Try sunflowers and nasturtiums...Cosmos is a good producer,and try Cleome in the back of the area....watch out for the spines on it!

Deer will eat anything in their path.....
Also sweet alyssum, portulaca, marigolds, zinnia, larkspur viola....just to name a few suitable for sowing.
Linda C

Linda C: will these flower if I sow now? I was afraid I was too late.

omniphasic: Thanks for the suggestions of cosmos and cleome, I love both of these. I also love larkspur and alyssum. Again, if I sow them now, will they flower? I'm in northern NJ.

I well know that deer will eat anything in their path, and what the deer leave the groundhog eats. Gardening can be depressing sometimes.

pie-
You might consider winter-sowing them (forum here at GW), which will give you a warmer environment for them to germinate, possibly hastening the process for you if your soil isn't warm enough yet.
You can transplant them when they are just big enough with true-leaves, and away you go!

Here is a link that might be useful: Winter Sowing Forum

mmqchdygg, I'm going to check out winter sowing now. I didn't think about that because it's no longer winter. But I can see how it would accelerate the development of the flowers. Thanks for the idea!

Yes pie, they will flower this year....all but for Viola. That isa biennial and most likely won't flower before frost.
Years ago my mother grew all her flowers but for petunias by direct sowing in the first week of may. She planted marigolda, zinnias, snapdragons and sweet alyssum. In alother bed there was portulaca, and larkspur blooms about 2 months from sowing.
Get those seeds in the ground.
Linda C

Thanks for the encouragement, LindaC! I am going seed shopping today and will amend the soil this weekend. It's mostly clay and shale, need to get in some organic material if I want these seeds to put out strong roots!