Deer Country: They’re Back!

They're back!

I have seen so few deer here at Meadow Glenn during the last month that I’ve had an increasingly good feeling that I won’t have anything to write in my Deer Country postings in 2012.  That good feeling vanished when I looked out on our western hillside yesterday afternoon and counted 17 deer, all does and nearly grown fawns.

Perhaps hunters kept enough pressure on neighborhood deer that they avoided all humans as potential predators during daytime hours for the last six weeks.  But suddenly the deer are back in numbers sufficient for me to guess that after the does give birth in the spring we’ll have our regular crop of 25 or more deer browsing through our landscape and stopping to chow down on whatever greenery meets their fancy.

Alas, it must be time to run down my deer management checklist. 

Have I fixed all the deer-damaged cages?

Do I have enough Deer Out spray concentrate to get me through the summer?  Have I ordered a bottle of the new Repellex Systemic Animal Repellent Tablets so I can experiment to see if they repel deer here at Meadow Glenn? Have I fixed all the cages around trees and shrubs that deer damaged last year while they were browsing or rubbing?  Is it time to set some of our older tree transplants free by removing their protective cages? Should I research deer-resistant perennials or shrubs to find one that I want to add to our landscape—and then monitor it to see what our deer think?

With nearly 20 deer settling in for Gardening Year 2012, I think I’ll have more than enough to write about in Deer Country postings.

To read my previous posting about my Deer Out spray experiment, CLICK HERE.
To read my previous posting about the new Repellex Systemic Animal Repellent Tablets, CLICK HERE.