Deerisistable

By Judith Garfield

Plenty of dough is spent on plenty of deer.

Hundreds of new products appear every year compelling us to spend yet another dollar with the promise of keeping those stealthy snackers away from our beautiful gardens.

They say money talks, but so far the deer are not listening. All the money I have spent on revolutionary deer repellents has not eliminated the problem at all. It seems everything works temporarily, but sooner or later the deer figure out how to outwit, outplay, and outlast. True survivors.

We go to bed with our lovely daylilies looking lush and colorful, and in the morning we pull back the curtains only to see we have again been ambushed…not a bloom left. Sigh.

These voracious nibblers are relentless. And of course they spread the news quickly at impromptu deer conventions, so every deer in town makes it over to your back yard when the eating is good.

I suppose you could try one of those ‘deer resistant gardens’, but I have not had much success with them. Seems the deer in this neck of the woods eat everything on the ‘do not eat list’, including the list. Or you could fence in some smaller areas. The deer will not enter an area if they see no escape route. Nor do they like to deal with chicken wire, but this makes cutting flowers a bit of a nuisance.

Last week we once again bravely planted a little herb and vegetable garden next to our house. Basil, thyme, rosemary, dill, and lots of lettuce. The deer have not yet heard about our salad bar, but I expect business to pick up dramatically once the rabbits give it a four-star rating.

If only the deer liked stink bugs.