If You Grow It, They Will Come – Part 2

We haven’t seen too many deer around this year.  But just because we haven’t seen many doesn’t mean they are not around.  Steve thinks we don’t see them as often as last year because of the abundance of food for them.  I agree with him but also think that we don’t see them because in the evening the bugs are so bad they can’t stand still for too long.

By Mid July last year the deer had managed to get into our garden at least twice: feasting on the beets and swiss chard.  As far as we can tell we’ve succeeded in keeping them out of the garden this year.  We’ve even had the opportunity to watch the fence at work.

On at least three occasions we’ve seen deer near the garden this summer.  They all seem to be caught off guard by the fence.  They see the plants in the garden, walk up to the fence and as soon as their nose touches the fence they stop dead in their tracks.  Because of the fine mesh I don’t think they can see it and something touching them that they can’t see startles them.  They usually stand still for a minute or so, moving their head using their nose to test the fence (or seeing if it’s still there) and then walk away.

On all three occasions the deer’s ears were twitching like mad from the bugs and their little tails (they are Mulies) were flapping so fast I thought they were in danger of taking off.  One evening we watched a pair of young bucks in the field feeding on the clover.  The bugs were so bad that night they couldn’t stand still and eat.  Steve says they were eating like caribou; eating and walking at the same time.

Last week we had a bit of deer entertainment.  One night we spotted a deer near our garden, she was feeding on some clover a few feet away.  Once she had her fill of clover she walked over to our garden looking for dessert.  As soon as she got close to the fence, she stopped and bobbed her head a few times looking startled.  After realizing something was preventing her from walking into our garden, she turned around and went to our neighbor’s garden.  She knew exactly where she was going too.

Checking Out the Fence

Walking Over to the Neighbor's Garden

 Once at the neighbor’s garden (they have no fence), she began to gorge herself on their peas and whatever else suited her.  We watched her walk up and down the rows munching on a little of this and a little of that.  She really enjoyed their peas; she would pull the plants out root and all and just num them right up!  It was pretty funny to watch – especially since it wasn’t our garden.

Enjoying a Snack of the Neighbor's Peas

Once she was done there, she thought she would try our garden again.  She walked over, got all weird when she got to the fence, and then turned around and bounced back into the bush.

I guess the fence works… what do you think?