Gardens, Carnivals, and Deer Oh My!
- June 7, 2008 by Fox | Comments: 9
My freshly planted vegetable garden is in desperate dire danger. Last week I tilled, mulched, and planted tender seedlings in my yard. I put my heart, soul, and back into my desire to grow tomatoes, beans, and snow peas for delicious and organic meals. My dream of yummy foody goodness may have come to a sudden sad end. It seems the naughty neighborhood deer have discovered my bounty.
The deer are skinny. The deer are hungry. The deer are ravenously ripping into my lovely little humble garden. To counter Bambi’s abounding attacks I’m attempting to launch a few demure defense tactics. Besides sitting in my yard and guarding with a water gun, I’ve been thinking of using automatic water sprayers, motion lights, and smelly sprays. I’ll let you know how it goes.
The above photograph was taken from my bedroom window. The photo is a little hazy since the window is in the way. After snapping this snapshot, I quickly ran outdoors to scare away the small herd of whitetail deer feeding on my lawn. I think moving from the big city to the quiet country has finally got to me. I never thought in a million years I would become that crazy woman running outdoors scaring away wildlife to protect tender tomatoes. Ladies and gentleman, I have become that crazy woman. Please, forgive.
Awesome Articles:
I’m always delighted to share some awesome and articulate articles from the week. Here are some of my favs:
- Emily from Remodeling This Life is Not Deprived by living a frugal life. Emily has everything she wants and needs and writes honestly in this poignant piece featured in MSN Smart Spending. Congrats Emily!
- I’ve Paid Twice For This Already writes a fun folly on 10 Easy Ways To Stay in Debt. Be smart and just do the opposite.
- Mike at Quest For Four Pillars goes frugal by buying a used Double Jogging Stroller through ads on Craig’s List and Kijiji. I’m a huge fan of buying used gear, especially when the gear is needed for a short time.
- Canadian Capitalist invites a guest poster in How Much Life Insurance Do I Need? I’ve written previously on the subject in How to buy life insurance without getting screwed! Life insurance is a very important piece to the financial planning puzzle. Many would be wise to review their insurance needs.
Carnivals:
I participated in only one carnival this week, but boy was it a good one!
- Steve at brip blap hosted the inaugural Carnival of Careers #1 where he selected my article on How to Choose a New Career as an Editor’s Pick! Huge honor! Thanks Steve!
Now I must go blast some deer with my super soaker water gun. I feel so silly. Forgive.
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Comments:
At least you are using a water gun. That’s very thoughful of you. Here people pay money to go to parks and see deer!
Cheers
I, too, think it’s great you’re using a water gun. You know, I have my own little garden growing but have a few little bugs to worry about and that annoys me. I would not be happy in your shoes. I hope your new idea works. It sounds very creative!
Thank you much for the mention. Writing that post was important to me so I am thrilled it’s been mentioned.
Greener Pastures featured a post last week on frugal and environmentally friendly ways to keep pests from your garden. It was a great read with good information in it. Give it a read here: http://tinyurl.com/5ylsol
At least they’re cuter than slugs and “pincher bugs” (I think they’re earwigs, but whatever they are I don’t like them). We don’t use any chemicals on our garden, and despite all of our lady bugs, and plants that ward off bad bugs, we still get a pretty good crop of creepy crawlies every year. But I suppose the deer do a lot more damage in a very short time! Hope the squirt guns work
Thanks for the link Squawk. Even our tiny suburban garden is relentlessly attacked by groundhogs, skunks, squirrels and birds. I can’t imagine how it’s in the country
Not that you’d want to use it (then again maybe it would make good fertilizer), but apparently lion dung is extremely good at keeping deer at bay. My in laws used to get it for their property, until their source went out of business. Now they pretty much rely on their sprinklers and loud noises.
There’s a fabulous permaculture book called _Gaia’s Garden_ by Toby Hemenway that has some great suggestions on how to stave off other animals like deer while still respecting that it’s their land too. One of the main suggestions is to find something cheap and attractive to plant on the perimeter of your land that will act as a more attractive food supply for your deer than your tomatoes. One or two raspberry canes (those spread pretty quickly) should keep them satisfied. That having been said, aren’t nightshades poisonous to deer?
Does the human hair trick really work to repel deer? I’ve heard of people rounding up cut hair from a barer and sprinkling it around the property they want to protect. Apparently, the deer don’t like the scent of human hair and keep away.
I used to live in Austin, which has a pretty big deer population.
Hang bars of soap, preferably some kind of deodorant soap, from the trees. The deer find things (presumably the scent) unpleasant and will avoid the area.
Garden safe, deer unharmed, readily available and cheap solution.
Good luck.