Rain and tears and those damned deer. Gardening can be painful.

“None of us understand what we're doing, but we do beautiful things anyway.” ― Allen Ginsberg

 

The weatherman stated that we have not had any significant rainfall in over two weeks.  Nor did he see any relief in site.

We are not in drought conditions yet, we are just unusually dry.  Interestingly enough, Pennsylvania should be getting warmer and wetter in the future if the climate models hold true.  If we narrow that down even more to my home town, the picture becomes even more interesting.  

Solar Punk Pittsburgh

For now though, I was worried about my garden.   It is not that big, I basically have a variety of containers around where I am maintaining lettuce, leeks, tomato's, peppers, strawberries, grapes, sunchokes (which I was really interested in growing) and a few other things.    

Every garden needs to be watered and I played around with the idea of a rain water collection systems before, we even had a simple one in Florida.  This water could be used in the garden in most cases and if drought was to become a issue in the future, a reserve of water is not a bad idea.  Still another thing to add to vague list of "future work."

I had not gone outside all day, I was to busy with work and other projects and knew that watering the garden during the cooler hours would be best. Plus I was looking forward to getting outside.  I was rather proud of our little garden and what we had done so far.

So I was blissfully ignorant of what had happened till I actually walked outside, watering can in hand and looked over my garden.  My heart sank as I did so.   I had lost roughly 75% of my garden to deer in one night.

Last year we did not have much of a garden, we planted a few things and really didn't think much about it, deer got us then too but it was the first year we had a garden.  Last year was a learning experience.  We would learn from our mistakes and this year; we planted more and we had thought we did a good job of protecting it from animals.   We had it blocked in our container garden on one side by the house itself, a fence directly in front of that.   

I purposely planted plants like rosemary, lavender and sage, that are considered deer repellent, on the edges and around the front of the garden to deter them.   We were told things like wind chimes and spinners would help keep them away and our porch was alive with color and sound.  For roughly a month and a half, these things had worked very well.

Till they didn't.

Now I have to reconsider what I want to do.

What really upset me was the loss of the sunchokes.  I was planning on eating some of the tubers and then planting the others in the woods around my house as well as creating a special bed for them, because other then the Kousa dogwoods (a non native species) I had planted the first spring, this was the first of the native plants that I was planting for the future.  A small step in the edible landscape that I was working on creating. 

Although what I am thinking now is that I'm going to have to plant a border area with plants that deer don't particularly like; but at the same time may be beneficial to us humans in some way.  I had planned on this using things like mountain mint, black chokeberry and beebalm.  

I had planned to do that slowly but now may have to move that project forward at a much quicker pace.  Natural plants that deer don't like either due to texture or smell is my preferred method of containing them, but that takes time and money and that is something that I don't have a lot of. 

Like I've said before, this is my legacy and I feel like I've lost a year due to this setback.

When I've talked to other gardeners about keeping deer out of their garden, it basically comes down to the same conclusion.  Electric fencing.  

Basically the idea is that you have enough juice running through the fence to give them a little bit of a jolt while protecting the garden.  It's not designed to hurt the deer, think of it as being similar to a static charge, but it's enough to deter the animal.  It's an idea that I have mixed feelings about.

For now at least we are planting in containers.   We have discussed using some pallets to create a slightly raised bed for our leafy veg next year. 

Something like this.

 

While it may work, it's also not a natural solution either.   Nor may it be worth the time and expense to place if we are only going to produce enough food for the two of us each season.  I would be lying if I didn't tell you that I'm wondering if it's worth the effort to even try and have a "regular garden."  Maybe the effort should be directed to the edible landscape instead?

In the back of my mind, the deer have always been here and will adapt and be here long after I'm gone.   So what can I do that is low impact and natural to deter them?

Urine?  

Other chemicals that would deter the deer and other animals that might come rummaging?  

I keep coming back to natural borders.  It's my preferred method...but frankly I'm running into other problems if I try that as well.  Earlier today, if my plant identification application on my phone is to be believed,  I have a small thicket of multiflora roses growing.

By natural borders I'm referring to the edges of my yard where it bleeds into the forest.  The idea being that by planting bushes and shrubs that deer do NOT like, they would leave the inner yard, and my garden alone.

Multiflora rosa is an invasive plant, originally brought to America with good intentions.  It is actually a rather lovely bush which I learned is edible and provides some medical benefits too.   It's a shame that I have to kill it.  My Kousa dogwoods are technically outside what I want to do - being a non native species.   How can I accept them but not another species?

Because when the shit its the fan, it should be the native species that have a leg up in a world where the climate changes.  My dogwood simply isn't that high level of a threat as compared to this lovely bush.  

Another to do item added onto the list.