Oh Deer!

We've known from the time we moved into this house, more than ten years ago now, that there's a thriving population of deer in the neighborhood. That's why we built a fence around the garden as soon as we finished filling the new beds with soil. For years, the narrow strips of lattice supplemented with taller plastic mesh was enough to keep the deer out of the garden. (It didn't, however keep out the rabbits as reported in posts from 2015, 2020, and last year.) That changed last year when I noticed hoof prints in the beds for the first time. 

Some prints and nibbles on August 3, 2023

At that time, we didn't do anything significant about the intrusion. It seemed to be a one-time thing and didn't effect our harvest for the season. Then, one year later, I noticed again, that one of our four-hoofed acquaintances had found its way into our garden.

Another incursion August 21, 2024

I had assumed that, like the year before, the deer had found its way into the garden by accident. With the fence, the plants, and the wooden paths, I felt like it hadn't intentionally leapt into the visual noise. But, since it was there, it went ahead and sampled what the garden had to offer. There was evidence of nibbling on most of the plants including the cucumbers and tomatoes. The beast mainly enjoyed the leaves on the bean plants, but not the beans themselves, and the Swiss chard. There wasn't a huge amount of damage so, again, I didn't worry about it too much.

When more and more prints appeared in the beds over the next weeks, we decided to take action. Our entire backyard has a slight slope to the south. We built the garden where an above ground pool had been so the north side of the fence is closer to the ground than the south side. I deduced, therefore, that it was the north side over which the deer had been jumping. Furthermore, we have very tall, very bushy asparagus at the east end of the garden along the fence, so the deer must be coming over the western portion. That's where my husband built increased fortification. 

Notice the extra tall white fencing at the left.

For a few weeks, it seemed as though the deer had been thwarted. Then, in early October, more hoof prints appeared. This time, the creature ate nearly all our remaining chard. I found that particularly annoying as leaf miners had gotten into the chard earlier in the season and I had basically given up on it for the season when, at the end of September, the plants started sending up fresh, new leaves. I had hoped for a late harvest but that didn't happen.

One evening, I was in our kitchen making dinner when I happened to look out the window toward our garden. I saw a brown blob inside the fence and knew it was a deer. I grabbed my good camera and quietly rushed outside. I managed to get one picture of the offender - as seen at the top of this post - and a brief video of it fleeing the scene.

I also got a couple pictures of the rogue deer rejoining the rest of the herd in our backyard.

I don't like the example this sets with the little ones.

Several years ago, my husband gave me a game camera for Christmas. I've seen many wonderful animals that I wouldn't have even known were passing through if not for the camera. (check out this compilation I made: "Everyone love the hole under our neighbor's shed") The camera had been facing our middle yard but I moved it into the garden with the hopes of catching a future deer visit. 

When I pulled the memory card a few days later, there were hundreds of images on it. This isn't at all unusual. It actually was fewer images than was typical since there were fewer things moving within the confines of the garden to trigger the camera. We had already cleaned up most of the beds since nearly everything had been harvested at that point. Most of the images were of the remaining plants waving randomly and of squirrels - other frequent visitors to the garden.

Two squirrels at once.

My eyes sort of glazed over as I quickly clicked through the images until a sudden change caught my attention.

!!!

There it was: the trespassing deer staring straight at the camera, eyes all aglow from the infrared flash. And it wasn't just a quick in and out. I have 132 images of the deer wandering through the garden.

At this point, we're not going to enact any new anti-deer measures. We've finally had a frost  - though it wasn't a true killing one - and we've gotten what we want out of the garden. In the spring, when we finish the switchover to new beds, we'll remake the fence as well in the hope that next season the garden will go unmolested. In the meantime, I hope to enjoy more pictures of our backyard wildlife doing their wild things.
 

First Seeds in the Ground

It was the perfect weekend to work on the garden. I’m glad I planned ahead so we had nearly two full days to move soil and build fencing. When our six cubic yards of garden blend soil arrived at around 10:30 Saturday morning, the driver told me that it was a good thing I had gotten my order in early. He was already booked solid for deliveries and folks who had called on Friday, presumably trying to take advantage of the gorgeous weather that had been forecast, would have to wait until Monday.

Soil ready to be moved into the garden beds

As I was paying for the soil, another delivery truck arrived with the twelve blocks of peat moss I had also ordered. It was kind of fun blocking up the street for a little while all for the sake of my new garden. From my experience last year with the museum’s garden beds, I know that the soil around here can be heavy with clay. Even as part of a garden blend that contained sand and compost, I knew we’d have to lighten it up a bit.

Peat moss with a bonus free gift – a wooden pallet!

So, with all our bed-filling ingredients ready to go, my husband and I got to work. Before we moved any soil, however, we lined the sides of each bed with 7 mil plastic. The recycled plywood we used to build the beds was pressure treated. That’s why it’s still usable and not just a rotten pile of mush but we don’t want chemicals leaching into the soil and then into the plants.

It took about three hours and 52 wheelbarrow trips to fill all eight beds with layers of garden soil, peat moss, and shredded leaf mulch. My husband shoveled and moved load after load while I raked everything into the beds and blended it all together. By the middle of the afternoon, the pile of dirt was nearly gone and I was ready to sit down.

Progress by the end of the day Saturday

On Sunday, we picked up work again. My husband moved the last of the soil into the garden beds and I did some more blending. It think it’ll be a while until all the soil components are really worked together but if gardening has taught me anything, it’s patience. With the beds now filled to my liking, it was time to plant some seeds. The first official planting in the garden was actually a horseradish root. After that, I put in my cool season vegetables – spinach, chard, peas, beets, carrots, scallions, pak choi, and arugula. I planted them all in one bed in a series of wide rows using twine as a guide. I made a small fence for the peas at the end of the row for easier picking.

Rows lined off and ready to plant

While I was planting, my husband was building. We need a fence around the garden. That is an indisputable fact. There is a lot of wildlife in the area and while I enjoy watching the deer and rabbits and occasional woodchuck, I do not plan on feeding them from my garden. Most of the perennials growing around the house have already been sampled. We salvaged some lattice fence from the old pool to use around the garden.

Starting the fence

The lattice is two feet tall so when placed on top of the edge of the garden beds, we get a three-foot tall fence. On the north side, however, the beds sit into a slight hill so it is, effectively, only a two-foot fence. A deer can easily lean over a fence like that to nibble on my plants. I plan on planting vegetable along the inside of the fence that, in my experience, deer don’t usually browse but we also have a back-up plan. We added five-foot tall posts in the corner so that, if needed, we can stretch a line higher above the fence and add tin pie pans or whatever that might deter the deer. We’ll just have to wait and see how it all works out.

The garden on Sunday afternoon

I made it through the weekend with just a few minor scrapes and bruises, some sore muscles and an unexpected sunburn on the backs of my elbows. I have to say, that when I stood in my garden with the fence all around and the first seeds planted I felt almost giddy with happiness. It is exactly how I envisioned it!

My Shaker Garden!