… and definitely don’t reach out and tweak her nose.
Yesterday, on the Anxious Gardener Facebook page, I posted a photo of some deer in one of Margaret’s fields and jokingly said that I hoped they wouldn’t come into the gardens.
This morning, on arriving for work, I found this:
Apple Cox’s Orange Pippin’ – take my word for it.
And:
Apple ‘Worcester Pearmain’
It is my own stupid fault. Deer have been in the meadow before and three years ago damaged a couple of the trees. I quickly rigged up some netting baffles but they were ugly and I became complacent. Last spring they were removed and stored away. Until today that is, when I spent the morning putting them back up.
This is a temporary solution as I now realize that I need to do what I should have done from the outset: erect proper posts and wire around each tree. Thankfully, despite a bit of a nibble, they didn’t really touch the other eight fruit trees or the gingko or the red oak, also planted in the meadow.
Later on the east lawn, near the house, I found lots of deep pointy hoof-prints and droppings. So my theory about them never coming across the ditch and approaching the house is also defunct. This is a real problem as there are many young trees, dozens of beech hedging plants and countless shrubs throughout the garden. And I’m not sure what to do about this threat. At least not yet.
And the deer photo? Here it is:
Fallow (I think) Deer
Lovely aren’t they? Or so I thought yesterday.