A mother deer feeding her fawn.

Momma deer and fawn take a lunch break near a garden.

Valentine’s Day, the Great Backyard Bird Count and President’s Day weekend remind us that it’s time to give nature some love. February is the month for so many gardening projects that will help you in the coming year. Pick one or two and you’ll see a difference in nature’s rewards.

Count the birds

Each year on Presidents’ weekend, the National Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology partner to conduct the Great Backyard Bird Count. Taking place Feb. 14-17, people across the country will spend at least 15 minutes to identify birds, count them and submit the numbers to the study that helps analyze bird migration.

Download either the eBird or Merlin app and the count is easy. Each has checklists and instructions for these apps that will result in direct reporting through the eBird app.

Visit birdcount.org, the umbrella website, at least a week or so before the event to familiarize yourself with the process, the checklists and the website.

By the way: keep your feeders filled, particularly in the colder months, when food sources are less available. In the growing season, birds are important pollinators for your garden; they will also feed on insects, reducing the need for using insecticides.

Spring, summer weed prevention

Pre-emergents are your friends, IF you apply them from late February to mid-March, around the time that the soil temperature reaches 55 degrees. If you have warm-season grass, your lawn will still be dormant and brown, and the seeds from last year won’t have sprouted yet.

Box retailers and area nurseries typically stock both dry and liquid products. Check the label to ensure that you’re choosing the proper kind for the type of grass you have.

Look for a true pre-emergent; do not purchase a “weed-and-feed” product because it will work at cross purposes. The pre-emergent is designed to keep weed seeds from sprouting. A combo product wastes the fertilizer, which will only be effective when your grass is actively growing.

Deer don’t stop; why should you

The best trick I’ve found for deterring deer from our roses, hydrangeas and daylilies is to start a preventive spraying program in the winter. Even though many plants aren’t actively growing, the deer will nibble away at anything they think might be tasty if they become hungry enough.

They’ve been known to chomp on azaleas because they still have foliage, the rose bushes that have not yet been pruned for the 2025 bloom season, cool-weather vegetables in containers outside the garden, and even – once in a while – my evergreen camellias.

High fences, at least 7 feet tall with an extra row of wire at the top to make them another foot taller, work well, especially if the fence surrounds a smaller gardening patch or has raised beds. The poor deer have poor depth perception and cannot see well enough to judge where to land.

We have installed low-voltage electric fences around my prized hybrid tea rose beds. With nearly 80 plants I want to protect my investment. However, we periodically need to check to see if they’re working. If a connection comes lose or if the fence gets grounded by a plant touching the wire or the wire itself is touching the ground, all bets are off.

By the way, the low voltage will not harm the deer. It doesn’t harm humans either, but it can be a surprise to feel a little jolt once in a while. I know!

Old wives tales are just that. Shaved Irish Spring or Dial soap, animal urine, human hair and the like are totally ineffective. Believe me; I’ve talked to many gardeners who have tried these old-time remedies to no avail.

Other than fences, products like Deer-Pro, Hinder or Liquid Fence can work to deter random deer grazing. Mix according to package directions and apply every two weeks to protect azaleas, hostas, roses, arborvitae and other evergreens, fruit and nut trees, many flowering ornamentals, including red bud trees and varieties of hydrangeas.

You’ve got to be consistent. You can train the deer to dislike a plant by making it taste bad.

Here’s to starting the year off right with late-winter preparations for a terrific spring and summer growing season!

Photo: courtesy of Pixabay