I busted a doe mule deer the other day. After watching her snag and eat a few leaves from the underside of the canopy of our linden tree, she took a few rather prancing steps toward a hollyhock Desiree has been nurturing for the last two years near our front door. I flew to the door and ejected outside.
“Not a chance at eating that,” I admonished the deer.
The deer pirouetted into the air and then bounced off into
the sagebrush and bunchgrass expanse.
“A deer made moves on your hollyhock,” I informed Desiree
when I next saw her. “I chased her off.”
Desiree’s eyes expanded. “I want to see it bloom. I need
deer protection.”
Deer most often raid the delicious offerings in our yard
late in the evening or early in the morning. With this in mind, Desiree thought
for a minute. “I know just what to do. I’m going to put a bag over the
hollyhock.”
Desiree tromped off to the kitchen, grabbed a plastic bag,
and then stepped outside and pulled the bag down over the top of the hollyhock.
The following morning, Desiree pulled the bag off the
hollyhock, and later in the day, one of the buds unfurled into a bright red
flower. Hopefully, the flower is not a daytime deer beacon.
—Mitchell Hegman
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