Oh, Deer.

Written June 17, 2013.

So, remember how I wrote about the huge, beautiful heads of lettuce just a few days ago? Remember that photo of all the green heads of romaine?

Here’s are a photo to remind you:

Yeah, it now looks like this:

Not Pretty.

They were attacked by a deer overnight. They ate the Caesar Lettuce Heads, the Romaine Lettuce Heads, Strawberries and even my cute, yellow squash.

I was so upset. So, I started asking our family and friends how to combat this animal.

Adam joked that he could shoot it, but he didn’t want to make that news for poaching deer. Yeah, that wouldn’t be good. No thanks.

One of his friends joked we could “accidently” hit it with a car. I have done that before on an icy road, without a doubt by accident. It’s scary and expensive. No thanks.

I didn’t want to hurt this deer; I just wanted him to get out of my garden.

A neighbor, after a couple of beers, suggested using pinwheels. Pinwheels?! That seemed a little far-fetched and possibly alcohol infused (…?), but I guess at this point it wouldn’t hurt to try.

The next day, my sister-in-laws and I were relaxing at Adam’s parent’s home for Father’s Day. She was reading a home magazine that happened to have tips in keeping deer away from gardens.

The first tip was to construct a fence at least 10 feet high. This one made me laugh. Um, no.

The next was to use human hair. This one made me gag. Um, no.

The next was to get stakes and tie on plastic ribbon on it. The ribbon blows in the wind creating noise. This one got me thinking. Maybe creating sound like a pinwheel?

The next idea was to use repellent sprays. I was kind of wary about sprays as I wanted to try to keep this garden as natural as possible. Aimee, Adam’s oldest sister worked at a nursery in high school, said that they used to spray a repellent to keep deer away. She said it stunk, but it worked. The repellent wasn’t sprayed right onto the plants, just around the border.

So, today I hit the stores. I could not find pinwheels anywhere. I was shocked. I figured with the Fourth of July just around the corner I would be able to find at least some patriotic pinwheels. (I knew they might have looked silly. But if it worked, I was fine with the silliness.)

In defeat, I went to a garden supply store to look at the repellents.

There I found Liquid Fence, an eco-friendly spray that would not harm animals. The ingredients listed mainly eggs and garlic, just like some of the sprays listed in the magazine. This scent is unattractive to deer and rabbits, keeping them away from gardens and landscaping.

I figured at this point it was worth a shot. I purchased the bottle and sprayed it around the perimeter of the garden. I did get a whiff of the spray at one point, and PHEW! It did stink.

But, so far, it works!

(I still plan to stock up on pinwheels if I ever see them.) 🙂