Whimsical Garden Vignettes

 Each spring I look forward to visiting the garden center for new flowers and plants. This year I decided to get creative and opted instead to shop for a variety of fun and whimsical ‘garden art’ along with some faux plants. I grew tired of the wildlife around here making a smorgasbord of my plantings especially when they have the whole forest to forage on! I’ve scattered these among the plants that amazingly made a resurgence. At the end of last summer, the liriopes appeared to have been shirred off completely. I know it was the deer because I caught them in the act! Although, I’ve read bears like to chomp on grasses too. Among foxes and deer our wildlife cam also captured bears on our property.  Maybe they did us a favor by cutting them back 😉 and that's why they're growing back strong. Anyway, such is life in the forest!

Tiny Wildflowers

We threw a bag of wildflower seeds in the backyard last season not sure what would bloom. This is a tiny bouquet I picked. They are VERY small, but very lovely. Not too many bloomed...I think the birds may have picked at the seeds. 😉

Chanterelle Mushrooms Abound!

Lots of wild chanterelle mushrooms growing this time of year. I believe they are safe to eat and are great dried, but I'll leave them to the wildlife. Deer forage on mushrooms and can tell the difference between edible and poisonous. Won't be gathering any mushrooms in my basket for now and I'll leave them for our friends in the forest including the squirrels and wild turkey. 😎
 

Bambi - Day Visitor

With the help of our Golden Retriever who sniffed out this sweet little fawn under our back deck we discovered Bambi! Our first thought was "Oh Deer", it's abandoned! With a bit of research we learned that there was a strong probability the fawn wasn't abandoned and we should leave it right where it was. Female deer hide their newborn and move some distance away to feed to avoid drawing predators to their offspring. So grateful we didn't need to intervene...no 'rescuing' necessary...hours later she was gone. Information at National Wildlife Federation