Question
Hi Charlotte.

I'm a Brown Thumb trying to go Green. :-) I just bought a house upstate NY and I can't wait to work on the garden/lawn.  There are 2 concerns I have.  1. I want to create green luscious lawn, but I noticed that the roots from the pine tree in front of the house are showing up in my lawn :-(  What can I do?
2.  What are the best flowers and plants I can plant in the yard that deters deer?

Also, I read an article where you mention you put sugar in the lawn how do you do that?

Thanks Charlotte,  

Answer
Hi Cecilia;
I broadcast the sugar by hand, then water it in well.
Those tree roots can be covered by adding topsoil on them a few inches deep. Don't pile it up o the trunk though. Let it slope down to the base of the trunk, like a well, and that will keep the roots covered, then make sure you water deeply.
Roots come to the surface to get water, and if you wet the ground only about 2 or 3 inches below the surface, they will come up.
I always water to a depth of at least 6 inches to encourage a deep root system, for grass. You might need to water more deeply around the tree's drip line and inward to the trunk of the tree.
You could get a nursery man out to see if those roots can be removed without damaging the tree too much. Some of them might be able to be removed without affecting the stability of the tree.
 For the deer:

Paste this website page address into your browser. There are a lot of solutions on there.
another thing you can do that is not mentioned here is to get the hair sweepings from a barber or beauty shop and scatter it around the garden with a more concentrated line of it around the perimeter of the garden.
The scent of humans on the hair will keep them away. Go to

http://www.ghorganics.com/page6.html#Deer%20Controls

Hope this helps.
Charlotte