deer

Don’t chew, I surrender!

I surrender. Sigh. After planting lots of little eye candy last week, I got up and went outside to survey Saturday morning. Lo and behold, several of my plants were strewn about the driveway and the beds. Clearly, someone, or several someones, came through for a tasting sampler and found some of them unpalatable! If they didn’t like them, I wishe they’d at least figure that out first, or put them back!

I was able to shove most of those back into their holes and water them. Unfortunately, there were also quite a few plants that were obviously tasty, because they were munched on. They ate all the blooms of Kallie’s Cyclamen, and munched on shrubs and annuals. I know the deer tolerance for most of the perennials and shrubs, but there are just too many annuals to keep track of. And, let’s face it, when I’m standing in the nursery oogling some cute new plant, I know I’m not going to rush home to look it up and come back to buy it. I want it NOW!

So after the deer had a nice salad from my beds Friday night, Saturday morning I went out with strips of laundry dryer sheets to tie around the plants I was most worried about. (They are very scent-sensitive and I’ve some success with it in the past to keep the deer out of the bird feeders.)

Mostly eaten.

Spared — and now with a dryer sheet scarf!
Munched on — sporting a lovely new scarf.

Here are a few bulbs from the experimental ones I planted last month! They are actually coming up now – I can’t believe it. I think these are daffodils or irises. I guess they will surprise me, or I can go back and search my posts.
These are two amaryllis that were eaten last year and managed to survive to grow another season. I guess I’d better chicken wire them until they’ve bloomed!
Here’s another little daffodil that sprouted up and surprised me — I thought these were hyacinths when they first peeked up!
Here is my new vegetable bed — the little one on the left. I just thought I’d squeeze one more in there.
These are the two cleaned-up beds — new garden soil inside and with weed block and thick mulch in the pathways instead of the zoysia grass that kept invading the gardens. Between that and the new metal edging, I’m hoping to keep most of the grass at bay. I swear, last summer it looked like a LAWN in my veggie gardens at one point! Cross your fingers for me.

The gate has been promised tomorrow. And it’s supposed to be 84f — unbelieveable. I’m postponing my teacher conference meeting until Tuesday when the cold front comes through and we drop to 63f 😉

Night vision…

I was just about to go to bed (without posting–bad girl, I know!) and was closing the blinds in the breakfast room when I saw two yearling deer enjoying a midnight snack from our bird feeders! I started to scare them off, then changed my mind and simply stood and watched them. I startled one, but she shyly came back. I walked away, and was drawn back for another peak at them — I love to watch them and they are so skittish, there just aren’t many opportunities. They are beautiful animals. 

So, I’m letting them eat the bird seed (I wonder which kind is their favorite? Sunflower, safflower or mixed song bird??!! OR, they might have gotten a nibble of leftover fruit that I cut up and put out there yesterday — yumm-o!)

I’m glad I got to see them and that they had a nice snack. Come morning, if I find that they’ve eaten my tray of johnny jump ups or my newly planted bulbs, I might change my tune, but for tonight, I’m at peace with the world and the animal kingdom.

Sweet dreams!

By |2016-04-14T02:47:54-05:00February 6th, 2008|animals, Blog, deer, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments
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