First week of garden

I planted my first baby plants last week:
*2 Pink Delight Butterfly Bushes
*2 Purple Hydrangeas
*3 Pink Pampas Grass
*Oregano
*Lamb's Ears
*Forsythia
*2 Purple Love Grass
* A bunch of day lilies divided from a friend's garden

I was (and still am) very excited about my new plants, so the next morning I went out to water them, baby in tow. To my shock and horror, a deer ate my hydrangea bush down to the twigs. Disaster. Needless to say, the deer fence went up immediately (as ugly as it is.) Will my bush come back to life or do I need to plant a new one?

Additionally, a groundhog has taken up residence in the rock wall-ish area adjacent to the garden. Is this the beginning of a war?

Welcome to the garden experiment

I finally bought a house but the land is completely unkempt. No lawn, no grass, no gardens. So the goal is to create a beautiful landscape. There is tons of land to fill up and it started as a mess—overgrown with vines, weeds, thorny bushes, and years of leaves. I have managed to clear the garden beds and I have a few baby plants started. But here's the catch...I've never grown anything! (Well, I planted some impatiens last year that did really well, but that is about it.) Welcome to the garden experiment!