As spring arrives, the thyme is lush and green and spreading which is wonderful because I bought 8 packages of creeping thyme from Park Seed and started the plants indoors for planting once the danger of frost has passed. The creeping thyme held up well during the winter – survived the snow that fell in early December and remained through January.
Sure enough – the deer left it alone all summer. She divided some of her plantings and gave it to me to try. The following spring my neighbor told me that the deer had not bothered the section of her yard where she planted creeping thyme. I spent a lot of time re-spreading the leaf mulch over the sloped yard that fall. The leaves slid down the hill revealing the layers of newspaper below it. This worked beautifully until the first hard downpour. I mulched all the fallen leaves – laid down layers of newspaper I had been collecting and spread a thick layer of mulched leaves on top of the paper. The following fall, I figured I would just mulch under the weeds and start over with something else. The rest of the summer I watched weeds take over the front yard as the poor uprooted mondo grass lay dying amongst the weeds.
It is true that deer do not like the grass but it does not stop them from pulling it out of the ground and spitting it out. I was new to the deer thing and after buying 100 plants online through eBay and then taking a Saturday to plant them, I found I had created an amusement area for the deer. So, I thought I would plant some dwarf mondo grass and I’d be set. I did not want to grow a lawn mostly because I did not want to mow it all summer long. All the good stuff runs downhill with the downpours that we have been getting recently.
At the bottom of my sloping front yard you will find all the good soil I’ve worked hard to cultivate. I deal with hard clay, the constant browsing of deer through my garden and a seriously sloped front yard. Gardening in my area is fraught with many challenges. A creative use of creeping thyme to prevent soil erosion and possibly keep deer at bay.
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