Why Not Throw The Shovel Down?

When I was gardening just over the city line, my plot was filled with questionable soil, the neighbors were packed tightly around me, and my small plot was quickly planted to the gills so that any new addition had to be shoe-horned in. But I look back at pictures of our .12 acre, and, oh, what a garden with borders bright and lush!
I left that behind almost two years ago and started work on my greatly expanded plot in the burbs -- sure, a former Victorian rail stop at the Northern terminus of the great Charles Street, which runs from the Southern tip of Baltimore North through the center of the city and some of its most scenic areas, but Lutherville is definitely where the burbs begin. Now I have a third of an acre complete with woodland and streams!
But, and this is a big but, I have far more deterrents than I could have ever imagined at my old house. And that is probably why I have written little of my new land. Gardening here is a constant battle with deer, pine and columbine eating caterpillars, shade and an end of summer bombardment of walnuts ripping my plants to shreds. From late August to early October I seriously thought, what's the use? All of the plans and dreams I had for the garden last winter were laid to waste by summer's end.
But after buying a few half-off end of the season plants -- what's the risk of losing a few quarts of $3.00 perennials? -- I went back into the yard and I kind of liked what I saw (the clear water of the revitalised stream flowing through beautiful Autumn colors of dogwoods and spice trees and my collection of salvias finally exploding into bloom) and more important, I liked how I felt. So lets go back for a few more quarts and maybe it's not too late to get a bulb order in before the first freeze.