Re: [SG] Yew was:Shrubs for Shade

Well, when I planted them, the deer were there, but not a problem.  They've
only become a nuisance in the past 10 years...worse in the past 5 as their
territory has been reduced by so much housing construction around
here...used to be very rural and wooded; now woods are occupied and many
gone.

I certainly would think twice about planting them to start out with in any
area with a deer munching problem...but I ain't a gonna rip my huge ones
out...and bambi is NOT going to win the battle, although the garden does
tend to look a bit like a concentration camp in winter (according to my
husband, anyway).  They don't bother them once the woods have greened up;
then they like to concentrate on nice tender Hosta sprouts - things like
that.

I used to use the plastic netting and it worked for a few years, although
was a royal pain in the derrière - until we had this really bad snowstorm a
couple of years ago and got a couple feet of snow which sagged it down and
the deer discovered they could rip through it ....and they've remembered
that.

In this wild wooded area of mine, I have not thought electric fencing would
work because, as I understand it, you have to keep the area around it clear
of vegetation so it doesn't short out - and this would be an impossible
task around here.  Is this a fallacy and I could use it in the woods?

Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
Editor:  Gardening in Shade
current article: Mailorder Nurseries - On and Off Line - Part 2 - Munchkin
Nursery
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----------
> From: Claire Peplowski <ECPep@AOL.COM>
> Date: Friday, January 22, 1999 12:55 PM
>
> Not to open the deer thread again, I would think if deer are present in
your
> garden you would not plant any yew.  I have electric fencing and yews
inside
> the fence thrive in this cold climate, outside the fence they never
become
> more than a few inches high, then die from the constant grazing.  Without
> electric fencing I would have no garden.  You can cover with the wide
black
> plastic netting available if you garden is a reasonable size.  It seems
to
> remove the pleasure from the garden to have to go to such lengths each
fall.
> The deer have been eating boxwood this year, previously immune.  It is
greatly
> depressing to grow a fine specimen and find it defoliated and deformed
> overnight.
>
> Claire Peplowski
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