A good breeding season seems to have resulted in an explosion of deer visits around the village. I've been seeing them regularly here and often see them as I walk to work - last week a 'spiker' (a teenager just starting to grow horns) was at the bottom of Back Road and we exchanged 'foot stamps' before he barked and ran off.
I've been growing rhubarb for over 3 years and, up until last week, the deer hadn't touched it. Rhubarb leaves are poisonous due to high levels of oxalic acid and I just presumed that other animals would avoid eating it. Two of my rhubarb plants are unfenced and I've blithely picked them when they're ready and never thought about protecting them from visiting animals.
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My 3 rhubarb clumps in January: one on right before garage door, one in
a mussel buoy at left and the third in the Tiptop cabinet at top |
In the last few weeks I've picked the rhubarb from the garage and mussel buoy clumps and had intended using the Tiptop cabinet clump for rhubarb chutney. I was supposed to make this last Sunday but didn't have any red wine vinegar so went for a walk to the shop. They only had the white wine version so I decided to leave making chutney until after our dry goods delivery on Wednesday.
The deer had other plans!! On Tuesday I was outside talking on the phone and glanced at the rhubarb; instead of a mass of green leaves I was looking at the bush behind - someone had eaten the lot!
An hour later the culprit came back for another nibble...
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| Is the coast clear? |
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| Yum... more rhubarb |
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| It wasn't me! |
I've got it all on video and even when I opened the ranchslider and stood out on the deck he was in two minds about whether to run or not. Far too cheeky to leave the rhubarb unprotected so I've dragged some netting around the cabinet.
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| No chutney for a while - just as well it grows quickly |
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| Deer-proof fencing? I doubt it but it might keep them away for a while! |
I'll now have to think how I can protect the mussel buoy clump now - maybe I should move to Fort Knox!
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| Growing well after being dug up and extra soil added |
Mother Deer and her two fawns came visiting on Thursday night and stayed for a couple of hours; I watched them for a while but had lettuce seedlings and garlic to plant so grabbed my ukulele and started strumming. Mother Deer's ears pricked up and she wandered off to the edge of the bush. I opened the ranchslider a bit and strummed some more. The two fawns started walking toward me, stamping their feet - if I had the video going I would have got some excellent footage of the deer 'dancing' to my (bad) ukulele playing.
