DIY Network

The Reynolds: Their Plan, Costs and Products Meet the family and find out the gardening challenge plan. From "Garden Sense" episode DGAR-401

Garden Sense host Walter Reeves (left) with Tricia and Rick Reynolds — and their beautiful baby daughter.

Meet Tricia and Rick Reynolds. Rick is a network analyst with an interest in racing cars. He and a partner own a racing car and travel, with a pit crew, to the Fun Ford Weekend racing circuit three seasons of the year. Tricia works for Procter & Gamble. They have a five-month-old daughter.

Tricia and Rick built their dream home about a year ago. They are avid do-it-yourselfers and are really proud of the interior of their home; however, time hasn't permitted them to finish the front landscaping, which would make the home more inviting and offer some extra character. In addition, they have a deer dilemma. They've planted several trees and shrubs in the front yard, but they've succumbed to the deer.

The Reynolds are looking for ideas for a low-maintenance and deer-resistant landscape.

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Gardening Challenge

Before — front view

Before — close-up

After — front view

After — close-up

Required Project Timeline

The Reynolds deer-resistant landscape project took about six hours.

Project Details

The key to this project was to choose plants that deer don't like to eat. We also chose plants that are in scale with the couple's big house. That means big plant beds. The plant choices also are low-maintenance.

Specifically, we added a lot of shrubs to the garden. For example, the Velvet Cloak Smoke Bush has great purple foliage with a citrus scent that deters deer. We also added two kinds of thorny barberry that will keep the deer way. Eight Grey Owl Junipers gave us some evergreen color and we used trees on both ends of the landscape to give us big impact.

Other deer deterrent choices were the Winter King Hawthorn and the Thorny Honeylocust.

We added a lot of ornamental grasses because they are the type of plant that deer rarely touch. We used Elijah Blue Fescue to add some blue color and Avalanche Feather Reed Grass, which has striking variegated foliage.

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