In my last post, I showed you all that’s flourishing in my June garden. Today, I’ll tell you what’s not. First, let’s talk about damage from animals.

Deer are lovely creatures…in the wild. In my suburban neighborhood where they’re munching on my plants and flowers…not so much. They haven’t been bold enough to show themselves during the day, but I’ve seen them at night, recorded on the trail camera my husband has attached to a fence post at the edge of one of my beds.

That would be the bed where the sedum has been cropped. I guess I should be glad it doesn’t look worse, but believe me, before the deer snacked on it, this sedum wasn’t at ground-cover height.

Deer love the buds of my oakleaf hydrangea. Fortunately, Bambi and company couldn’t reach the top branches, which now are sporting some showy white blooms.

I’ve learned to put certain plants, like hosta, inside my gated backyard. So far, the neighborhood herd hasn’t been hungry enough to leap the fence, which my deer-hunter husband tells me is a possibility.

I’ve also tried spraying plants the deer love with an awful-smelling repellent, which seems to work for a while, but can wash away. And I need to remember to spray before the attack, not after.

Deer aren’t the only problem. The squirrel population in my yard seems to have exploded! These tree rats dig in my flowerpots, often uprooting what’s been carefully planted. They leave what look like aerator holes in the pine straw in natural areas, I guess from burying their winter food supply.

The biggest battle with squirrels, though, involves the bird feeders. These acrobatic critters will dangle from the gazebo to get to the bird seed. Sometimes they’ll actually land on the feeder itself, but more often, they’ll bat at it, scattering seed to the ground. And they’re not above knocking the bird feeder down. Then it’s buffet time!

I love birds, I truly do, hence the feeders. And I’ve even set up a couple of bird houses.

But do you think anybody’s home in these colorful, cute little cottages? Oh, no. Instead, Mama Bird has decided the wreath on my front door is more to her liking. After being scolded a couple of times by her loud, distressful screeching for daring to open my own front door, I now use only the back and side doors.

I was very careful when creeping up the front porch to take this picture. Can you see the hole to the right in the nest? My husband says there’s an egg in there. I don’t know how he got close enough to see without getting his eye pecked out.

So far, I’ve talked about problems caused by animals. But I can’t blame them for everything that’s gone awry in my June yard. I have to accept that sometimes my gardening skills are lacking.

For example, I didn’t realize how invasive mint is. I once foolishly planted a couple of sprigs in an herb bed, and this stuff took over. I’ve pulled up mint for a few years now, and it’s still popping up. Learn from me: mint goes only in a pot!

In fact, mint, while the worst, is not the only herb that’s grown out of control in this bed. I really should cut back the oregano and rosemary, but I don’t know where to start, quite frankly. I tell myself the pollinators, ie, bees, love it.

Meanwhile, these two hills of lavender languish. This is the first year I’ve tried growing this aromatic herb. I had visions of harvesting the flower buds and making those lovely-smelling sachets like I once bought in the south of France, where there are fields upon fields of lavender.

What I’ve got so far, though, is not much of a crop. I guess growing conditions in Provence are different than in eastern North Carolina.

A garden is like life in that there are successes and failures, problems and triumphs. Those of us who love to dig in the dirt keep at it, the pleasure outweighing the disappointments.