Heiden Lentz

So the only recycling place around here (that I know of) shut down a while ago, but I feel just terrible throwing away all my plastic bottles, tin cans, etc.  Does anyone know of any places near Lincoln county in Montana where I can recycle easily (and cheaply)?  Thanks!

Does anyone have any experience growing peach trees in zone 5b?  I really like the idea of growing a (white) peach tree in my backyard at some point, but I both have little knowledge on them and do not know if they are even grow-able here.  Thank you!

Lindsey Jane wrote:Hi there! And welcome...

We have lot's of deer, too. I have found that the only foolproof* way to keep them out of our gardens and orchards is with fencing.

BUT - I have noticed no break-ins since we have ringed our main gardens on the outside of the fence with all sorts of fragrants - including lavender.

We currently have Lavender (full grown at 3 feet by 3 feet) of all varieties in beds that ring our gardens next to beds of chives and egyptian walking onions, multiplier onions and other alliums. We have planted rosemary (now full grown at 4 feet by 4 feet and pruned every year) and things like Clary sage. We have also planted lot's of thyme, sage, lemon balm, and different flowers like daffodils and calendula. I have planted lavender next to all my fruit trees in a guild with other plants, such as comfrey, strawberry and garlic. In the hopes that the deer will leave them be.

We take the "more is more" approach to gardening and just try to add heft and weight in terms of sheer volume to attack predation on all fronts. Plus, in the summer when the herbs have been baking all day in the heat, it's a slice of heaven to walk out in the main staple gardens and just breathe it all in....

If you do plant, maybe go for width instead of height? Like, put rosemary in a row, then stagger plant lavender in front of that, then some strategically placed barberry, then some low lying herbs like sage, thyme and intersperse with chives?

I would say go for it - or maybe just plant a bunch of herbs and fragrants and enjoy those! Because the deer don't bother with them. And they are pretty. Also blood meal works really well, but MY, it is nasty smelling and has to be reapplied after heavy rainfall.

Good luck!



*until they break down the fence, that is...

This is really helpful!  Thank you so much!  I'm unsure if there is enough space to layer that many plants next to my hostas, but you've given me some great food for thought!  I'm also not sure if rosemary would overwinter here though unfortunately.  I was however already planning on planting some calendula out front, and my guinea pig adores chives, so maybe I'd do a barrier of lavender-calendula chives?  Hmmm.

Tyler Ludens wrote:In my experience, deer-resistant plants surrounding deer-vulnerable plants do not prevent the deer-vulnerable plants from being destroyed by deer.  My Spineless Prickly Pears were surrounded by Rosemary, which is entirely deer-resistant.  The deer ate the Prickly Pears wherever they could reach them over or around the Rosemary.

So far nothing has worked but fencing, so I am putting a double fence around the entire homestead (approximately 1 acre).

Hmmm, I wonder if it would work on plants shorter than the lavender?  I'm mainly thinking Hostas, the house came with a lot of them out front, and the deer ate literally all of them last year.  They might stay away from the lilac leaves once it starts blooming again, so it wouldn't be a total bummer if the lavender wouldn't work for that.  Thanks for your input!

Tj Jefferson wrote:Heiden,

Welcome to permies!

Deer can be excluded (electric or really tall fence) tolerated (non-palatable plants, or maybe Sepp Holzers Bone Sauce (noxious). Other than that there are lots of threads using the search function that show all the things people have tried. Success stories are included below...


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That's... not really what I asked?  But thank you?

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:I'm growing interspecies hybrids between common beans and runner beans. I believe that the cross only works if the common bean is the mother, and the runner bean is the pollen donor. You can tell if attempts at crossing were successful in a number of ways... The cotyledons of runner beans stay below ground. The cotyledons of common beans are high in the air. The cotyledons of F1 hybrids are approximately at ground level. (photos below). Another way to tell, is that if scarlet flowers show up in the common bean patch, it may be because of cross pollination. Naturally occurring crosses are more likely if the two species are planted closely together. Also, if only bush beans are grown next to runner beans, and vines show up in the bush beans, they may be from a naturally occurring cross. In the F1, runner bean traits were dominant for seed coat color, flower color, and pod type.

Thank you so much for this information!

Hi, My family moved to a new house about one and a half years ago now, and it came with lots of nice plants.  Come summer last year, we realized that there are LOTS of deer around here that will eat almost anything.  We had a heck of a time trying to keep them away from our plants (they even eat lilac?).  I recently heard that they tend to stay away from lavender, is it possible that it could be used as a fence to keep the deer away from certain plants?  And if so, how tall would the lavender have to be compared to the plant it would guard?  Thanks!

Does anyone here have any experience breeding a scarlet runner bean with a common green bean?  I've read that it should be possible, if a bit difficult.  Also, how do you think the traits would differ depending on who the mother is and who the father is?  This would be my first experiment breeding plants, and I'm planning on crossing the aforementioned scarlet runner bean with the dragon's tongue bush bean.  I want the vines to be shorter than the scarlet runners, and the beans to be more similar to the dragon's tongue, while also aiming for some very pretty flowers.  Basically, ornamental plant meets delicious legume.  I've already read a book on general plant breeding, but I don't know anything about these bean specific questions.  Any insight is very appreciated!

I'm not very experienced in mulches, so I have a few questions if anyone could please share some insight?  Are somewhat regular fertilizations actually bad for sedum?  I want to put something around my clematis but it likes to be fertilized every now and then.  Everything I've read says to not fertilize sedum, but compost can be expensive as mulch.  Also, is sedum like regular mulch in that it's bad to put right up against a plant?  I've read that with normal mulches, it can cause the stem to rot.  Is it similar with a live mulch?  The main plants I want to plant it around are peonies, lupines, columbine, clematis, hyacinths, and viburnums, if that helps.  Thanks for your time!

So, I stumbled across a bit about using worm castings to make soil more fertile, does anyone here have any experience with it?  E.g. does it work well, what's a good brand, how do you use it, etc.  Thanks for your time!