Bittersweet!

Poor thing! I know deer are not popular with most gardeners, but it's sad when they get hungry this time of year. Out here, they eat in the horses' summer pasture and the fields this time of year. I still spend a lot of time trying to out-think them when I try to find a "safe" place to hide, I mean, plant the roses in the garden...so far, I think we're about tied (LOL)

I dont care if they eat my evergreen shrubs out front. As long as they leave all my other plants alone in the summer. We love to look at the deer.Especially when they venture in this close. We were about 8 ft away behind the window.
Tammy

Tammy, my mom lives in a subdivision in the southern part of Charlotte and she has deer pulling up her pansies right and left. Like I said, this is a major subdivision right off of a major highway and there are still deer that come into the subdivision. A few months ago, my brother in law was over visiting a neighbor two houses down from my mom's house and he saw a pack of 6 deer walking across the road towards her house. When I was down visiting at Christmas, the biggest racoon I have ever seen walked up in her backyard and started eating seed out of the feeder. Seems that critters are everywhere. At least the racoon just eats the birdseed!

nckvilledudes, thats kinda funny, but sad too. I couldnt imagine seeing several deer walking thru a subdivision.The way you describe it, its almost like seeing different families (deer and racoon) going in to visit their favorite diner.
Tammy

Tammy, my mom certainly thinks it is sad when she gets up and sees her pansies laying flat on the ground instead of being planted in the ground.

I certainly feel the same way nckvilledudes. I planted out several Montauk daisies this fall, then a few weeks later noticed they had uprooted several while eating in my raised bed in the backyard.They also eat my heuchera , and several other things. We like to watch them, but I dont like them in my garden. Right now most of my flowers are located in the backyard,but if my wintersowing goes well, I may be expanding some to the front yard. I have even hung up panty hose pouches of milorganite in attempts to deter them from the backyard.But no matter how much they drive me nutts, they are still very cute,lol.As organicmickey said ..."bittersweet"
Tammy

We see deer, raccoons, opossums and foxes, too, in our suburban/urban area. I hear we also have coyotes in the city. Saw one of our red foxes when I walked the dogs this morning-and we live 'inside the beltway' which means right outside Washington, D.C. and every chance they get, the people who run our local government destroy more habitat by increasing development which will lead to more and more sightings as the critters search for food and shelter. So sad.

I agree cyn427. I live in the country tho, and all those animals you mentioned are pretty common around here. I hear the coyotes occasionally in the woods but have never seen them yet. My 3.5 yo grandaughter heard us talking about possums being on the back porch during the night, and now she talks about the puma's lol. Dont know how she come up with puma from possum, but its too cute to correct here,lol.
Tammy

Aww. Cute picture.

Try as I might, I just can't get angry at an animal for trying to find food. What would we do if we were them?

That said, I did put a bamboo fence around the back of my garden last year and the deer avoided it. In summer, the woods provides. However, they've been at my birdfeeder every night this week looking for food. I'll probably fill it for them again.

It is a cute photo I agree. Deer come right through our yard , we have oak trees and they dig the yard up trying to get the acorns. I like them better when they stay in the woods! They are a beautiful animal.

I think I hate it the most when the coons come right up on my patio, one got in through the neighbors doggie door and into their house. They can be mean..
Kathy

We used to keep our large (approx 20lb) cat food bags in a plastic garbage can on the back porch. Until one year, it was dark and my husband reached into the bottom of the can to get an almost empty bag out, and suddenly felt a possum. Didint take him long to get his hand out and run back inside,lol. Luckily the oppossum was as surprised as he was, and no one was hurt.
Tammy

'possums are much nicer than raccoons and apparently, they don't get rabies either. They only look ferocious. One of our animal shelter women had one she used to take to schools for the kids to touch. I have taken several baby ones to the shelter over the years-guess they fell off mom's back without being noticed.

Aren't you glad it was your husband who reached into the bin?! I think I would have had a heart attack-lol.

They seem pretty mild mannered, but I think if cornered they could do some damage.To me, they just look like oversized rats.But I would have peed my pants right there, had it been me,lol
Tammy

It is surprising about possums. They look so mean. My mom feeds a couple stray cats. One night we were hiding inside the door waiting to see one of the cats and an enormous possum came up and started eating the food. (Interesting to watch) Then the cat started to come up the steps. We were so scared the possum was going to attack the cat that we made loud noises to chase them both away.

Right after, we looked up possums on the internet. Turns out, they are quite non-confrontational (of course, unless cornered) don't stay in one place long, and are happy to share meals with other animals. Who knew?

(Not sure about that 'not staying in one place long' thing, though. The one at my mom's house is still most appreciative of the cat food she puts out.)