Gratuitous Domestic Posting (TM) - Outdoor Division

Damn her! Damn her! Damn her!

The @#$()*)%*@(#%*@# deer continues to invade my garden. Remember how I put up some rope and shiny cut outs where she'd been coming over the fence? Well, now she's simply swung around to another side.

I say "she" because I know exactly who's doing this: she's a doe, a yearling or maybe a two year old. She hangs around with an older doe (probably her mother) who also has a fawn this year. The three of them come strolling in often around 7:30 PM or so and while Mom and the kid loiter around outside, she hops the fence.

What's even more infuriating is that this nasty beyotch has abandoned her earlier practice of razing individual plants and has started going around and nibling the buds and new growth off of damn near everything. Did you know deer would eat gladiola buds? Neither did I. Did you know deer would eat joe-pye weed? News to me, too. As for the coneflowers, well, I've got too many purples for her to get all of them, but the white coneflower has yet to get a single bud all the way to flowering. Clematis? Stripped. Columbine? Razed. Black-eyed susans? Never recovered from her earlier depredations. Hydrangia? She's working her way down the back fence, stripping any branches hanging over it. Blackberry lily? Well, she's not eating this, but she keeps stepping on it to get at other plants. Same with the yarrow. And the daisies.

When I think of all the work I've put into that plot and of the way that it really is beginning to mature, and when I walk out in the evening after a long day at the office and see the latest signs of her visitation, well, I honestly want to cry in despair.

Damn her! Damn her! Damn her!

So what to do? Well, I'm going to run my rope and shiny things rig all the way around for now. If that doesn't stop her, I don't see much choice other than to run up more permanent embattlements of wood and chicken wire. I know there are those of you who recommend various sprays and what-not, but what with the constant need for re-application, that runs into a fair amount of time and money. Also, you have to remember that the deer around here have no natural predators and are not hunted. As a result, they have become extremely bold. I doubt that any concoction designed to frighten them off would work very long. The only thing for it is to make it too difficultfor them to get in.

Grrrrrrrrrr.........

UPDATE: Well, the new line with tin-foil covered pieces of balsa wood is up. I can tell you right here and now that the Missus is going to take one look at it when she gets home and demand that I put in something less ugly. Guess it's going to be six feet of deer fencing all the way around after all. On the other hand, I'm beginning to think that this might be set off by a nice trellis arbor over the entrance, perhaps with some honeysuckle on it......

By the way, I heartily agree with those of you who have remarked on the tastiness of venison. In fact, venison sausage is the very best I've ever had.
Bow hunting is permitted in my neighborhood. So if any of you want to drop on by and try your luck, feel free. All I ask is a couple o' pounds of venison in the event you get one.