That string of four-letter words you just heard was probably from your neighbor who found out that the deer ate every last hosta in her yard. Or it may have been from your other neighbor who had his tomato vines picked clean by nighttime varmints. Or it may have been your very own words as you discovered all the leaves from your beautiful string beans missing in action.
It happens every summer – pests in your lawn and garden – and it seems to be happening with increasing frequency as deer, especially, find that living among humans can be both productive and nourishing.
So what can be done to keep the mooching beasts out of your yard and back in the woods where they belong? A 30.06, 200-grain, hollow point bullet comes to mind. But that is both illegal this time of year and not very practical within the city limits. But don’t give up or give into these pillaging thieves. There are ways.
So far this spring (listen carefully and you can hear loud knocking on wood) I have kept the deer out of my small vegetable garden. Here’s how.
First, I erected a fence, sort of. My garden plot is small, maybe 600 square feet. I didn’t really want to build an elaborate and expensive fence, so I went to Lowe’s and bought some 5-foot steel posts. They are green, metal posts and are often used in temporary landscape borders. You can push them in the ground with your feet, so they’re easy to erect.
I spaced them every eight feet or so and tied four strands of wire about 10 inches apart around each post. Deer could easily leap across the top wire, but they don’t seem to like to jump into confined spaces. So far, they haven’t. Also, I bought a product online called Deer Rabbit Repellent made by Plant Pro-Tec. It’s a system of small plastic clips loaded with concentrated garlic that repels deer and rabbits. It is supposedly 100 times stronger than a natural clove of garlic. I clipped the repellent vials about every four feet along the fence and I haven’t had any deer (or vampires) in my garden. For more information about this product, go to www.plantprotec.com.
Then, for insurance, we have sprayed the garden faithfully with Deer Fence. It stinks to high heaven, but it seems to help.
My wife Nancy has protected some of her plants in the back yard by hanging a product beside the plants that smells very much like Irish Spring soap. I don’t know why a piece of plain Irish Spring soap, dangled beside plants or flowers, wouldn’t work just as well.
If all else fails, there is a wonderful Farmer’s Market on the Downtown Mall each Saturday. And deer season starts in less than three months
Backyard cooking
I have run across two new products that are handy to have around for backyard cookouts. One is Reynolds Wrap for the Grill and the other is Kingsford Odorless Charcoal Starter.
I bought the Reynolds Wrap by accident. I didn’t realize it wasn’t the regular foil wrap until I got home. But it works great. You can put it on a hot grill (or in the oven) and nothing sticks to it. It distributes the heat very well. Recently, I put a few fresh ears of silver queen corn in the wrap, sealed it with a little water, then put the corn on the grill for about 15 minutes. It was as good as it gets.
The Kingsford lighter fluid is also worth trying. It gets the coals fired up quickly without a trace of odor. Both products are now staples in our house. Give them a try.
Contact Brewer at j44brewer@gmail.com
Speak Your Mind