Remedial tomato training
After the deer started
nibbling, I opted not to prune or train our tomatoes. After all, I
figured tying them up would just make the tender shoots easier to
reach, while pruning might be a problem if the deer came along behind
me and removed the stems I left behind.
But now we have a fence!
I'm a little afraid to trust the new barrier, but I went ahead and tied
up the tomatoes anyway. Given all of the rain we've enjoyed over the
last week, it's about time I got fungi-sensitive plants off the
ground...and in the process I noted the first hint of red on roma flesh.
I guess the summer
garden isn't a bust after all. I can just hear Mark now: "Ye of little
faith...."
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Deer Curiosity Stopper
For what it might be worth: I find that new things like fences or human activity just entice the deer to come see what's going on. As one old garden broadcaster said, "Deer don't like to go where their dead friends were." His point was that deer don't like the smell of blood or flesh. His solution? Dried blood meal. I find this works too. I buy a bag of dried blood meal at the garden center, then put a small scoop of it into a cloth bag or the toe of an old sock. Then, I tie these around on my fruit trees - or maybe on the outside of your new fence - about 'nose high' to a deer. The sniff and back away quietly. If you have dogs, they will just think you've tied treat bags up for them.... And so it goes.
Comment by
Tim Inman
— Wed Jun 27 08:38:15 2018
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