In the Garden with Pat Rubin

Bee garden writer Pat Rubin writes about everything that grows, from flowers and trees to vegetables and lawns. Pat volunteered for several years as a Placer County Master Gardener and has written about gardening for many national and regional publications. In addition to gardening, she spends time raising and showing miniature horses and miniature donkeys.

In the Garden will include news, events, advice and other gardening tidbits. Pat will also answer reader questions.

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August 30, 2007

Deer ravage garden

The young starts of fall vegetables I planted last week have been nibbled by the deer. I knew as soon as I saw the garden something was wrong. I walked down to the vegetable bed and looked closely. Plants were bitten off, chewed, tromped and pulled out. It had to be deer. My heart sank. I wouldn’t mind so much if they’d be polite enough to share the garden with me rather than ravage it. The only plant I didn’t mind them eating was the Brussels sprouts!

A chat with my neighbor across the street verified my suspicions. “I was out in the front and I saw bushes moving in your yard,” he said. “So I went over to check. There were four deer down by the pumpkins.” And, like the good neighbor he is, he chased them away.

Ironically, the day they ate the garden I was writing about two spray-on products touted to keep deer away. I’d given samples of the products to people who live deep in deer country to try. The consensus was the products worked. They have to be sprayed about once a month, however.

Even though I live in a rural part of Auburn, I rarely get deer in the garden. They normally visit my neighbor Laura’s vegetable garden. Laura deer fenced her vegetable patch last year, so maybe they think I’m fair game.

Well, they’ve bitten off plants in the wrong person’s garden! We’re going to put deer netting around the bed this weekend and buy some anti-deer spray ourselves.

There won’t be another free lunch for the neighborhood deer in my garden, I hope.

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