I'm not sure whether my garden could resist deer or not. They're hardly over-populous in my neck of the woods and I'm more likely to encounter kangaroo problems than run-ins with Bambi.

But, it does seem that I have a Dear-Resistant Garden - the type of garden that seems impervious to any plant that has a high price tag. If it's free, found on the bargain counter or less than a couple of bucks it seems to grow well in my yard yet if I bring home something that costs a small fortune, it's as if it can smell fear and cowers accordingly.

I'm not sure whether my garden has its own class system going on where the expensive exotics are jeered and ridiculed like the new foreign boy in the school yard. Maybe my plants are working-class socialists that don't approve of the upper-crust aristocracy? They've taken on the unionist mentality, rallying the mob to pressure those they dislike.

Which makes me wonder whether the soil isn't party to this melee as well. But then, how can it be? That would be like the tail wagging the dog, wouldn't it? Maybe my blue-collar plants have brought it to its knees as successfully as the grasshoppers achieved in Antz. The soil is now just a glorified whore to the plant mob and whimpers in obedience at their beck and call.

It seems the only way forward is to route out the gang-leaders making examples of them to the rest of the plant community. But how many would it take? If I successfully identify and punish the "Godfather of the garden" will another rise to take its place? Or, will it subdue the other plants into submission?

Maybe there's more than one Boss? It's quite possible that they share the leadership and use their stand-over tactics disparately. Perhaps I may to have to re-design my whole garden taking into consideration these societal ills. Revamping plant locations to better harmonise their political worldviews.

Or, maybe I can just keep buying native plants and leave others to their exotic folly!