The Deer War: War is Declared!

While my gardening didn’t start out in a war zone, there certainly have been skirmishes over the years. When we first moved into the old cabin on our land over 30 years ago, the previous tenants had kept a small vegetable garden surrounded by a rusted chicken wire fence. We continued that garden, curiously pulling everything from antique metal toy trucks to hypodermic needles out of the soil, for several years. However, the fence was so ugly that we took it down and began using hoops and netting over our rows. Besides, the Pocono deer problem wasn’t that bad in those days. Their population hadn’t exploded, and their habitat hadn’t been quite so decimated by development. So while we were aware that the deer could come in and wipe us out in an evening’s munching, we only ever saw only minor damage.

As the years passed, the deer damage increased. I added ornamental beds and other deer delicacies, and my frustrations with chew-downs only grew. Yet certain crops were off the menu. We always put our tomatoes in open beds with only an occasional bite out of ripe fruit and nary a leafy nibble. Tomatoes are in the nightshade family and can’t taste good..even to those damn ruminants! I knew I’d always lose some of my vegetable harvest to critters, but I liked the look of open beds and couldn’t really afford fencing. I used Liquid Fence and Deer Scram on my ornamentals with some success, but usually faded in my consistency as each summer progressed. I also had Bailey, my yellow lab, on patrol duty.

My vegetable garden of 2007 consisted of four raised beds planted with cukes, tomatoes, lettuces and other greens. I had hoops over the greens, but the cukes were on trellises, and the tomatoes were caged. I had around 10 tomato plants loaded with green tomatoes when my family went to Vermont for our dear friend Grace’s wedding in mid-July. My daughter Leah flew in from Portland, OR, to be in the wedding, and my other daughter Robin and her husband Sean drove to Vermont from their western PA home. We rented a house for a week and had a lovely family vacation. After the wedding, Leah was returning to our house with my husband Chris and me, but she had extended duties as a bridesmaid, so we got a late start home. Robin and Sean, who got an earlier start, were breaking up their journey by spending an evening at my house, and had arrived while it was still light.

When we finally returned home, Sean and Robin were well ensconced. Casually, Sean asked me, “Linda, why do you prune your tomato plants that way?” I screamed! I grabbed the flashlight and ran out to my raised beds. Denuded stalks with amputated branches appeared in my beam like grotesque alien growths. Sadly, I returned to the house to wait for morning and my grim damage report.

It was bad. Every flower was chewed down to a nub. My huge hydrangea which had been loaded with blooms was sheared like a crew cut. Even my holly bush was stripped of leaves! The only foliage left was on my peonies. Every cuke and tomato plant had been eaten to single bare stalks. My total tomato harvest for the entire summer was one cherry tomato that managed to survive.

I was pissed. It was war!