I heard a rustling and saw the glint of his eye before he took off running and jumped the fence. The buck had invaded my garden. A couple days earlier, I had found the cat in the garden sitting on some deer droppings, they must have still been warm. I disposed of those and thought it must be a one time thing because I’d never seen any before. Now I knew he was back. Left more droppings too – lucky the cat hadn’t yet taken a seat.
One day last year I heard what I thought were horse hooves out on the road, I opened the gate and a deer turned and stared at me for a second, then took off running. The other two joined her in fleeing. They have worn a path in the wooded land at the end of the street.
People in town have posted about the deer this summer. “They ate my entire garden!” or “My sunflowers have been eaten. All I have now are the stalks.”
A friend on the East Coast installed an 8 foot fence around her property and an additional one around her vegetable garden. I recently heard a deer made it past both and ate her entire garden. Maybe it was more than one deer as she had a large garden.
I knew I had to deter the deer, but how? There were a lot of tips on-line. I took a gallon of vinegar and poured it in front of the raised beds. I shook cinnamon in a semi-circle on the rocks. I ordered reflective pin-wheels.
The pinwheels were of the assemble yourself variety. I sat on the terrace out front for the chore. I thought it would have been a good activity at a 4th grader’s birthday party. Each child could take theirs home. No children were receiving mine – I needed them all. I installed a pinwheel in each corner of the raised beds.
I haven’t seen any sign of a deer in a week but I still have my guard up.