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["Lisa K.V. Perry" <lisakvperry AT gmail.com>]

On Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 2:34 PM, Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com> wrote:

>
> Yeah, dogs are the only sane answer.
>

This is the first year we've had deer in our garden. On Sunday night I lost
canteloupe and watermelon plants after they started looking very healthy.
Found deer tracks in my beans--which may also explain the spotty germination
of the beans. They were coming up, after close inspection I saw several
plants bitten off at ground level.

Dang deer. This is the first year we've had deer problems, but we didn't
have much garden to speak of the last two years and we began bringing the
dogs into the basement at night last summer. A few weeks ago I found tracks
and we reinforced the garden in a few areas we thought were weak and that
seemed to take care of the problem until I saw the damage yesterday morning.

Now we're trying a new approach. We're letting the male Border Collie stay
inside the 6' fenced garden. Usually I don't allow the dogs in the garden,
so he knew it was 'wrong' and didn't understand. This is the dog that we
joke needs 'therapy,' now he's certain to be even more needy. ;)  A couple
times last night I heard him bark like the dickens. Hopefully he scared the
deer away, I'll be really ticked if they eat my pepper plants. There was no
new damage this morning.

Next year we'll have to build a new fence (this one is 15+ years old and
deteriorating) or reinforce it. For now, I hope Jack does the job.

The reason we brought the dogs in was because the female Border Collie barks
like a son of a gun at every deer--on and off all night long. It was either
give her away and disappoint my boys or put her in the basement to get some
sleep. The male Border Collie barks as well but also stops after a
reasonable period. Many nights Jack is left outside and does not come in,
for the reason of scaring the deer away, but he's older and usually sleeps
under hte front porch. I think he sleeps right through and ignores the deer.
Last night sleeping in the garden he had no choice.

Lisa