It is very hard to know what is the impact on deer and rabbits of what you have done vs. changes that occur for other reasons.
As I started paying more attention to the yard, I apparently made plants more appetizing to deer and rabbits that may have been around all along. Or maybe it is just Murphy's law.
Our Hostas looked terrible for years because they were choked by Lily of the Valley. Once I weeded out the LOTV, both deer and rabbits suddenly decided Hosta are tasty and destroyed all of them. I tried deer and rabbit repellent for the first time last year (after most of the damage was done). I still don't really know whether it works. I'm using it more aggressively this year, as well as extra hot chili powder.
Where I missed doing that in the front, one or more rabbits have been extra aggressive this year about eating any interesting plants.
Something popped up ahead of the Hosta everywhere the Hosta is. Both deer and rabbits crapped where they ate, so they may have planted it; Though it seemed to come up surprisingly fast for new growth from seed (rather than reemergence from roots). I was torn between weeding it out to help the Hosta vs. letting it get big enough to identify:
But it was a short period of indecision before the rabbit resolved the question by eating all of it.
Last summer (for the first time ever) a pair (seemed to be mother and child) of deer ate all the berries in one of my LOTV patches. I thought those were poisonous to mammals and we apparently don't have the birds that like those berries. So prior to that event, nothing ever ate any of the LOTV berries. After that, I never saw another deer in my yard and saw little possible evidence of them visiting in the night and no conclusive evidence. Two deer getting sick shouldn't scare all the rest away from my yard. So it must be coincidence. But I can hope.
In the back (where I've never seen a rabbit) something recently ate half the leaves off a struggling rhododendron (where I planted a slightly rooted branch a few years ago and it neither recovered nor fully died). I had sprayed it recently with repellent, which is discouraging. In Feb, something ate almost all the buds off a different type of Rhododendron, whose previous dose of repellent had likely been too much earlier. But overall, less was eaten this winter and spring in the back than a typical year.
In front, a rabbit dives for cover under one of the big rhododendrons (that nothing ever eats) every time I come outside. All small interesting plants are eaten immediately. Dandelion and another weed I'm overwhelmed by, seem to be immune. Campanula (which arrived as a weed) seemed immune until I either transplanted it together into a clump or weeded around it. Once isolated from other weeds, the Campanula was immediately eaten up by rabbits. The Hosta is just barely poking up and I'm trying to get to exposed parts with repellent and chili powder as quickly as I can. But no idea whether that will work.
)
