I have been on a deer rant for days. Some how a doe managed to get into the deer cage holding a 'Cardinal Hume' rose that I have been training for the last few years to grow above the fern that was blocking its light. The rose was looking simply beautiful until day before yesterday.
A LARGE doe managed to squeeze under the stair rail on the stairs going up to my front deck. Drop down a foot and then ate most of the rose and everything around it. (I've since put up wire to block that from happening again.
Last night I discovered why I haven't had to edge the rocks surrounding the bed of my star magnolia and along the sidewalk. When I looked out the window, there was a deer chomping the grass down from between the rocks.
I didn't have to prune any suckers off of my maple tree this year, which is an annual task. because a deer did it for me. I've surprised deer resting in the shade of the maple. I consider my front yard to be deer territory, but hostile deer territory.
This morning I came around the corner of the house to move the hose I am using to water the roses in the caged top tier of the front garden and came face-to-face with that dang doe. I made a sound like a rabid goose and scared both of us.
When she ran away down the front stairs, I noticed that her ribs were showing. She's starving. No, I am not going to relent and feed her. The deer herd in town is simply too large and the drought has really had an impact on what is available for them to eat.
Yeah, I feel guilty and awful seeing a starving animal, but there is a large meadow just across the road with a lot of the plants that deer normally eat. It's just that town deer have not been brought up properly and don't know that the meadow is full of food for them to eat. She doesn't need to be starving.
People have helped create this problem by feeding the deer.
OK. Rant over.
Lyn
