The Opportunist

[rdback]

I was sitting under the garden umbrella the other day, taking a break from the sun and heat. I looked up and low-an-behold, there she was. I think she saw the gate was open and thought she had an opportunity to garden binge. Then she saw me and decided to walk over and lay down under a wild pear tree lol.

[woodeye]

She's definitely casin' the joint...

[macmex]

Oh my! Yes, danger for the garden. I remember years ago when OkieDawn, over on the Oklahoma Gardening Forum had a COUGAR do this to her, while she was working in the garden! She ended up having to pack heat to the garden in case of the unexpected.

[hmoosek]

A Cougar would scare me. A few years ago, The end of my garden used to be a good 250 yards away from my house. I was down at the far end one afternoon late. I was hands and knees planting garlic. I kept getting and uneasy feeling like something was watching me, but I didn’t see anything. A little bit later I saw it. It was a big dog and he was just studying and watching me. He never made an attempt to get close, he just watched me. Still, it gave me an uneasy feeling being a good ways from the house. I don’t know if it was a stray or what as I never saw it again.

[heavyhitterokra]

rdback,

Welcome to my world.

I have a seven foot tall barbed wire fence around portions of my garden on the side with the most deer pressure.  The other 3 sides are composed of seven strands of electric fencing. 


That section of fence that is all barbed wire has eleven strands of barbed wire, 4" to 6" inches apart.  The deer will pace that side of the fence, looking for a weak spot or just waiting to muster the courage to try it.  Then, it will make a half circle, lower its head and make a charging run at it; usually managing to either clear the fence entirely or to bust through between the top strand and the one just below it, I'm guessing at a speed of 25 to 30 mph?  At that velocity, something is going to give.  It always amazes me to see the tightly stretched strands give way to the hurling deer as it stretches its legs before and behind its body to create a slimmer profile.  They are so determined at times that nothing short of a brick wall seems to be enough to stop them.


The whole world is green right now, after the heavy rains that we have been getting lately, but it seems the deer somehow has in its head that my garden contains the only food worth eating on the planet.  Once a deer has its mind made up about a certain thing, there is not much that a person can do to deter it.  When they get that way, they kind of remind me of that football play that we so often see around Thanksgiving, when both teams are lined up at the one yard line, with only seconds to go before the whistle blows.  No matter what the defense is at that point, chances are it ain't gonna work.   

[woodeye]

That's true, heavyhitterokra. I hope the fact that I have lower numbers of deer than you have to deal with will help on my defensive plays. I rode down yesterday to scout for my enclosure materials, I should have plenty to build it. I'm still looking at a ribbon cutting ceremony October 1st. It's the only play I can afford to run anytime soon. If they jump over 8 feet of chainlink fence, with 2 single strands of wire above that, not sure yet what my next play would be... 

[hmoosek]

Slip n Slide! Might not deter them, but it’d be funny to watch.

[heavyhitterokra]

Hmoosek, I'm still laughing out loud at the thought of that last remark about a slip-n-slide for the deer.

On a similar note, I found a spot in the fence that they were frequenting at night one year and placed several tomato cages laying on their sides in various places where I thought the deer might land. It was very gratifying the next day to see that so many wire cages were destroyed.