Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Baiting deer

We can't grow flowers in our yard. If it can be called a yard. It's a 46-acre pasture, mostly rocks and pine trees, mostly mountainside. Weeds grow well, along with ticks. Tiny wildflowers grow, and so do dandelions. The deer don't eat any of those things.

As far as I know.

But they do eat any and all flowers that I've planted. When Tom and I got married, we dug up and replanted my daisies and purple coneflowers and lilies that I'd planted at my apartment. Every year they sprout and even may grow a few inches before they're mowed down by the deer. Last year I planted a few cosmos and bachelors buttons which the deer promptly pulled completely out of the ground a few hours later.

So this year I'm testing the flowers on the deer before planting any.

First, pansies. I set a 6-pack of pansies on the ground in front of the porch then tossed out corn. Lily came to investigate and enjoy the sun.





Finally the deer showed up.



Nope, not interested.

Last night I set out a pack of marigolds. They weren't interested in that one, either.

But I bet that if I plant them, they'll eat 'em.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sure they only shied away from the plastic, not the flowers themselves.

rita said...

That's what I figure, too. Toss the bare flowers out there, they'd go after them. *sigh*

Debbie T said...

Awwww, that's a shame! Would they bother if the flowers were in raised beds? Only thing we worry about in my area are snails...accckkk!!

rita said...

We have two raised beds surrounded by chicken wire. It doesn't have a real gate so it's a pain to get into it, but we can grow a few things there. I have one rose bush that survived transplanting. We want to add a raised bed around the porch, but the price of having someone do the moving of stones for the edging is prohibitive, and we both have bad backs, so we haven't done it yet. I'd love to have a beautiful flower/herb garden right in front of the porch.