"Mom, you're just making them smarter."
That was my daughter's assessment of the newly extended deer fence around my garden. Recent evidence indicates she may be right.
I am an avid gardener. I love my flowers and my vegetable garden. Unfortunately, so do the deer.
When my family and I moved here in 1992 we were fortunate to purchase a lovely house perched on the edge of the valley in Battleford. We say we have the best of both worlds - the town out the front door, the country out the back. Unfortunately the country part means sharing the landscape with the wildlife, in this case a herd of inbred deer protected by a "no hunting" designation in the Battleford Flats and Finlayson Island area.
The battle to coexist often does not go in my favour. For many years I had an improvised fence of rebar posts and wire that seemed to work reasonably well, but often each season the slimy things (forgive my language but there is no love lost between the deer and I) would wander in and chomp off this and that before moving on.
One device employed was a motion sensor that would trip a light and a radio simultaneously. This proved effective in keeping them from coming over a not very substantial gate at the back of the garden. The radio had to be tuned to CJNB to be effective, however. Not sure why. Perhaps deer have an aversion to country and western music.
Another handy idea that many have recommended is a motion sensitive sprinkler system. I had one of these once, a gift from friends. I used it to deter deer from tripping their way down the stairs that lead from my top yard down into the vegetable garden. Unfortunately this proved to be a source of great hilarity for my family, as I frequently would forget to turn it off before I made my way to the garden.
"Mom's going to the garden! Let's watch!"
It also tended to leak, so was wasting water and I eventually gave it up.
A couple years ago my husband and a friend installed a snicky new deer fence. It is made of substantial posts and the type of wire used to reinforce concrete poured for basement foundations and driveways. It replaced the rebar and wire setup and encircled the back of the garden, but ended at the edge of the rock face.
Major improvement, especially esthetically, but my daughter's premise proved true. The marauders changed tactics, doing an end run around the last fence post, executing a high wire type act along the low retaining wall at the front of the garden at the bottom of the rock face and having their way with my vegetables.
I completely blew a gasket last fall. I had noticed the deer were nibbling the leaves off my brussels sprouts, but I wasn't too concerned. The sprouts were done growing. I was just waiting for the frost to hit to sweeten them up. That day finally came (remember what a long, lovely fall we had last year?) and when I went to harvest the sprouts I found the deer had progressed to gnawing off the sprouts. I literally jumped up and down in rage and I confess I uttered an ugly word, repeatedly.
That fall my husband created a temporary barrier in an attempt to block the end run. Unsightly, but it seemed to work.
This spring the retaining wall needed shoring up. After almost 20 years the rock face had begun to shift enough that the wall was in danger of letting go. My husband's solution, with the help of our son, was to install some heavy posts along the wall. He cut the posts off wall height and then drilled holes to insert rebar. Along the rebar he strung more of the wire used to fence the rest of the garden. He also installed a more substantial barrier to the end run tactic.
Almost fully enclosed. Gotcha now, you vandals! I sent my daughter a photo and she made her now prophetic pronouncement.
As the garden emerged this spring, I was happily doing my annual dill eradication exercise and I noticed the peas I'd planted along the new fence had all been chewed off! The footprints told the tale. Little Billy Goat deer had trip tropped down the stairs and had a munchie. Gak!
My request for a gate at the top of the stairs moved up the list of priorities, but in the meantime we improvise with something less attractive. Ha! Secure now.
Sunday I went to the garden and picked a couple of nice heads of Romaine lettuce to send home with my daughter and her family. Monday evening I had to mow the grass and Tuesday I had to head over to another yard where I grow tomatoes to do some watering. So it was Wednesday evening before I could get to my garden to see what was happening, vanquish a few weeds and just enjoy the ambiance. That's somewhat difficult given the number of mosquitoes down there, but I have a spaceman type getup that makes it bearable.
That's when I spotted the lettuce patch. It was completely leveled (expletive!). I scanned for prints, but it was difficult to see through the mosquito netting. I couldn't see any, but what else could it be? I complained to the man. He checked it out. "Can't be deer," he said, "no tracks. Must be rabbits."
Now I envision rabbits nibbling around the lettuce patch (I don't plant it in rows, but in a quadrant), but not the whole thing.
Nope, I have a new theory. The deer now have snowshoes!
Like my daughter says, I'm only making them smarter. So the war rages on.
