As most of you know, we have quite an assortment of wild critters in or near our yard: ducks, Canada geese, rabbits, deer, terrapins, turtles, egrets, raccoons, osprey, squirrels….
Although I’ve planted various flowers for years, and have leaned toward those that the deer ignore, I’ve never planted veggies. So this year, I decided to try my hand at “farming” and planted one cucumber plant and one yellow squash plant. I planted them in containers and placed them on our deck.
To keep them bug-free, I’ve been spraying them religiously with Sevin (as per instructions from the owner of the greenhouse/nursery where I bought the plants).
They were coming along very nicely…..”were” being the key word here. This picture was taken last Wednesday.
Early Sunday morning, I stepped out on the deck just to check on things.
This was the cucumber plant.
And this was the squash.
That thud you may have heard was the sound of my heart sinking.
I’m guessing this damage was done by deer (the three steps coming up on our deck are no deterrent); my cousin says had it been rabbits, they would probably have left a bigger mess.
So I immediately set about rigging up netting to try to save the plants. How did we live before zip-ties? And I’m now referring to our yard as a “Gypsy Garden”. You may recall my efforts to save the plants on the other side of the deck railing this year have been successful.
But my sweet Motor Man came to the rescue Monday and built a couple of cages to, hopefully, protect the plants.
I tell ya: it’s a zoo around here. But rather than the animals being in cages, the plants are.
Stay tuned.
~These Days Of Mine~
these days of mine 