Here in the piney woods of East Texas there is a growing problem with the deer population. Specifically, there are just too darn many. They are eating everything in sight.
It is beyond frustrating to spend hours working in the yard planting flowers in the beds and creating beautiful pots full of color, to wake up the following morning to find all the blossoms gone!!! Yup-it happened to me. And, I had even planted “deer resistant” plants…yeah right!!! I have declared war.
The first of my many offensive moves, was to let my 55lb boxer pee and poop all around the outside of the house-especially by the afore mentioned flower beds. (Yes, I did clean up the poop, but you never quite get it all.)
Offensive move number two was to use a product called Hinder. It is a goo that you mix with water and then spay on the plants to keep the deer at bay. It is suppose to be very unappealing to the deer. (It does smell!)
So, how am I doing in my war? Well, I’ve won some battles and lost some. The dog “smell” and Hinder seemed to be doing the trick. There hadn’t been a deer assault in several days. That is until we had a good rain storm the other night, which washed away all trace of both smells.
The front flower bed had been looking so good. The plants had done their” thing”, surviving the first attack from the vermin with hooves, and produced replacement flowers. But, before I could get out there early in the morning, with dog and sprayer, the deer attacked again. Poof-no more flowers. Even the flowers in the pots on the front porch were gone. The audacity of those munching critters!!!
I was fuming. It was then that I launched the third offensive. This offensive move was to erect a barrier around the flower beds in question. It is not just any barrier, but one which the locals swear by. It seems the deer are not fond of fishing line. The trick is to string the line around the planting bed at leg/chest height for the deer. How it works is anyone’s guess, but it appears they don’t like the feel and or sight of it.
So far, so good. We are making another come back. I’m using all three methods and hoping together I will win the war and thwart the deer.
Stay tuned.
