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 
That ought to do the trick! I remember you had to put up a barricade last year to keep the deer from raiding your deck. Hunger leads to extreme persistence……..LOL
Pam
Oh no!
AARGH!! Now that’s the truth. We fight the same battle – have fenced in our garden, put netting over our tomatoes, and caged and netted our blueberry bushes. SOMETIMES, it works. Last Saturday we saw 4 – yes, 4 crows INSIDE the cage/netting of one blueberry bushes. HOW??? They are smart birds because the cage/netting goes all the way to the ground and is tented over the bush. I know Mom raised us to share, but this is beyond sharing. Good Luck with your cages:) We’ll be watching for an update.
Yay, Motor Man to the rescue! What a great idea! Hope it works well!! One year we had to put plastic fencing around our entire vegetable garden to keep the critters out. And we must construct PVC pipe structures to hold netting over our blueberries to keep the birds out. A friend’s husband actually rigged up an electric fence around their veggies — of course, we live out in the country where we can do such things.
Goodness, I feel for you. MM has the right idea of how to protect the plants. The deer and rabbits have made us have to replant most of our garden 3 times all ready. Love the wildlife, but goodness they do try the patience.
I hope the cages are a success. I started flowers from seed this year, planted ten tender zinnia seedlings along the fence. At last count, there are four. There’s a bunny who seeks refuge in the wildflower bed when startled, so I’m wondering if it nibbled the other six.
The problem with Wild Kingdom….
Yep, looks like deer to me.. Going by the type of damage I see around here after they visit the salad bar…..
Good luck with the cages ! Let us know !
Sure hope the cages work. It looked like your plants were coming along great.
Great idea to cage the plants!
Good luck! I hope it works!