That instant feeling that comes across when you walk outside and your garden has been assaulted by a hangry pack of deer (or really any other pest) - if you know, you know. First you try to tell yourself it probably won't be that bad and you notice just a few things, then you spend the rest of the day finding one thing after another. How can a deer even eat that much? I've tried to rationalize their ability to eat 30 lbs of tomatoes in one night, but it just does not compute. Usually this yearly struggle begins in September, but this year it started June 30th.
We were looking forward to having some friends stay with us for the holiday weekend and the flowers were finally starting to look their summer best. Then the day before the long weekend I went downstairs in the morning to find rose petals scattered on the patio and a bunch of very green flower pots that had been full of flowers the day prior. On a scale of frustration, usually losing flowers is the least of my worries, and I know they still have plenty of time to grow back into their prior beauty. The only problem is once deer show up, they usually keep coming back.
It is always impressive how they are able to find every last flower and bud... The photo on the left is a couple days prior to the Deer Feast: Day 1.
I quickly reapplied deer spray and breathed a sigh of relief the following morning when there was no further evidence of a deer visit. The following day though, I woke up to total garden devastation. There were unripe tomatoes lying on the ground, missing leaves on the zucchini, topped off pepper starts, and the trellised peas that had been full the day prior had no remaining pea pods and had been dragged down.
As a gardener this may be one of my worst nightmares. After Deer Feast: Day 2, the two fully packed Patio Choice Yellow cherry tomatoes that were about to start ripening are almost bare and they topped off 2 of the tomato plants that I did not have in cages. To avoid further losses I went ahead and added netting around my cages in an attempt to deter the deer further.
Unfortunately, Day 2, was in fact followed by a Day 3 of devastation. Which included a broken cloche covering strawberries, a broken raised bed (how did that even happen?!), and a few servings of broccolini and roses The tomato cages with netting though were untouched (so far), and I've repositioned the motion sensing sprinklers to protect the vegetable garden, at the cost of exposing the flower garden - sacrifices sometimes must be made in the world of gardening.
I can't help but feel overwhelmingly frustrated seeing the garden completely decimated in just a period of a few days. While I'm still pretty annoyed at Bambi, it is a reminder that we do share this space. As usual, the onions, garlic, eggplants, fig tree, and cucumbers remained untouched so I look forward to trying out at least some new eggplant and onion recipes if all else fails. Wish me luck in the coming days as I fend off more deer visits!
Would love to hear other people's experience and what has or hasn't worked for them.
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