Monday, February 23, 2009

Oh Deer!!!

The good news: they gave us almost a month.  They seduced us into believing that a community garden would be as easy as planting and watering.  It was all part of their plan.  Let the humans grow our food for us ... wait for it ... wait for it ... now feast!  

What am I talking about, you wonder?  The invasion of the deer has commenced.  In my humble garden plot, the strawberries were decimated, the redleaf lettuce was ravaged, and the buttercrunch lettuce must have tasted as good as it sounded.  I'll never know.  Check your garden plot; chances are if you had anything growing, it got nibbled.  

What do we do my friends?  I went to Home Depot and asked.  Employees shook their heads as though someone had passed away.  I'm sorry for your loss, their faces seemed to say, even as they recommended 8-ft fencing or illegal poaching.  

In the end, I bought a spray bottle of natural deer repellent.  We'll see if it works.  I got some on my hands, and it sure smells bad enough to keep me from eating for a week.  Booby traps?  Concertina wire?  I've heard human urine works as a deterrent (seriously); should we form a new urination sub-committee?  Let the experiments begin.  

I just wanted to warn those of you who have formed any personal attachments to your plants to be on guard.  This is all part of the fun.  Perhaps we'll learn something along the way.  Share your ideas if you have a secret formula.  

Bambi lives,
Gavin

1 comment:

Garden Blogger said...

The Feb/Mar issue of Organic Gardening has a GREAT article about "Deer-proofing" your garden. I encourage you to come to the library for the full benefit...but, just a quick few suggestions from the article are:

1. Use a plant barrier of strongly aromatic plants such as lavender, catmint, salvias, etc.
2. Plant items that are very distasteful such as onions.
3. Best is foliage this fuzzy, leathery, sharp-edged, spiny, prickly, silver, black or bronze color, strongly scented, toughened with age...

Hope this helps with some ideas!!!