Out doing the normal evening walk through our garden when I spotted the tell tale damage of deer chewing on our tomatoes and cucumbers. Rotten things. It is not as though times are hard for them, lots of rain has resulted in an abundance of the usual stuff they eat. Why did they have to go after our defenseless garden? Our fence around the beans has totally thwarted the bunnies, but we forgot about the bigger threats.

Ron was philosophically about it, saying there was nothing much we can do. You remember I told you that he doesn’t care as much about our garden this year. If his mushrooms were under attack, he would have called his boss to take time off so he could be out there standing guard. Long term plans do include a proper fence to replace the current hedges we have surrounding the yard. Which would prevent Bambi and friends from getting in, but that is for the future. I was not so willing to accept and move on.
So I dragged Jo out to the yard with me and starting blocking off the paths. We propped a few of our unused tomato cages between some garden boxes.

Then we found a few trellis pieces that were not being used either.

It doesn’t look pretty but desperate times call for desperate measures. This weekend we will tweak it. Have to figure out how to block the deer but still allow us to get in and out a bit more easily. Right now we have to climb over the trellis or pull the cages out of the way each time. It is a small price to pay in order to save our veggies.
Update 7-5-2015
My obstacle course was not enough. We lost a few more tomato plant tops and some bean leaves. so I had to up the ante. It has to be deer. Unless the rabbits and squirrels have learned how to work together and form a pyramid to allow them to reach the higher plants. Lets see if they can get through this –

While the tape isn’t strong, it vibrates in the breeze causing not only a flickering but a strumming sound too.

So far, so good. No further attacks since Friday night.
Update – July 7, 2015 We have some seriously ninja deer. Blasted things got in again and did more damage to our cucumbers and now our beans. No sign that they forced their way through the VHS tape fence. Only thing I can think of it that they were able to get underneath one side. I ran another line around and hope that this will do the trick. Anybody out there want to sponsor our fence?