Those deer are trippin' - especially if they think they can eat our plants!

I haven't met them yet, but I know we share the same land. I've seen evidence of their hoof prints in our freshly tilled soil and evidence of them eating some of our beans. We think it may be a mother and two young deer that bed down around our farm plot. In general, I am lover of all animals; however, I am not okay with these deer eating our plants or creating holes in our row covers.  Damian would gladly use his hunting skills to rid us of these pests, but it is not deer hunting season until November.

We were hoping that the row cover structures would spook the deer, and I think they may do that to an extent. It seems like they walk in between our rows and accidentally trip into the row cover. So far, we have about 5-6 tears in our row covers. I plan to bring my needle and thread out to sew up the tears, but for now they are held together with clothespins.

In order to continue to deter the deer away from eating our plants, we have done some research and found several ideas that we have started implementing. We have wind chimes up in several trees. We have garlic and fish emulsion sprays that deer do not like the smell of. Human urine is also a deterrent and have done my best to take strategic pit stops. Reflective and shiny things like old cd's hanging from trees and posts also are going to be used. We have seen many expensive deer deterrents sold online, but none are guaranteed to work. We are trying to just use what we have first before buying anything. Hopefully, it will work!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Row covers the day we put them up



Row cover after wind and deer pressure





Row cover after a deer tripped into it and poked its head in to taste a few beans.