I'm pretty sure the troubles all started with a volunteer pumpkin that came up in the spring of 2022 in the Heritage Garden out by the compost pile. I had set a nice white one out there, knowing it would rot and shed seeds. I let a couple volunteer plants grow and they made 28 beautiful medium-sized white pumpkins. Liam and I decorated around the yard, setting them in a neat row down the sidewalk. We'd never grown pumpkins like that.
Oh, it all looks so lush, with the green grass and the bonsais still in color.
One put out a blossom from its severed stem. Pumpkins never stop trying to make more pumpkins.
Someone noticed. The pumpkins began to disappear, a couple each night. It was very strange. There would be not a trace of the pumpkin, except sometimes a discarded stem. It was as if someone was walking up and carrying them off.
The losses accelerated as frosts finally came and softened the pumpkins. I had an idea who might be doing it, but I set out the trailcam to be sure.
From this, I learned that deer eat everything of a pumpkin, leaving no trace behind.
Always learning.
Having delicious snacks right up close to the house did something to the minds of the deer, who for
almost THIRTY YEARS have left my flower gardens completely alone. In 2023, there was a complete paradigm shift in how whitetails regarded my plantings. Even before the pumpkin bait I inadvertently set out, I had eight flower stalks from tuberoses clipped off in July, when nothing had ever bothered them before. That blew my hair back. I would no longer be able to plant tuberoses around the yard, to perfume it all evening. Such a simple pleasure, denied.
Once they found the pumpkins, all hell broke loose. My hostas were mowed to the roots. Big deer prints laced the raised beds. They've chewed my heirloom iris tubers away. They're very neat, leaving hardly a trace of the plants I once loved. Just like this fawn cleaned up this pumpkin. Not a trace remained the next morning.
Readers of my blog will remember the days of Ellen and Buffy, Pinky and Flag. Those animals would come up in the yard to clean up birdseed, and never bother a thing in the garden bed. I didn't know how good I had it. But I haven't had deer to photograph here for years. Hunting picked up on surrounding properties for several years and there were a lot of animals killed. I stopped seeing anyone I recognized, or many deer at all. With Ellen's crowd gone, an ethos to leave gardens untouched died with them.
Then, for the last two seasons, hunting slowed way down. I did find a big bare spot last week where two people had butchered a deer on my land, but they didn't get the Wrecking Crew, as I call the big doe and three fawns who have moved into my gardens.
There are three smaller animals usually seen with her. The Wrecking Crew.
I have lost a lot of sleep over these deer. Those of you who've been living among whitetails for years know that they demolish everything, once they take a notion. It was very strange for me to live in peace with them for 30 years, then suddenly have four come in and clean everything out.
I lay awake many nights, thinking about what I might do about it. I thought about fencing and repellants. My mind ran in circles. I was pretty upset about it, because everything I could come up with had drawbacks. I didn't want tall fencing around my flowerbeds. I didn't want to have to spray everything with stinky repellent several times a week. I just wanted things the way they always had been.
Isn't that the root of so much misery? Wanting things to be the way they used to be? Not being able to move forward?
There it lay, bare earth. Somehow that was better than seeing the chewed-off stalks.
The other night I got to thinking. What if I replanted only with things deer don't like? I don't know why it took me so long to come to that. I guess I was stubbornly hanging onto keeping the things I liked. I found an article online about it:
The more I read, the more I realized that these deer-resistant plants are to be commonly found in many of the garden centers I frequent. And why? Probably just because they're deer-resistant. Many people in Marietta, Ohio, where these garden centers operate, have herds of deer tromping through their yards year round, dropping fawns in fenced backyards where they know they'll be safe. And eating everything in sight.
Here's what settled out of that wonderful article. And here's what I'll be planting in the spring of 2023.
Add to that zinnias, because I noticed that the deer didn't bother them much. Most of them aren't natives. At this point, I can't afford to be a native plant snob, or I'll have no flowers at all.
Making this list was the first time I've felt a little empowered since the Wrecking Crew moved into my yard.
I realized that I've been in a fetal position, mentally, whenever I try to think about my flower gardens in the coming season. I still am, but I'm uncurling a little since I made this list.
They're here, and they're not going anywhere.
I can't expect them to respect my boundaries. I'm just the new neighbor who doesn't know the rules.
They were here first.
6 comments:
This is the first time I didn't choke up at the mention of Ellen. Time moves on.
So glad you are making plans for spring. My mother curses the deer in her yard when they eat her daylily buds and her 80 yr old rose. She discovered that leaving a radio playing on her porch at night seemed to keep them away. Just a suggestion!
The black-tail deer we have here don't eat iris, so I was shocked to read they ate yours! They don't eat dahlias or daffodils, either. Tulips and roses are deer candy.
I just discovered you. It was very enjoyable to read.
You have some great plants on that list, Julie. I think you'll be happy with the combinations you can put together and you can thwart the deer at the same time. Looking forward to an update in spring and summer when you redo.
Oh, Ellen. I miss stories about her.
I'm in a similar situation here in Hawaii with the wild pigs. They're tearing up our property in their bid for worms and grubs, and in the process they're uprooting flowering plants and bushes (and even smaller fruit trees). But I can't be upset with the sweet mama and her five piglets who visit every night – they're so cute and she is such a good mom. Did I say five? I mean three because the neighbors across the road trapped two of the babies and sold them to someone to butcher. We hear gunshots every night and find pig bodies dumped in the jungle daily. It is so distressing. I want them to be safe, but I also want my plants and grass to survive unmolested!
Anyway, good luck with the deer-resistant plantings! I'm sure you already know that foxglove can be dangerous for dogs, so be careful out there, Curtis!
Julie, I haven't been able to grow any vegetables out in the open except garlic and onions for a couple of years now. I grow a few tomatoes in pots behind a neighbor's 8-foot chain-link fence, but that's it. I too have had to resort to herbs (which the Bamboids don't fancy) and deer-resistant flowers. In fact, my list of flowers looks a lot like yours.
Post a Comment