I’m always surprised at how much more you observe when you walk in my neighborhood during the early morning.
A home in a neighborhood adjacent to mine, has a statue of the Blessed Mother in the front yard. It looks just like the one in church only it is two foot tall and surrounded by flowers. When I was a kid all devout Catholics (those were the ones that were going to heaven for sure!) had a picture of the pope hung in the kitchen (on wallpaper with teapots) and a statue of Mary in their flower patch. I haven’t seen that in 50 years.
One of my neighbors had towels draped over her plants. All over the yard! Looked weird so I took a better look. (Where is my camera when I need it?) She was trying to protect her day lilies from becoming dinner for the local deer population. There was no color coordination with the towels so it was a patchwork pattern that made me wonder what her bathrooms looked like. Some things require extreme measures including going public with your bizarre color choices.
Speaking of extreme measures, several years ago we bought a dog pen with a people door to surround our vegetable garden. I was tired of rigging up temporary fencing to keep wildlife (unsuccessfully) out of my garden. It was the best investment we made for our garden although initially it brought the cost of our tomatoes to around $25 a pound. You can read about that adventure here. It was a lot cheaper than having the same fence done by a fence company. Last week I noticed a lot of deer poop outside the fence. The herd must have been there salivating over my (out of reach) tomatoes!
Today is gorgeous in the ‘hood. Hope it is wherever you are too!
Excellent solution to stymy the efforts of the local deer from shoplifting in your garden! I love the deer-selfie. The only captures we get on our camera are cats, skunks, and raccoons. {Damn raccoons} An occasional deer would certainly liven things up a lot!
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That was the year Lily came every night for a swim in the pond and a water lily snack. I have tons of pictures of her in the pond and walking around it. The camera must emit a red light or something so she investigated it and we got a selfie! Best photo ever!
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I agree. It’s the best 🙂
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I love the early mornings too. Before I retired I was a nurse and often started work at 7 a.m.. I never saw deer but once I surprised a fox family playing in a Bristol garden just round the corner from the BBC natural history unit.
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I always got to work early so I could start the day with some solitude.
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While I sympathize with keeping the deer away from the day lilies, if they cover the flowers with tea towels, they have effectively also removed the flowers, since SEEING them is the point, right?
In fact, based on your description, it sounds like it might be WORSE than beheaded plants. People lose sight of the goal in the effort to reach it sometimes. 🤦♀️
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Since I’ve only seen it in very early morning walks, I assume they take them off during the day. It wouldn’t be good for the flowers to keep them on all the time.
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Well. That is some dedication. Like tucking in your flowers at night and waking them up in the morning. 🙂
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Too much work for me! 🙂
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the early morning is the best time for a walk… I love it too…. We have no oooh-deer moments, our problem are the foxes what have breakfast near the trashcans or in the chicken dens…
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We have foxes too but no chicken dens! I saw one pick up an run off with a squirrel! Poor squirrel.
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It looks like you have an interesting neighborhood. We never see deer in town here. I’m always a little bit excited when I come across a deer–or any other wild life for that matter.
Things do look different and special when you get outside early. I’m not a real early bird though. I like stepping outside at night, even for a few minutes, to look for the moon.
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Taking a walk in “off times” when the neighborhood is quiet is wonderful. On Sundays, you can walk later and still get the serene feeling of a weekday in the very early hours. I appreciate wildlife too. I would prefer if they didn’t dine in my yard but…tradeoffs!
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Your neighborhood is quite an adventure!
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It can be. If the frogs aren’t having loud wild sex, then there is always something interesting coming through. We used to have a resident wild turkey but I haven’t seen her for a few years.
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Your frogs.. always entertaining! Hahaha!
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The turkey came every day at 4 p.m. on the dot to clean up under the bird feeders. We called her Georgia.
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Maybe she came for Marga-tee-ta time… 😀 By the time we left MO we weren’t seeing hardly any turkeys. Georgia… I like it!
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It was her sunflower break. Never saw her drink from the pond though.
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How fun! My yard is more fun than my neighborhood!
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I am amazed at the amount of deer you have trying to get at your garden. I know you live within or near a preserve but good heavens! The dog kennel is a great idea. We had deer in Missouri in the country but they rarely came close to the house to eat anything. Maybe it was fear from the deer season that began in November. I would think they would learn pretty quick that it wasn’t a friendly area. They did feast on the fallen acorns in the fall. We only had a crucifix on the wall and it was a bit traumatic. We had a bible too but it collected a lot of dust. I didn’t think they was anything out there that would eat those green Japanese Beetles!
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We had a crucifix too. That was the other thing you were guaranteed to see. There is no hunting in the preserve and there are no natural predators except cars. The herds seem to get bold some years but I’m sure nature has it’s way of thinning.
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We had a gorgeous day, ending with a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I hope your fence keeps everyone out that needs to be excluded.
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It does more or less. I’m happy with it. We fenced our yard a few years back and some things get through but not deer. We still have the foxes eyeing our squirrels and or course squirrels and chipmunks can’t be contained! All good! This morning it is 58 degrees! Tuesday it was 78 degrees. This is at 7:30 a.m. Crazy summer for sure!
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Yes, crazy summer weather. We walked this morning when it was 60 degrees.
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Really nice now though. Can’t complain. Better than 20 degrees and snowing!
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I’d take inches of snow over weather in the 90’s. 90 degrees and 90 % humidity are lethal.
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Somehow I’d rather hump through that than the snow. 🙂 I know, I’m living in the wrong place!
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You might like to live here. Our snow generally melts the day it falls. Our weather is cooler than other places in the South because of the elevation. Even I could almost live without air conditioning.
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I have a friend who moved to Roanoke to retire and she loves it. Somehow I think that’s not too far from you.
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Roanoke is 270 miles from us. It’s not far off the interstate we use to get to NY.
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I looked it up and she moved to Lexington VA. It was 20 years ago and my memory isn’t so good.
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Oh! Lexington is where we met Dor and Bill for lunch. It’s 313 miles from here.
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It was gorgeous in our ‘hood too Kate – let’s bottle it up for the impending heat and stormy days ahead. I remember my grandmother had the Pope’s picture on the wall and likewise the statue in the garden. A few people in my ‘hood, still have the Blessed Mother status in their yard. The deer was a nice touch to the yard; too bad he had his designs on the daylilies though.
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The deer (other than munching on our flowers) are quite beautiful in the spring when the mamas come through with their fawns.
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I would think that would be very beautiful to see. It makes you forget about the nuisance that deer can be eating your crops, even eating the birdseed in the bird feeder.
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You can’t live in my neighborhood if you don’t like critters.
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I’d be perfect there … I just read a disturbing article that all endangered species will not be protected under a new Trump edict to revamp this Endangered Species Act. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-19/law-that-saved-bald-eagle-being-revamped-by-trump-administration
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😦
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Enjoy those deer and “wildlife” in the ‘hood … their presence brings peace and harmony in this chaotic and often hard to understand world.
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I wish everyone understood that.
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Me too Kate. My high school friend lives in rural New York, in a small town called Honeoye Falls. Her backyard is close to a wooded area. She shelters feral cats all year around and it is not unusual for her to peek out her window and see skunks, raccoons or possums feasting on the cat food. She also sees deer eating from the bird feeder. In this post I wrote, I included two pics from Carol’s backyard that she had posted on Facebook. https://lindaschaubblog.net/2017/10/14/oh-deer-me/
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I don’t know much about this but I live in wine country and have seen shiny streamers used to keep the birds and deer away. They are different colours on each side (usually red on one side and silver or gold on the other) and glitter and sparkle and move in the least wind. These won’t work at night although I have seen very fine nets draped over the grapes for that.
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My mother used those for birds in her garden. We didn’t have deer where I lived as a child. I tried the nets over blueberries but something got under and took part of it off.
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I use those fences to keep dogs on the patio and away from skulking (and suicidal) skunks and possums in our backyard. I’m kind of surprised the deer just don’t hop right over them.
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They can jump the 6′ if they wanted to but I think the enclosure is too small once they land inside. I’ve heard that deer won’t jump if they can’t see over the fence or it they don’t think it’s safe.
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Unlike, say, certain dogs who’ll just charge through/ over any barrier and trust that their giant bony heads will protect them.
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Yeah, there is that about crazy dogs. You have to love them anyway!
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I was raised in the Methodist church, so no Pope stuff. Everyone in my school was Catholic, though. Aw…Lily is cute!
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Lily ate my water lilies so we had a love-hate relationship!
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She was hungry. 🙂
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I don’t think our early morning sightings can outdo the towels, but here ya go. We saw a rabbit this morning, a coon hound, a Russian hound, a small deer, a skunk without a stripe (but it did have a white tiara), thousands of chicory flowers, and 29 blackbirds eating green June beetles in someone’s yard.
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You were alert! That’s a lot to see. You could use some eccentric neighbors to make it interesting…
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Dad had a huge garden – fenced…did no good. We joked that the deer waited in the woods until everything was ripe before making their move. He used to plant sacrificial plants in the effort to redirect them.
Had to laugh at the deer on the porch comment. In bad weather the deer herds living on the NASA grounds show up in their porches and walk throughs…they always look like “Sorry, occupied. Walk elsewhere.”
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So far no deer inside the garden (knock on wood). However, an occasional groundhog gets in. Also chipmunks hold tomato parties where they are not allowed to have more than one bite in a tomato before going on to the next one!
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A few things noticed on recent walks………….feathers on gardens and not much else which could be pigeons or ducks (my money on the former as they are light feathers) falling victim to a visiting dog or fox, interesting ‘pouch’ style flowers as tall as sunflowers, another lawn laid with artificial grass and a house that went on the market a couple of weeks ago is now sporting a SOLD sign!
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Always something to see in the ‘hood!
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I grew up Presbyterian so no Pope in the kitchen. And no wallpaper with teapots that I remember. The kitchen wallpaper that I remember was gingham check. I’m pleased to know that you’ve taken the upper hand with your deer freeloaders. I smiled. You win… for now.
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🙂 We didn’t have teapots either. My mother had great taste. I loved her wallpaper. It was venetian blinds with ivy growing on it. If I could find that wallpaper I would paper my kitchen with it. Nostalgia!
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Couple things. 1) My grandma was a devout Catholic. She didn’t have a pope photo, but she had a couple of blessed mother statues around the house, along with some other saints. She also had a gigantic rosary hanging on her bedroom wall. I ended up taking that rosary and one statue as fond memories of her.
https://loreezlane.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/grandmas-thursday-2/
2) I can’t picture the pen you put around your garden. I’m guessing it’s like my dad’s that is tall and has a door (he lives in the wilderness in Wisconsin). We have the usual wire kind we put up every year. So far it’s kept out the wildlife, but we don’t have deer. Mostly rabbits and chipmunks.
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Groundhogs are hard to keep out. They can climb fences if the fence is sturdy enough. The fence is a chain link fence 10′ x 10′ x 6′ tall with a people door. No roof. It is sold as a dog enclosure.
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Great idea. I’ll have to keep that in mind. It does sort of sound like my dad’s. I know my dad has woodchucks under his deck. He also has fox and deer, not to mention the racoons and skunk that his wife feeds at her front door. :::rolling eyes:::
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Feeding anything outside (including birds) involves feeding raccoons and skunks!
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The deer. Sigh. I used to love them when I lived in Arizona and only saw them on rare occasions. Michigan has the highest deer to people ratio in the nation. At least half of them live in my backyard. 🙂
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I live next to a preserved area and they think my neighborhood is part of the dinner buffet.
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Boy, I remember trying to keep deer out of the vegetables! The towels idea is funny though – your pen idea is much better! Also then you still have towels in the house 🙂
I remember those Mary statues too! They have mostly disappeared – true. Though I bet it you walked around Scranton you would still see them out in force.
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I think you’d find them a lot in the coal regions.
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Yes, very true!
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I’ll have to share the dog pen idea with Marley. For us, it is ground hogs. Hungry little things.
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It keeps out groundhogs although I saw a little one wiggle through the chain link. For a while I thought about lining it with chicken wire but I never did. There are different sizes too if you want something smaller although 10x 10 isn’t all that big when you consider how big vegetable plants get.
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How interesting. Towels,huh? I did what you did and bought a huge kennel with a door so the birds can’t even get in, as this one has a top too. The other morning we had an entire family of deer sitting on the front porch. Just chilling. We never use that entrance so I guess they decided to. Our chickens ignored them and hopped in the rockers and just sat them out!
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That would make a great picture! I considered getting a top of my dog pen because the birds were pecking the tomatoes but I also have chipmunks who can get through the chain link fence. I plant enough so we are all happy but I did give up blueberries. I couldn’t keep the birds out of those.
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Blueberries are tough. Then my birds poop purple all over the car!
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My mother had that trouble with a mulberry tree and her bedsheets (this was before dryers!).
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How awful!
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Yes, she would use bad words.
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What do the cats think about Lily? 😀
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They think she is the biggest, dumbest looking cat they’ve ever seen. Not afraid of her at all.
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