When my wife and I first moved out into the country, we had a lot of discussions about our “yard.” We quickly opted to maintain as much of the natural landscape as we could.
“I don’t want to fight with the
animals over the stuff growing around our house,” I suggested. “They were here first. I don’t mind fencing around the trees until
they are big enough to fend for themselves.
But I don’t want to establish a fenced-in island of green.”
We tried to locate and plant a
few flowers and accent plants not palatable to deer.
Well, there is no such thing as
“don’t like” in mule deer vernacular. No
such thing as deer proof or deer resistant.
As a biologist once told me, “Sure, there are plants mule deer don’t
like…except, there is always one deer that doesn’t know it isn’t supposed to
like them and regularly feeds on them.”
I have found a few items the
deer leave alone: cone flowers, blue flax, Russian sage, and gummy weed.
This year, we are astoundingly
dry. The life-giving rains that have
visited other sections of our valley have skirted around me. I have taken to dragging a hose out into the
virgin landscape within reach of my hoses to provide water for the trees and
the smaller attending plants.
Also, over the last few weeks,
a doe mule deer and her twin fawns have been raiding some of my flowers and
munching leaves from the lower branches of my chokecherry bushes and Mayday trees.
I am actually happy I can
provide a little something for them this year.
Mom and the Twins at my Back
Deck
—Mitchell Hegman
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