Several mistakes in one place.

First, each year I trust that the deer will ignore these purple-flowered perennials (Veronica speedwell I think) until they've fully bloomed. The deer love the new shoots but generally don't eat the full flowers until late in the year. In this sad example, you can see where they long ago ate all the front shoots (along the lower edge of the photo) but they missed a few buds hidden in the butterfly bush, which is planted way too close to the speedwell (mistake No. 2). So I guess that design mistake led me to have a few blooms. The only solution is to fence off all the front yard beds but I just don't want to do that. Stubborn. Other mistakes involve mulch, other plants, etc.