Hi Dorothy,

The deer are in my yard in record numbers this fall and winter and the only veggies/herbs I've ever grown that they never have eaten in our 9.5 years here are lemon balm, basil, garlic and onions. I have dusty miller in planters by the barn and they've never nibbled at them either. They also don't seem fond of ornamental cabbage although they devour the regular cabbage if they get a chance.

Although they have their own favorites (in my garden it is okra and pepper plants), they'll eventually eat even the coarse pumpkin leaves if they get hungry enough. I've even had them eat the leaves of castor bean plants and both datura and brugmansia plants.

It is somewhat ironic they are eating your deer tongue lettuce, isn't it? The deer here have the attitude that I shouldn't plant anything I don't want them to eat. The taller (7' tall) garden fence mostly kept them out after we errected it this year, but sometimes they go into the garden if I leave the gate open. (Ooops.) They even raid the two bird feeders occasionally and will nibble on Burford holly leaves when they are feeling desperate in late winter.

About all I can say about the record numbers of deer this year is that we also seem to have huge numbers of coyotes pursuing them. (And, consequently, the rabbit population has plunged these last few months too.)

I also find it ironic that friends and relatives of ours who hunt (especially in the drought-plagued Hill Country of Texas) are not having a good hunting season---I keep telling them to come sit in my driveway (tongue-in-cheek) from dusk to dawn and they'll be able to get a deer every night of the week.

Is your big veggie garden fenced?

Dawn

Our garden is fenced but not with double height deer fencing. We fenced it with one row of woven wire and 2 strands of barbwire above that to keep the neighbor's cattle out as his fence seemed to repeatedly fail. That gives a height of less than 5 ft. Nothing for a deer to jump over. It's a largish garden 125x150 feet, so we are dreading the expense of double fencing, but I think we may have to do it.

Dorothy,

I know how you feel about increasing the height of the fence. I resisted it for years, until the deer just absolutely made it a necessity by eating everything I planted this past spring. It seems like damage by the deer has increased every year for the last 4 years and is much, much worse than it ever was during our early years here. It is hard to imagine that at one point I grew 40 tomato plants, and pumpkin, sweet and broom corns, black-eyed peas, winter squash and sweet potatoes outside the fenced-in portion of the garden. I sure can't do that now.

When we heightened the fence this year, our neighbors about a mile up the road (but closer as the crow flies) had deer problems for the first time ever (and they've been here at least 3 decades, I think) when the deer moved from our garden to theirs. The deer came and stripped their garden bare while they were on vacation. When he showed it to me, he had some nothing left except okra stalks stripped bare of leaves, okra pods and blossoms, and similar tomato plant remains. The deer didn't take the apples off his trees because he left a radio (hooked up to the barn by extension cord) playing in the trees 24/7.

I've also noticed the deer are really, really big this year and assume that last year's heavy rains here helped sustain them last winter and left us with a higher population of large, hungry deer that have plagued our gardens for months now. I love seeing the deer "around" in the grasslands and forests, but am not too crazy about seeing them in the yard and garden. However, I am still a sucker for the fawns, especially the little twins I've watched grow up this year.

Dawn

I heard recently that 30 years ago there were 30,000 deer in this country. Now it is estimated there are 3 million. That is incredible.

Well, you know, we've killed off most of their predators. And, we've restricted the hunting season to a few weeks a year. Although the deer can be irritating here, there are many parts of the country where it is virtually impossible to have a nice vegetable garden or landscape because the deer destroy it all.

We've done the same thing with forest lands and grasslands. We've "protected" them by restricting clearing of forested areas and underbrush. We've restricted "prescribed burning" in both forested areas and grasslands. What do we have as a result? Terribly overgrown forests and grasslands (look at what happens every year in California, Montana, Wyoming, etc.) that burn like mad, especially in the dry western states. Now, when a forest or grassland burns, it has 20 or 40 or 60 or more years worth of uncontrolled plant growth to burn up. Consequently, we have mega-fires the likes of which did not occur in the past.

America is a great country full of great people who sincerely want to do the right thing, but somewhere we have made bad decisions in wildlife management and land conservation. And, you know, eventually you have to pay the piper.

OK, my rant is over.

Dawn