Not exactly my "garden," but rather, my back yard, where I have an Italian prune tree and a honeycrisp apple tree. When we landscaped the back yard 12 years ago, we learned right away that I had to fence it to keep the deer from eating everything. I used that black plastic 1" grid sold as "deer netting." It mostly works, except when a deer is determined, it can break right through it. When we got home from Chelan a couple weeks ago, we discovered that a deer had gotten in the yard and stripped most of the leaves off of some branches of the apple tree and some from the prune tree. Deer love fruit trees. I patched the hole in the fence, but a doe got back in the yard Thursday. Patched again, but the doe, this time with her two fawns were wandering along the fence near the apple tree yesterday. I picked up the apples that had fallen to the ground and tossed them over the fence just cuz the fawns are so damn cute. I think next year it's gonna' be fence replacement time. I like the black plastic netting because it sort of disappears into the background, but I think it's time for stouter fence posts, and welded wire fencing, maybe 4"x4" grid. Won't be pretty, but damn, we have soooo many deer here, and they can and will destroy a yard, even a yard with "deer resistant" plants. Our deer are really dumb, and they don't know that a plant is "deer resistant" until after they have sampled it. These deer have little fear - some neighbors feed the damn things - and they will climb up 3 steps onto our exposed aggregate front porch to sample the potted geraniums.
The standing offer remains open. Any bowhunters who want to sit on my deck and take a shot are welcome. There's a 3-point and forkhorn in velvet wandering around lately. The 3-point walked by my pram trailer this morning.
