Re: spring

ECPep@aol.com wrote:
> 
> Today, outside my kitchen door, just behind the electric fences were six deer
> in their dark winter coloration.  Five of six were last summers babies.  All
> looked at me making as much noise as one agitated woman can and none moved
> other than to look up and ask what's new.
> 
> When I read the happy notes of spring popping up around the country, I think
> this is my first sign of spring - the deer are moving.  Our garden lies on a
> "shelf" on the side of a small mountain with narrow fields around.  Nothing
> is more bucolic than a group of grazing deer in the field.  I do wish I could
> appreciate the scene, a part of me takes pleasure in watching the deer move
> slowly across the field and another part knows it is time to hunt up Ed and
> have the power turned on.
> 
> Do deer eat your irises?  They leave grown plants but nibble any emerging
> greenery in early spring when the wood and fields are still brown and barren.
>  Any plant (iris included) is cropped at this time.  Our woods have no spring
> wildflowers and no seedling evergreens, all lost to deer.  Our gardens are
> surrounded by electric fencing which is ugly and worrisome.  Raids on my
> garden have brought tears to my eyes and escalation to my power bill.
> 
> One of the reasons Siberians have found a home here is deer.  Japanese irises
> are my next project, a July perennial (here) not drawing deer (as daylilies
> do).  What is the experience with irises and deer depredation?
> 
> Claire Peplowski
> Zone 4 (real zone), upstate NY nr. Berkshires
> Winter's gloom lifted a bit, some sun  with ice still on the pond.

Claire,

I certainly know what you are talking about with deer.  They have
nibbled away at a lot of my precious plants.  How high is your electric
fence.  They junp my 5 foot fence.  I don't think they have found my
TBs.  Thanks for the tip re Siberians and Japanese.  My goats like the
daffodils (primarily the blooms) that pop up in their pasture.

I have put netting over a lot of my vulnerable plants until I can find
a better solution.  Any suggestions?

Charley Kearns
Los Gatos, CA 
USDA 9,  Sunset 16
kcf@gte.net
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