Lots has been going on in the last two weeks. I had a chance to get down to New York city (likely the only time I'll get there this summer), Ilana and I celebrated our wedding anniversary with a weekend camping trip, and I got a new full-time job working with the Maine Arts Commission. In addition to all of this our garden got molested by deer while we were out camping.
There were deer tracks in the dirt and the heads of our tomato plants were all bitten off. Ilana was pretty pissed off, but I was just glad they didn’t eat anything but the tomato tops. We discovered this just after returning from camping, and swiftly went out to buy some security equipment to protect our future salads.
There were a number of choices, but we opted for the 5’ plastic deer fencing and 6’ steel ‘T’ posts to hold it up. We thought about going electric but that seemed a little extreme. We also thought about an 8’ fence since deer can jump pretty high. We’ll switch to taller fencing if the deer attack again, but as for now the fortifications are holding (6 days).
In addition to the fencing I added some government-issued plastic records for the sight impaired around the perimeter. They dangle on thin wire and wave around like flags. I hope the deer fear the movement and are repulsed by antiquated audio technology. I also wired up some chunks of Irish spring soap. I’ve heard deer dislike the smell of soap and the Irish, so I hope it encourages them to go eat the neighbor's flowers and leave our veggies alone.
5 comments:
Congrats on the new job, and good luck with the deer. It seems like thwarting deer in the garden is one of those heartbreaking pursuits that is never completely successful, no matter how much you try...
For some reason there aren't a lot of deer in Las Cruces. But the weeds are doing their job. Sure could use some of Ilana's greenthumb.
Oh yeah, what's wrong with your garden? It sounded like it was growing fine.
Yes, congrats to both of you on your jobs--guess i should say your OTHER jobs, besides the house.
Garden-destruction is such a disappointment, after all the care involved in putting it in--here the culprits (for flower garden) are muskrats, smelly-repellent spray slows but doesn't stop them.
Speaking of wildlife, here's link http://picasaweb.google.com/unclejs/WestfordWildlifeJune2007?authkey=fPxiIkChllMto to series of photos of great blue heron eating chipmunk in my back yard, geese, will upload pics of muskrat & painted turtle etc soon.
Best, James
Nothing is all that wrong with my garden other than it mostly overgrown with weeds and most of the plants were pathetic producers. the peas yielded maybe 2 pods per plant, the corn is undersized and mealy, the brussel sprouts don't seem to want to grow beyond 5 inches high, etc... radishes and carrots turned out good though, and the zuchinni. I've got no critters to blame for our garden's less than stellar performance, just my own ineptitude.
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