Bambi the Balrog Watch - Part One

I haven't seen much of my garden the past week or so - we were too busy last weekend and it's been a dark and rainy week. But this morning I looked out and noticed that something seemed strange about the appearance of the oak-leaf hydrangea behind the fence. Upon closer investigation, my fears were confirmed - the damn deer have been at it.

Now I planted the hydrangea two years ago. In order to keep the deer off, I strung a fence of mesh behind them. So the set up looks something like this:

[Meadow]

----------------- - deer fence
XXXXXXXXXXX - row of hydrangia
========== - Back garden fence

[garden]

========== - front garden fence

[lawn]

The deer fence is about six feet high. The garden fence is about four. What is happening is that the deer are coming across the lawn, jumping the front garden fence and leaning over the back fence to get at the hydrangea. So far they're being lazy - they've only got at it where there are gaps in the garden borders, and they're only going for the leaves above the level of the garden fence - but still. Bastards.

Now I'm going to have to string deer fence all the way around the garden. I had thought that they wouldn't jump into it for fear of being in too confined a space, but evidently they have summoned up the nerve. This may also explain some sudden occassional lopping of coneflower heads, although I was under the impression deer didn't like the stuff.

My neighbor's father is supposed to come visit this fall and bowhunt the woods behind our houses. He can't get here too quickly for me.