Home With Tess: I wanted an English-style garden. Instead, my yard is a wildlife buffet

When I was a child, I always loved the scenes in Disney movies where the princesses would sing and a host of wild critters would arrive to join the party.

But Ms. White and the rest of the princess troop must not have had gardens.

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Over the past two years, I’ve been on a mission to turn my yard into an English garden filled with fancy florals and charming greenery. It’s been back-breaking work that has brought so much fulfillment — until the animals arrived.

While I love creatures big and small, those that pass through my yard have swarmed, shocked and sabotaged me relentlessly over the past couple years.

It started with the yellow jackets. Last year, I labored over digging out peonies and hostas from our front yard to move them to a sunnier spot and replace them with more suitable shrubs. I was nearly finished digging when I flanked my shovel under what I thought was a rock in the bed in an attempt to move it.

Bugs began to rise from the gray mound. They moved so quickly I thought they were flies – until I felt a stabbing pain on my leg.

I’m not a runner by any means, but any passerby may have mistaken me for a deranged track star as I screamed and swatted the buggers away and dashed into my house for cover.

It was a not-so-minor setback that left me with a few stings and a permanent fear of any bee-like creatures I’ve seen since. Still, after about a week of fearfully walking out my front door, I managed to finish the job and replant everything I needed to before the first frost.

I thought the attack would be the worst of my wildlife woes. But I couldn’t imagine the emotional toil Mother Nature had in store for me.

I didn’t expect much from the peonies the following year, as I had read they likely wouldn’t bloom directly after being replanted. So after a few lovely blooms reared their head in the spring, I felt overly confident in my gardening abilities and started to pursue my vision full-force.

I perused garden centers and spent far too much on lilies, petunias and beautiful flowering baskets bursting with big, juicy begonias. To me, it was worth it to achieve the garden of my dreams.

Every day, I looked out on my yard with joy and soaked in the beauty. On one particularly bad day, I turned to my garden for a sense of relief.

Instead, I was dumbstruck. The fresh blooms on the lilies I had just seen the day before were gone, with only their stalks remaining.

The flower heist continued in the following days as I tried to figure out what was feasting on my hard work. They had dug up my petunias, beheaded my begonias, annihilated my hostas. They left shreds of uneaten petals around the crime scene as if to say, “Can you buy something a little tastier next time?”

Day by day, I woke up dumbfounded as time and money were being literally eaten away. In pursuit of a romantic garden, I turned my yard into a Hometown Buffet for the local critters instead.

They must have felt a pang of sympathy for me, though: With almost every plant they ate, they left one measly bloom unscathed. It was a nice gesture.

In all seriousness, I respect the laws of Mother Nature. I’d never apply anything to bring harm to the creatures out there simply looking for a snack, though clearly I do need to apply some natural management techniques.

The saving grace for my garden was the landscaping projects I’ve done. Last year, I wrote about building a retaining wall, and this year I decided to build a stone path with flagstone I got for a good deal from Facebook Marketplace. I also added some battery-powered lights around the yard, because decorative lights make everything better.

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Now, even though all I see when I look outside is greenery, at least it has some charm.

So, what lessons I’ve learned? Permanent landscaping features can make a big impact while your garden matures – and, in my case, recovers.

And despite what you’ve seen in Disney movies, if you have any hopes of seeing more than a single bud on your plants, it’s probably best to detract wild animals from your yard instead of invite them.

Email your questions to Theresa "Tess" Bennett at homewithtess@gmail.com and keep up with Tess on Instagram @homewithtess

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Home With Tess: Adventures in starting an English-style garden