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Saturday, February 7, 2015

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

©Weeding on the Wild Side, all rights reserved.   I enjoy visiting your blog and commenting but can't do so if google + is the only choice, so will comment here.


41 comments:

  1. Lots of work and equipment to keep your garden safe. but it is looking great, but, in my opinion,so are the deer!!Hope the plants are thriving for your springtime.

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  2. I love the deer. They're gorgeous animals. I hope you can keep your flowers safe from them though. Have a great Sunday.

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    1. Thanks, Gunilla, they are fun to watch and getting tamer.

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  3. I love the Pine Siskins and the cute deer.. I am glad that you are able to protect or deer-proof your plants.. Great shots! Thank you for linking up and sharing your post.. Have a happy Sunday!

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    1. Thanks, Eileen, I actually had a good year as far as deer damage.

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  4. I hope I do not have to deer-proof my garden. So far the only deer problem we have had is that driving home a few nights ago, a deer ran into the side of our car! We did not hit the deer, she hit us! Hopefully our insurance will pay for a new door and front fender. After checking to be sure no laws forbid it, we gave the deer to a friend who dressed it out and put the meat in his freezer, so at least some good came from it.
    Wishing you a happy week
    Lea

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    1. Thanks, Lea, deer on the road can be a problem. My son also had one hit the side of his car with damage too, but it survived.

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  5. Although deer are graceful animals, they sure can do a lot of damage! Looks like you are managing though.

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  6. The fences work well most of the time, except the rabbits have learned to sqeeze through so they actually did more damage last year. The deer do love the apples, but we have plenty to share.

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  7. glad you are able to 'host' the deer without too much damage to your gardens and fencing. :) and glad your husband had successful eye surgery!

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    1. Yes, last year was great, but I have had some bad years with them, like the time I left the gate open and one deer got in and ate all 5 of my crookneck squash plants just beginning to bloom and set fruit. I did find a gallon pot of 5-6 to replace the plants and got squash later.

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  8. That rosary vine is pretty! I don't think I have seen it before!!!

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    1. Thanks, Judy, I've seen pots of them on google with really thick vines cascading down, looking gorgeous, and the leaves are very cute, I just don't know quite how to achieve that effect since mine have not been more than just a few straggly vines. The cute flowers are actually quite tiny. I'm hoping to start again with the little vines I'm growing now.

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  9. Wonderful Pine Siskins. I'm missing them this year since they didn't make it this far south.

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    1. They are not around now, but they are so funny-busy, like a boiling pot. Perhaps it's like your news of the birds not flying as far south because of the warmer temperatures.

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  10. A lovely post Hannah. Such cute photos of the deer. Have a great day!

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    1. Thanks, Denise, I enjoyed your British dog sculptures and scenery. My ancestors are from various parts of the British Isles, probably some of them from England.

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  11. Great photos..Love the Pine Siskins..Here they are yellow finches..Hard to tell the difference sometimes..Great deer shots as well..

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    1. Thanks, Missy, since the Pine Siskins are a type of finch they are probably hard to tell apart, so cute.

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  12. Pine Siskins are a kind of bird I've never seen before so I'm glad I saw your pictures. I've known about them. The animation is fun.

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    1. Thanks, Ratty, I had to trim the movie really short to get Blogger to load it, and it seems to just keep repeating in a loop. I hadn't seen them before this year and I've been here 20 years, I guess they happened to notice the sunflower seeds when they were flying over.

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  13. 'If we can build it, deer can get though it' - I believe this is an ancient saying of some sort!

    Like the siskins.

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

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    1. I've had my share of failures with the deer fencing, but none so far with the present trellis netting at the top, unless I am forgetful and leave the gate open. The shorter fencing is subject to incursion but the rabbits were really destructive this year so they are much harder to fence out. My big bed is going to get chicken wire all along the bottom so I can grow beans in peace.

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  14. Great series Hanna! Thank you for sharing with Today's Flowers and have a great week :)

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  15. I can relate. Pretty much everything at my parents' house has to be caged or sprayed with deer repellent, at least until it has a chance to develop some roots. Otherwise even plants that they aren't likely to eat get "tasted" and often are ripped out of the ground in the process. I have found very few plants that the local deer don't bother at all, and my parents' yard is the safe rout through the neighborhood, so things that may be left alone or barely touched in neighbors' yards are destroyed in theirs. Be patient with the ceropegia. I have one too and kept looping the vines back into the pot to root until I had a fairly decent looking specimen. It really does need to be allowed to grow long and hang down for best effect, though. It never looks like much looking down at the top of the container.

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  16. I find deer repellants frustrating, they need to be reapplied. The wire fencing works much better for me and the visual effect doesn't bother me since I'm not a suburban gardener with neighbors to impress. I'm hoping when I get my new little Ceropegia starts put into a pot they will grow and fill in better. The leaves are really cute.

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  17. Replies
    1. Thanks, Gillena, an early Happy Valentine's Day and Hugs from the PNW.

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  18. Beautiful images, the Siskins, Deer, and the rest are marvelous.

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    1. Thanks, Bob, I'm happy I learned how to load my videos, but I don't know why it started playing in a loop.

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  19. Hannah great news about your husband. I too have to keep one step ahead of the deer but I do love them. And I loved the cute birds in your video.

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    1. Thanks, Donna, he's been taking it easy for the recovery period, but I was not happy when the doctor told us at the 2 week check-up that it takes the eye 1 year to get back to 80% of its original strength. I guess everything is a trade-off.

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  20. Your fencing looks like my husbands. I think we had a deer 'crash' through it once. We had to rebuild. :)

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    1. Thanks, Rebecca, the deer bent the fence but managed to jump through the wires above. It's not hard to straighten out the wire fence but it may not be the same.... ever.

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  21. Beautiful photos, beautiful bird! I love these pictures!

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    1. Thanks, Leovi, your colorful fish with gorgeous reflections is lovely.

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  22. Beautiful pictures! Like the animated one!

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    1. Thanks, Birgitta, I had to really chop it up to get it small enough, then Blogger somehow made it loop.

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  23. You have to be very creative to protect your garden ! I have no deer around not even a cow anymore, the fields around have all been used to build houses ! A pity !

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    1. This is 20 years of deer experience. In San Diego we lived on a canyon and had raccoons and ground squirrels eating everything. One night at 4 am it sounded like a herd of elephants were crashing around in the back yard- raccoons were wildly searching our grape vines for clusters. Now we have raccoons here regularly. Gardening is a struggle.

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  24. Lovely series Hannah. Deer are not much of a problem here, but a groundhog ate the lovely beginnings of our sunflowers last spring… needless to say, now sunflowers in late summer! Thanks for sharing the love up-close with I Heart Macro:-)

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