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Monday, April 27, 2009

Missed Communication

We're fighting back against the deer this year. Almost every vegetable garden will have an electric fence. We have...let's see...5 gardens. So far three have electric around them. One will be left without because I think what we're planting there--pumpkins, winter squash, Indian corn--might not be so attractive to deer. We'll see.

But there are times when our planning goes awry.

"Yes, fence in the little garden," I said. "I've planted strawberries in there and you remember what happened to the patch we planted last year. The deer ate the new leaves as soon as they popped up and the poor plants never had a chance. And I've got broccoli in there too."

We were okay so far. I showed him the garden; he agreed to fence the whole thing.

That's where we got off track. I went to work. He got to work on the fence.

When I came home, I saw this.



"Ack! Why did you cut down the iris? They're not in the vegetable garden!"

"You said fence the whole thing! That's what I did!" He was justifiably indignant. He thought he'd done an excellent job. By gollies, nothing was gonna get those flowers!

Well, of course I see these beds as separate gardens. Flower bed, vegetable bed. But they adjoin, so to someone not of my mind, they're the same garden.

Sigh. The iris were too close to the sidewalk anyway. But they were this close to blooming. I planned to pull out the bed this fall and replant somewhere else. But they were this close to blooming!

If you should stop by for a visit this summer, be a little careful when you come up the walk. It may be a lot more stimulating than you bargained for.

8 comments:

  1. LOL! That is so bad. Did get a chuckle out of Aaron and I though. Larry *shakes head*, ya gotta love him.

    My irises started opening today, about 2-3 weeks before anyone else's up here. There are so many I can't count them. It will be a good show.

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  2. I am so sorry for your loss.;)
    Amy

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  3. I am speechless! He was full of good intentions I know but those poor almost in flower irises......

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  4. I have to laugh, even if in pain. The man means well but there are times when we just don't see things the same.

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  5. Sometimes men tend to listen with only one ear. Iris are so beautiful now they will live forever in your memory. Prayers have been said now stay away from that fence, Lilly

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  6. I'm with Larry, it is all one garden. Maybe it is a man thing!lol.

    Hope the electric fence works for you. I've seen especially brazen deer jump electric fences up to 5 feet high! They might just use your for a fun hurdle, maybe even a training ground for the 2009 Summer Deer Olympics.lol.

    On the mountain we always had good luck with placing scented dryer sheets in the garden, replacing them every week or so. Others I know have sprinkled fox or coyote pee around the perimeter with good results (this also stops skunks and squirrels, prime culprits for strawberry thievery).

    Deer are wily and they catch on to our tricks faster than we can implement them.

    Have the dogs discovered the fence yet? For some reason, dogs seems to be drawn to electric fences. We had a dog one time who pee'd on our fence, got a jolt out of it, and then turned and bit the fence where it had shocked him. We had to laugh at him, after that time though, he gave it a wide berth.

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  7. I've got two very active dogs this year, Matthew, so I am hoping they take care of some of the problem--that worked for us for years, until last year when we had no dogs for most of the summer. We've also used elephant dung from the circus, human hair, hot pepper juice, etc etc...anything that might keep them away.

    Our dog did the same thing, but he tried to jump on the tractor with Larry after he got zinged! Poor guy, he didn't know what hit him.

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  8. I'm so sorry, my iris's are about to bloom, too. I can't tell by the picture, did he pull them up or just cut them off. You could still replant them somewhere else and they can bloom next year, it takes a lot to kill an iris. Who knows, they might even bloom this year.

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