stop their rampages at all.

KRAPP what a downer, That is my last repellant, I had hopes for one more season. Guess I am glad for the photos I have of past seasons.

There's always coyote urine if you enjoy the look of rags, soaked with the urine, every few feet. I nixed that one.

I found a company that sells predator urine online. " Legup Enterprizes " I am too old to deal with such stuff.
We already have the Earthboxes swathed in netting to keep the Woodchuck from eating the tomatoes.
What a summer.

Thismorning..35 minutes ago

Rosie.
I love your quote "some of the roads weren't paves."

I see you have wild life. My first response was Shoot It.
As I stated before.I am not planting lilies anymore,hostas also and phlox.
I am planting Peonies in some areas, followed by larger shrubs. Just can't keep the perennials going.

I keep thinking something is amiss.. Should the fawn still have spots?? I hinkmthese things breed 24/7.

Try virburnum and I think you are spot on with peony..as a beautiful replacement ..some are so darn beautiful..BUT...the rain will break your heart just as surely as the deer...EVERY single year my beautiful peony are on the ground ..destroyed. I keep saying this ad nauseum..but blue star amsonia is a knockout in an old fashioned garden and come fall the needlelike green leaves fairly glow a hot golden bronze..lights up the garden. Nothing kills it..returns faithfully..and best of all dies to ground and so raking and mulching so easy..no leaves caught in it come spring to clear out. Erupts from the ground in in a pretty fuschia. The white guara is very well behaved too --not all sprawling and messy like the pink. A slim white fountain of tiny butterflies.