Deer in the urban landscape can be a menace to ornamental plants. They like to feed on young tender leaves and buds. Feeding damage from deer can be high when their natural food supply runs short due to harsh environmental conditions. The use of deer tolerant plants in the landscape is a good way to reduce unwanted deer feeding. It should be noted however, that no plant is one hundred percent deer proof. We as humans have encroached upon deer habitats and greatly threatened their food supply through land development. Therefore, deer activity has become a common sight in the urban setting. The following is a list of plants that are either rarely or seldom severly damaged by deer feeding.

Small or Large Trees

Shrubs

Flowers

References
Hill, Chester and Jim Knight. 1998. MontGuide: Minimizing Deer Damage to Residential Plantings. Montana State University Extension, MT 9814 Agriculture.

Lipe, John A. Deer in the Urban Landscape. Texas A&M University Extension.

It comes as a surprise to some gardeners that fertilizer, whether organic or synthetic, does not necessarily stay where they put it. Both fertilizers and the soil to which we apply it are dynamic media in constant states of change. Fertilizer, in order to be used by plants, must be dissolved in water.

The fertilizer then goes wherever the water goes. Plants get some of it. Some of it goes down through the soil and becomes ground water. Nitrates dissolved in water are essential to plant growth; nitrates in drinking water can be toxic to humans. In a heavy or extended rainfall some water runs across the surface of our garden or lawn, perhaps carrying soil and/or fertilizer with it, and continues down to ditches or strom drains. Ditches and storm drains empty into small streams, creeks, rivers, ponds, or lakes. (No, storm drains do not usually feed into a treatment system). You need to sweep fertilizer off hard surfaces such as walks, streets, or drives that channel water into storm drains. High fertility levels in surface water lead to the growth of aquatic plants and sometimes the death of aquatic animals such as fish.

If we are concerned about water quality, then we must acknowledge that fertilizers should be used only under certain conditions. Those conditions include knowing how much fertilizer is appropriate for the size of area treated, and to know how to apply just that much and no more. That means using arithmetic and doing some calculations.

If you use fertilizer without knowing what you are doing, I think it's safe to assume that sooner or later you are having some negative impacts on water quality - either surface waters (streams, rivers, ponds, lakes) or ground water (sources for wells). It makes no difference whether your fertilizer source is organic or synthetic, from the backyard chicken flock or out of a bag.

Fertilizer nutrients, in order to be used by plants, must be dissolved in water. That is the only manner in which lants absorb them. Plants do not absorb organic fertilizers until they are broken down into their component parts and dissolved in water. Nitrogen is absorbed as either ammonium, (NH4, or nitrate (NO3); phosphorous is absorbed as phosphate (-PO4); potassium is absorbed as a free potassium ion. All in solution.

Users of organic fertilizers have to be slightly better managers. They have to anticipate how rapidly the nutrients will be broken down and released. And they have to make sure that the plant will be there and ready to use the nutrients after that happens.

Organic fertilizers require certain environmental conditions in order for the material to be decomposed to plant available forms. Organic fertilizers are decomposed by the activity of microorganisms which are active when there is adequate water, oxygen, nutrient balance, and suitable temperature. Decomposition speeds up when the temperature rises and slows down as temperature falls. Decomposition will slow in flooded soils due to lack of oxygen or in dry soils due to lack of water.

So before yo apply any fertilizer to your soil you need to ask and suitably answer several questions to comply with BMPs and to avoid damage to water quality. These questions include:

• Does the plant need fertilizer?
• When is the appropriate time to fertilize this plant?
• What plant nutrients are available and which need to be supplemented?
• Where are the plant's roots?
• How much fertilizer does the plant need?
• How large is the area to be fertilized?
• How much fertilizer is suitable to address the specific plant needs?
• Can you adequately measure and distribute a suitable amount of fertilizer?

Without having some knowledge about how to answer these questions, the environmentally sensitive gardener will not apply fertilizers. Following are some guidelines:

Does the plant need fertilizer?
Is the plant an annual, herbaceous perennial, lawn grass, or woody tree or shrub? Annual plants have limited roots and usually need to be fertilized to achieve initial growth. Herbaceous perennials may need fertilizer to get established. In later years the plant may have adequate stores in its rrots or have roots adequate to forage for what is already available in the soil. Lawn grasses have varying needs depending on the species and whether it's a cool-season or warm-season grass. Trees and shrubs usually need about a year of establishment before fertilizer is appropriate. Afterwards the fertility needs are evaluated on how rapidly the tree or shrub is growing and whether additional growth is desired.

When is the appropriate time to fertilize this plant?
Fertilizers should be applied only at times when plants can use the fertilizer. Otherwise, it's wasted. Annual bedding plants grown for flower display will usually be able to use large amounts but only in small doses. Their limited root systems don't allow for absorbing large amounts all at once. To keep them vigorous and colorful, growers can apply fertilizers from weekly to monthly depending on the of fertilizer used.

Annual vegetable plants have similar root systems. But as gardeners we have different goals. We expect a Begonia to bloom all season and not set fruit. We expect a tomato to set fruit. For most vegetables we need to apply fertilizer when the plant is young and growing, sometimes two or three small applications. Then we need to quit. Withholding fertilizer will encourage the plant to stop vegetavie growth and begin reproductive growth - ears of corn, pods of beans.

Herbaceous perennial plants grown for flower display usually need some fertilizer to get established in the first year. After that plants may do quite well for several years without further supplement. In fact fertilizer applications may lead to vigorous, weak stemmed growth and plants that are too tall to hold themselves up.

Herbaceous perennial fruiting plants like strawberry or blackberry usually benefit from samll annual applications of fertilizer. These applications should usually coincide with periods of vigorous vegetative growth prior to setting flower buds (usually summer) but not during times of fruit development.

Lawn grasses use fertilizer in periods of active growth. The amount and timing is specific to the type of grass being grown. Cool season grasses such as fescue, ryegrass, or bluegrass are usually fertilized in late summer, fall, and late winter but not in spring ro summer. Warm season grasses such as bermuda, centipede, or zoysia are fertilized in late spring and summer, but not in fall or winter.

Woody trees and shrubs get little benefit from fertilizers applied in late spring or summer but are much more effective at using applications in fall or late winter when root growth is more active. Once a tree or shrub reaches mature size, fertility may be needed only every two to four years.

What plant nutrients are available and which need to be supplemented?
To determine what type of fertilizer you need, it makes little difference whether you are growing Aster or alder, Zinnia, or Zelkova. Hollies and azaleas need the same nutrients that fescue and tomatoes need. The questions we need to ask are what does the soil provide, and what do we need to supplement. The way I can adequately tell you what kind of fertilizer to use is if I have a soil analysis in hand. In some cases 10-10-10 may be fine. In other cases the phosphate in that fertilizer may be unnecessary and a 15-0-14 may be more appropriate. How can you know?

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture provides analysis for as many samples as you can submit at no charge! (Sample quickly; with current budget situations, a nominal charge is being discussed). With the analysis in hand you can determine if nutrients are available form the soil or if lime will be needed to release them. And it will geive you a recommendation on what kind of fertilizer will be best for your goals.

If you just want a best guess, yours is as good as mine. Even though I may know where you want to go, I can't give directions without knowing your starting point.

Where are the plant's roots?
This is a big unknown since roots will grow wherever they can get what they need. With young plants we can be pretty confident that the roots are close to where we planted them, but we hope they will be growing away from there. With vegetables, flowering annuals and perennials, grasses, and small shrubs we can generally have a pretty good idea where the roots are.

With large shrubs and trees we have to make some educated guesses. Here are a few guidelines. We know that necessary water and air are available near the soil surface. Most plants have some or most of their important absorbing roots there. And we know that woody trees and shrubs grow those surface roots as mush as two to three times as far from the plant as the branches grow. But sometimes they don't grow that far or they don't grow uniformly. If another plant is competing for space, it may have monopolized that space. Roots usually don't grow under houses or paved surfaces unless there are water or air sources under there (like a crack in the foundation or pavement). Tree roots often get all the fertilizer they need from applications to the lawn where they share the root space. Everything is connected to everything else. We have to make some informed decisions.

How much fertilizer does the plant need?
Your soil analysis will answer this question also. It will usually give you a suggested fertilizer analysis and an amount of that product to apply over 1,000 square feet or soil area. For a 15-0-14 about 6 ½ pounds may be recommended. For smaller areas, you can divide the 6 ½ by 10 to get an amount for 100 square feet.

Most fertilizer recommendations will routinely include one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet. If you do the arithmetic, you'll find that the 6 ½ pounds of 15-0-14 above comes to 0.975 pounds of nitrogen (15% of 6.5). Nitrogen is very dynamic and unstable in the soil. The one pound is a figure used by agronomists for most crops; it's about as much as most crops can use before it changes into an unusable form or leaches out of range of the plant's roots. When in doubt, it's better to use too little and make a second application than to use too much and have it end up in our water supplies.

How large is the area to be fertilized?
I am not very good at estimating square footage, so I like to get out a measure or at least step it off. (My comfortable pace is about 30 inches, not the 3 feet I tend to assume.) If I don't do the arithmetic, I may end up applying too much or too little fertilizer.

The area of a rectangle is the length time the width. For a circle it's 3.1416 x r2 where r is the radius - ½ the diameter or the distance from the center to the edge of the circle. The area of a semi-circle is half the area of a circle of the same radius. The area of a triangle is ½ the length of the base times the height measured at a right angle to the base. Irregularly shaped areas can usually be broken up into multiples of these shapes.

If you measure in feet then the area you get will be in square feet. For example:

• Area of a rectangle 15ft x 25ft = 375 square feet
• Area of a circle with a radius of 15 feet = 3.1416 x 15² = 706.9 square feet
• Area of a triangle measuring 15 feet across the bottom and 25 feet to the top = 1/2 x 15 x 25 = 187.5 square feet

How much fertilizer is suitable to address the specfic plant needs?
Again, your fertilizer analysis told you how much to use. So you've figured out that your flower bed is a circle about 15 feet across with a 71/2 foot radius. How big is it and how much of that 61/2 pounds of 15-0-14 per thousand square feet does it take?

3.1416 x (7.5)2 = 176.7 square feet.

If we're trying to apply 61/2 pounds of 15-0-14 to a thousand square feet, how much do we apply to 176.7 square feet? Let's start off by dividing everything by 10 to get closer to a working area. Then we need 0.65 pound per hundred square feet. How many 100 square feet are there in 176.7 square feet? Dividing 176.7 by 100 we get 1.767. So we multiply 0.65 (pounds) x 1.767 (hundreds) = 1.15 pounds per hundred square feet. Certainly you can round off at some point. If I use a calculator, I don't need to round off until I get to the end of my calculations. If I do it in my head, I round off frequently. In this case I might round off the final result to an even 1 pound depending on what I'll use to weigh it.

Can I adequately meausure and spread a suitable amount of fertilizer?
There are a variety of scales available in the market place. Some intended for laundry, some for food, some for postage. Most can be adjusted so that you can set them to zero with a container on top and measure fertilizer into the container. You'll do better measuring one pound with a scale intended to weigh in the 1 to 10 pound range than with the bathroom scales that weigh from 1 to 250 pounds.

At any rate, once you weigh it out, you'll find that 1.15 pounds of 15-0-14 is about 2 cups full - give or take a bit. Don't take my word for it. Measure it yourself. But once you've done it, write that down. Because if you know how much volume there is to a pound, then next time you don't have to weigh it all out. You do need to remember that it won't be the same for a different fertilizer. Use an old container that had cottage cheese or something in it. Weigh out a pound and make a mark on the inside. Next time you can scoop and go. The fertilizer should be spread evenly over the entire area. I can't do that very well by slinging it with my hands; maybe you're better at that. You may find it useful to adapt a small container into a shaker by punching small holes in the lid.

If you have a spreader for broadcasting fertilizer over a larger area, you need to calibrate it at least once a year. The manufacturer's recommended settings are only suggested starting points. Fertilizer wears out the parts, and the size of openings change. To calibrate your spreader follow these steps:

• Measure the width that the spreader throws the material from side to side.
• Divide that width into 1000 square feet.
• The resulting number tells you how far in linear feet will cover 1000 square feet.
• Weigh into the spreader hopper an amount of fertilizer such as 10 pounds.
• Operate the spreader over the measured 1000 square feet.
• Weigh the amount of fertilizer left in the hopper.
• Subtract the amount of fertilizer left from the original amount.
• The resulting number tells you how much fertilizer you applied to the 1000 square feet.
• If that amount is too much, then close down the spreader opening and try again. If it's too little, open up a bit and try again.
• Keep trying until you get it right.

It's not rocket science. If you're three grams off, your astronauts are not going to be irrectrievably launched into deep space. But we do need to stay close to planet earth.

The arithmetic isn't advanced calculus; but we need to do it. More important, we need to make sure our fertilizer applications are not contaminating our water supplies. What happens to fertilizer that the plants don't get?

As we have suggested, fertilizer will go wherever the water goes. Plants get some of it. Some of it goes down through the soil and becomes ground water. In a heavy or extended rainfall some water runs across the surface of our garden or lawn and continues down to ditches or storm drains with whatever it washed away from our soil. Ditches and storm drains empty into small streams, creeks, rivers, ponds, or lakes. High fertility levels in surface water can cause problems including the death of aquatic animals such as fish.

In Summary: fertilizer needs to be dissolved in water in order for plants to use it. If it's applied in excess, fertilizer gets in water where we didn't intend it. That can be a bad thing. Clean water is the responsibility of each of us.

I would like to remind everyone of the Moore County Horticulture website. It's an excellent resource for quick horticultural information. The website contains information on plant diseases, insects, weeds, turfgrass, soils, and fertility. All you have to do is click on a link of interest and off you go. My e-mail address is also linked so that you can e-mail me your question anytime. The web address is http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/moore/staff/ewhoneyc/EricH.html/

November

• After leaf fall, cut roses back to about 2 feet to prevent damage from winter winds.
• Now is a good time to plant such spring beauties as anemones, daffodils, scilla, and ranuncule. A good shot of time-released, bulb fertilizer added at planting time should supply all the nutrients necessary for the big show next year.
• This month is a prime time for planting many woody ornamentals.
• Turn over any vacated garden beds to expose over-wintering insects and help loosen up the soil for next year's garden.
• What better place to put leaves than in a compost pile? Be sure to mix the dry leaves with green manure such as grass clippings and a little bit of water to make it easier for microbes to break down the pile.
• In preparation for storage, hoses and sprinklers should be drained and lubricated. Replace washers where needed.

December

• Trim hollies and other evergreens such as magnolia, aucuba, boxwood,a nd pyracantha to furnish material for holiday decorations.
• Don't forget your feathered friends this holiday season. Keep the feeder filled with suet and seed, and change the water in the bird bath at least once a week.
• The Christmas cactus will be coming into bloom. Reduce watering to prolong the blooming period. Keep in full sun at 70 degrees F.
• Tree wound paints are no longer recommended because they can slow healing and may promote decay.
• Keep poinsettias healthy by keeping the plant moist. Also avoid placing the plant in drafty areas of the house since this will cause bracks shed. Avoid excessive changes in temperature as well.

Recommendations for the use of chemicals are included in this publication as a convenience to the reader. The use of brand names and any mention or listing of commercial products or services in the publication does not imply endorsement by North Carolina State Unversity. North Carolina A&T State Unviersity or North Carolina Cooperative Extension nor discrimination against similar products or services not mentioned. Individuals who use chemicals are responsible for ensuring the the intended use complies with current regulations and conforms to the product label before applying any chemical. For assistance, contact an agent of North Carolina Cooperative Extension.