Life must be filled up

First thing this morning as I drew the curtains, I startled a young deer in the garden. He then leapt nimbly over an eight foot hedge. This is what he ate for breakfast: all the heads off the mallows; the stems of a hardy geranium which I’d already cut back; the red flower heads off Pelargonium ‘Vancouver Centennial’. Deer are very dainty nibblers, cropping all the stems to a neat uniform height. I don’t mind about the mallows because I’m trying (what a battle) to get rid of them anyway. But pelargoniums? I really can’t be bothered carrying them all into the greenhouse every evening just in case.

I should be thankful that this year my sedum and phlox plants have been left alone and not chomped to ground level. I shall never know whether or not the scary tin butterflies I planted really have kept the marauders at bay.