On 9/3/2017 11:09 AM, Frank wrote:
On 9/3/2017 8:23 AM, songbird wrote:
Frank wrote:
...
Most of my gardening today is looking at it.Â* Deer,

Â*Â* we fenced one area where we grow the most veggies.
other animals get in there and cause some havoc but
that fence saved the slight strawberry crop this past
spring.Â* all my strawberry patches outside the fence
were eaten.Â* i need to fix another fence to block the
gap the deer are currently using, but it is not going
to be easy to do it with wild grape vines smothering
the area.


shade and age cut it
severely.

Â*Â* i have some of that going on too now, but the
cedar trees are growing slowly enough i should still
be able to take them down myself when it gets to be
time.Â* i'm hoping to get some usable fence stakes
out of them.

Â*Â* age gets us all.Â* i have problems i work around
and it is only by moving that i keep the back issues
from getting much worse.Â* one of my knees isn't
particularly happy with me at the moment, but i'm
trying to be careful and still get things done.
some days it is a delicate balance between resting
and plans.


Â* We only grew a few tomatoes near the house and I will have a
lot of chestnuts next month.Â* The wife does some flowers but just came
in to tell me the deer had eaten most of them.

Â*Â* yeah, everything outside the fenced areas gets
grazed heavy here sometimes.Â* the deer have entire
farm fields they could be eating instead, but they
must like the variety (like people ).Â* i see
fresh tracks in various gardens every day this past
year (since the fence got pushed down by snow and
deer going over it).Â* i have to get that fence
fixed before winter.Â* it's not a complete fence
though, so they can go around if they are persistent.
it is very likely they're gonna be...Â* ah well, i'm
ok.Â* if i really want to fence most of the rest of
the yard i could do it for about $1000 and the
effort, but i'm trying to avoid that and use pieces
of old fence to deter them.


Â*Â* songbird


I would have fenced my garden if not for the shade.Â* We live in a very
hilly area on 0.8 acre lot and garden was at the bottom of our lot 2
flights of stairs down terraced slope.Â* Originally surrounded by fields
and predominate beasts were pheasants which did not bother the garden.
Then it was rabbits which respond easily to small fence.Â* Then as trees
grew, deer predominate and I would fence except shade is excessive now.

Deer respond pretty well to just netting unless you get a lot of them
running around and they just might crash through it.Â* I had netted off a
group of hydrangeas but when my chestnuts came in and the yard was full
of deer they crashed through it.Â* Planting 2 Chinese chestnuts was a
mistake.Â* The trees are healthy and I get more chestnuts than I and
neighbors need at sacrifice of garden.Â* Most of our neighbors only cut
the grass around the house and leave the rest grow wild.Â* A couple of
years ago when a granddaughter stopped around in late winter I took her
looking for deer sheds and found a 5 point one in next door neighbors
back yard.

My deer hunting days are drawing to an end and it is frustrating when
you hunt all day without seeing a deer to come home to see deer in your
front yard.

Frank
I'm in that same boat Frank, went from acres to a small house on 6500
square feet and a small garden. No deer in the property but I see a few
on the pipeline behind us. Have had a lifetime hunting and fishing
license in Texas for about 25 years, don't even bother to renew it
nowadays. Middle grandson hunts and fishes and I let him use my rifles
then I get venison for the winter. G We have three fruit trees, very
young as yet but they produce enough figs, pears, and kumquats for us to
make canned stuff and jellies and jams. Our only other problem is
vendors knocking on doors who, obviously, can't read the signs on the
three ways into this small subdivision and the other sign on my front
door. Out of three hundred homes there's only about a dozen old people
living here and we don't make much noise. A young couple recently moved
in a few doors away and they keep posting on our web page that they want
to put on barbecue's, etc. once a month. No one answered that. Most of
the young folk go out to work in the morning, come home in the
afternoon, and mind their own business, and we old people like it that
way. G

George