Plant a Garden This Year, Watch Out for Bambi
Plant a Garden This Year, Watch Out for Bambi
President Bush and Congress are allowing our food supply to be converted to ethanol. 20% of our corn is converted to ethanol. And other basic foods such as wheat, sugar, and others are also being converted to fuel.
Fresh produce prices have risen as well as beef, chicken, eggs, baked goods, nuts, and other products at the grocery. It is difficult to stay on a budget when you go to the grocery unless you just do not buy certain items. Some of the food is imported into America, but it is difficult to identify it because there is no country of origin listed on the label usually. Cheap fresh tomatoes usually do not have much flavor.
About five years ago I tried planting tomato and pepper plants in my backyard, but no matter what I did, they were eaten down to the ground by dear. I planted 3 sets of about foot tall plants and within 2 days my investment was gone. Each time I tried different height fencing and even tomato cages. So, I gave up planting since then until now.
They are having a deer hunt in another suburban area just like the one I live in where they hope to kill 150 deer out of 300-400 that reside in the area. Read about it below:
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--toomanydeer0129jan29,0,5033815.story
I was just making myself an afternoon coffee and looked at my backyard where I saw 3 deer. The deer are smart because they spread out looking and listening for things to run away as a group in the opposite direction. Usually I spot as many as 2 dozen in my backyard but the others may have been lying down or behind trees or shrubs. They looked starved and undersized and were nibbling at the grass. They were headed for a 15-20 acre private wooded area about 100 yards further in back of my house. My neighborhood has a cemetery, Fairview Cemetery, a county college, Union County College, a private country club, Echo Lake Country Club, 2 nurseries, Williams Nursery, and Dreyers Farm and 3 county parks, Echo Lake Park, Lenape Park, and Warinanco Park. Offhand, I think there are 4 large groups of deer, numbering about 150-200 or more deer. And about 2 miles away is the Watchung Reservation the largest Union County Park, almost 2,000 acres which is mostly forested with deer.
In addition to eating my plantings, they are destroying almost all of the underbrush in the area. They trample my lawn with their hooves. They like to lie down in my ground ivy and pachysandra and damage it. They have also caused many accidents running into the street and being hit by cars and trucks.
The article in the link states, "When their numbers get too great, the gentle animals destroy the forest, spread Lyme disease and pose a hazard for drivers. "
On the other side of town, the county had hunters thin the deer herd at Ashbrook Golf Course a couple of years ago, but they never sponsored a hunt in my area.
Previously, for about 20 years, I planted strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe, green beans, corn, radishes, lettuce, cabbage, rutabagas, rhubarb, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cucumbers, and other things and never had a problem with the deer. I want to plant a few things this year and will seek out advice.
I think it would be more humane to thin out the herd, so that the remaining deer can find adequate food in the forested areas and not wonder into the streets looking for food in the residential areas. I am not an animal scientist, but I think the deer in my neighborhood came from the Watchung Reservation about 10 years ago and they just multiplied.
The county should trap the deer in the suburban areas and set them free in the Watchung Reservation. If the deer populations are too high then the county should drastically thin the herds in the Reservation and the suburban areas. Essex county promises to donate the meat to the food pantries, Union county could do the same thing.
By waiting a few years, the deer population will grow even larger, wondering even further into the suburbs where there is more traffic. There will be even less food for the deer to scavenge, causing them to grow sicker and more diseased. There could be so many of them that humans, especially young children could be injured by startled deer.
I am not going to can anything, but hope to supplement my shopping with fresh vegetables and maybe some fresh fruit. I think I can grow about $1,000 worth of things on about 30X30 foot growing area if the deer do not eat it first. Much of it can be eaten at once or given to friends. Some it can be blanched and frozen in freezer bags or containers like green beans and corn. Before the first frost, the remaining green tomatoes can be wrapped in newspapers and stored in the refrigerator for months, taking a couple out at a time and let them ripen on a window sill for a couple of days. I need to look up storing cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.
It is a lot easier to grow a garden without a deer challenge. It may provide a better diet for yourself and your family and could be worthwhile. In this economic challenging time, we must do what we can to make things better for ourselves.
President Bush and Congress are allowing our food supply to be converted to ethanol. 20% of our corn is converted to ethanol. And other basic foods such as wheat, sugar, and others are also being converted to fuel.
Fresh produce prices have risen as well as beef, chicken, eggs, baked goods, nuts, and other products at the grocery. It is difficult to stay on a budget when you go to the grocery unless you just do not buy certain items. Some of the food is imported into America, but it is difficult to identify it because there is no country of origin listed on the label usually. Cheap fresh tomatoes usually do not have much flavor.
About five years ago I tried planting tomato and pepper plants in my backyard, but no matter what I did, they were eaten down to the ground by dear. I planted 3 sets of about foot tall plants and within 2 days my investment was gone. Each time I tried different height fencing and even tomato cages. So, I gave up planting since then until now.
They are having a deer hunt in another suburban area just like the one I live in where they hope to kill 150 deer out of 300-400 that reside in the area. Read about it below:
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--toomanydeer0129jan29,0,5033815.story
I was just making myself an afternoon coffee and looked at my backyard where I saw 3 deer. The deer are smart because they spread out looking and listening for things to run away as a group in the opposite direction. Usually I spot as many as 2 dozen in my backyard but the others may have been lying down or behind trees or shrubs. They looked starved and undersized and were nibbling at the grass. They were headed for a 15-20 acre private wooded area about 100 yards further in back of my house. My neighborhood has a cemetery, Fairview Cemetery, a county college, Union County College, a private country club, Echo Lake Country Club, 2 nurseries, Williams Nursery, and Dreyers Farm and 3 county parks, Echo Lake Park, Lenape Park, and Warinanco Park. Offhand, I think there are 4 large groups of deer, numbering about 150-200 or more deer. And about 2 miles away is the Watchung Reservation the largest Union County Park, almost 2,000 acres which is mostly forested with deer.
In addition to eating my plantings, they are destroying almost all of the underbrush in the area. They trample my lawn with their hooves. They like to lie down in my ground ivy and pachysandra and damage it. They have also caused many accidents running into the street and being hit by cars and trucks.
The article in the link states, "When their numbers get too great, the gentle animals destroy the forest, spread Lyme disease and pose a hazard for drivers. "
On the other side of town, the county had hunters thin the deer herd at Ashbrook Golf Course a couple of years ago, but they never sponsored a hunt in my area.
Previously, for about 20 years, I planted strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe, green beans, corn, radishes, lettuce, cabbage, rutabagas, rhubarb, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cucumbers, and other things and never had a problem with the deer. I want to plant a few things this year and will seek out advice.
I think it would be more humane to thin out the herd, so that the remaining deer can find adequate food in the forested areas and not wonder into the streets looking for food in the residential areas. I am not an animal scientist, but I think the deer in my neighborhood came from the Watchung Reservation about 10 years ago and they just multiplied.
The county should trap the deer in the suburban areas and set them free in the Watchung Reservation. If the deer populations are too high then the county should drastically thin the herds in the Reservation and the suburban areas. Essex county promises to donate the meat to the food pantries, Union county could do the same thing.
By waiting a few years, the deer population will grow even larger, wondering even further into the suburbs where there is more traffic. There will be even less food for the deer to scavenge, causing them to grow sicker and more diseased. There could be so many of them that humans, especially young children could be injured by startled deer.
I am not going to can anything, but hope to supplement my shopping with fresh vegetables and maybe some fresh fruit. I think I can grow about $1,000 worth of things on about 30X30 foot growing area if the deer do not eat it first. Much of it can be eaten at once or given to friends. Some it can be blanched and frozen in freezer bags or containers like green beans and corn. Before the first frost, the remaining green tomatoes can be wrapped in newspapers and stored in the refrigerator for months, taking a couple out at a time and let them ripen on a window sill for a couple of days. I need to look up storing cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.
It is a lot easier to grow a garden without a deer challenge. It may provide a better diet for yourself and your family and could be worthwhile. In this economic challenging time, we must do what we can to make things better for ourselves.
posted by God Bless America - Bob at 12:14 PM
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