Deer Control February 7, 2015

Welcome to my post, today I am linking to-

Wild Bird Wednesday hosted by Stewart

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

Saturday's Critters hosted by Eileen

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma and Mystical Magical Teacher

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura

A small flock of Pine Siskins visited my deck

Deer also like it here- "So lovely, no dogs!"

"And the grass is so lush, thanks to the chickens!"

"Fun in the sun"

"Funny bumps on my head, they are getting itchy!"

Deer inspire me with their persistence in difficult circumstances.   I am grateful this week because my husband had cataract surgery on one eye and is doing well and seeing without glasses for the first time since he was 7 years old.  He got his other eye fitted with a contact lens as well.

How I manage to grow vegetables with the hungry mouths around- my newish main vegetable bed in winter.  To attain the  prerequisite 8' / 244 cm high deer proofing there are metal T-posts hammered into the ground with 8' bamboo poles from my grove tied on, a 5' / 142 cm tall welded wire fence around the outside, and wire run at the top from which is hung trellis netting 5' / 142 cm tall so there is overlap with the fence.  This makes a barrier that the deer can't just jump through unlike when I used to have just wire run at several levels above the fence, and a deer did manage to crash through to escape, after he got in through the gate left open.   So this last summer was peaceful with no breaches of the garden as long as I kept the gate closed.

I have found that deer usually will not jump into a narrow bed because of insufficiency of landing space, this allows me to grow perennials that would otherwise get eaten, here mostly dormant for winter-

But a deer did get into my blueberry bed, so I stuck a lot of bamboo 3-5' /1-1.42 cm tall around the bed to make jumping in more formidable, and it seemed to work fine-

But most natives such as Mahonia nervosa and Salal, and quite a few shrubs are not appealing to deer, especially those with aromatic leaves.  Santolina with 2 species of Hypericum and Illicium henryii.

Evergreen Lonicera nitida with native deciduous Lonicera involucrata, Twinberry, not very visible, Vinca minor and major for ground covers, along with some native Sword ferns-

Ceanothus 'Victoria', lopsided after losing a big part of the plant last year to frost, and in the background the wonderful variegated Elaeagnus ebbingei 'Gilt Edge'-

So they won't look really great until summer, but they are left alone, I could find deer proof plants, some of which work fine here, in various web searches.   But for the others, I have my wire fences, so don't give up!

And for this week's houseplant in my series, a plant that is long-lived but has not been easy for me to grow in an attractive and lush presentation, the Rosary vine, Ceropegia woodii, with cute silvery heart-shaped leaves on vines, and tiny flowers-

 that give rise to small potato-like tubers that if planted, will grow into new vines, and enlarge slowly.   I tried coiling a severed vine around a shallow tray, burying the vine with the leaves sticking up, and rooted some new tiny vines.

The second month of winter has brought lots of snow to the east coast, but has been very mild here.  I continue to dream of spring, and enjoy my little seedlings which I will share next week.  Hannah

                                                              or cameras are macro

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