Deer noshing on my dianella
Getting into my car last week, I was surprised to see a doe walking steadily toward me, ambling down the driveway like she owned the place. Did she have a fawn stashed nearby, I wondered? (I saw twin fawns in the garden soon after, so maybe.)
I gave her space and watched quietly, and she moseyed onto the path toward the back gate.
She checked to make sure I was watching…
…and then started munching my variegated flax lily (Dianella tasmanica ‘Variegata’). The nerve! I’d noticed that my dianella were getting browsed over the past months, but seeing it happen was a bridge too far. So I stepped out from the car and clapped my hands at her. “Hey,” I yelled.
She just gave me a look that plainly said, “This is my garden. What’s your deal, lady?”
So I left her to it. I guess there’s plenty of dianella to go around. For now. She or her buddies already polished off the native river fern that used to grow over here.
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Digging Deeper
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Too funny! “Face to face” with a doe; better luck next time. My best, Carol
She definitely won the standoff.
Don’t those deer know the rules? They’re not supposed to eat river fern and flax lilly!!! I only have a few of each in my front yard that gets regularly visited by deer–but they’re right next to the house so maybe that’s why they haven’t been munched on—yet. But they do continue to munch down any Big Bend aniscanthus I try to get established further from my house in my front yard. I thought the first time was a fluke. But now I know better.
They always surprise us with their determination to eat plants on the deer-resistant lists.
I know your pain. I am struggling with deer too.
But I have to say the vignette of farfugium, dianella, fine grasses, aspidistra, and overhead tree (?) is really, really good. Would love to have a wider view of your garden sometime. You’re such an artist!
Thanks, Julie, for the very kind compliment! The leafy tree is a Japanese maple, and the fine grasses are lawn sedge from Barton Springs Nursery. There’s no aspidistra here, but there is a line of Chinese mahonia along the fence and a clump of Mexican honeysuckle on the right.
Oops! I’m wrong. There IS a potted aspidistra by the gate. Sharp eyes!
You are a lot more tolerant than I would be. UGH… I must say that it doesn’t do much to deter the critters. It just makes me feel better making them scatter. ha..
Tolerant or lazy, you decide. 😉
Good luck Pam! Maybe we’re both delusional but I think the critters here have developed an attitude too. In addition to the usual raccoons, skunks and possums, bunnies moved in last year and came back this year, and now I have a destructive gopher relentlessly tunneling through my garden as well. And the peacocks apparently decided to move to my side of the peninsula this year. The coyotes have always been here but on Tuesday morning one met me in the back garden just as I was stepping out the back door at 9am, which is pushing matters too far!
Maybe the coyote will take care of your gopher problem! Fingers crossed. I hear gophers are a real menace. I feel for you, Kris.
Great photos. They are totally thumbing their noses at you!
They sure are, the devils.
Such an adorable deer. I think this cute creature made your garden more lively.
They’re less cute when eating one’s plants. 🙂 But they’re there every day, so it’s best to make peace and enjoy them if possible.
They are adorable and do provide some free pruning services; albeit not always wanted. We’ve noticed a lot of deer activity in our garden since we lost our GSD. She was such a great watch dog, patrolling the garden. For the first time ever the deer have eaten the hydrangeas and blueberries. You are generous to leave the deer to your garden!
Oh, not generous, just resigned – ha! I’m sorry you‘ve lost your deer-scattering companion, Karin.
After many years of living in Northwest Hills, it became apparent that the overpopulation of deer was was creating desperate, starving deer. It was difficult to watch and unfortunately the neighborhood suffers from the Bambi complex, and refused the wildlife biologists recommendation to cull the population. The City paid for the survey but the ‘Beer for Deer’ group was emotionally charged and the City backed down. Now we have deer wandering around starving, eating things they never ate before. I used to tell my clients, based on what I saw being browse, we could plant cardboard and they would eat it. I found it hard to watch. And not to mention the decline in other species due to the lack of vegetation. I won’t get started on bees, butterflies and birds that are effected due to lack of desirable vegetation.
Hi Annie! Thanks for sharing your experience from Northwest Hills. For those readers who don’t know, Northwest Hills is the Austin neighborhood just south of my own in Westover Hills, and it’s widely known to be spectacularly overrun with deer, making it difficult to garden unless behind a fence. As I’ve written here before, suburbia creates the perfect conditions for an overabundance of deer: protected spaces without predators and with plenty to eat. It’s not that this many deer lived here before the homes went in. We created the conditions that led to overpopulation and starvation. (For more on this, I recommend The Beast in the Garden.) In newer neighborhoods that are adjacent to green spaces you hardly see deer. It’s in the older neighborhoods adjacent to greenbelts, like Northwest Hills, Westover Hills, Rollingwood, and the like, that you see so many deer wandering around front yards and in the streets in broad daylight. I’m not sure how culling would work in such densely populated areas though. But yes, seeing native plants like river fern — and even bluebonnets, as I recall you once saying — chomped to nothing is discouraging, and it makes me worry for the native flora in surrounding greenbelts.
There is a net system that some neighborhoods have used to capture deer and then they donate the meat to food banks, etc. It is a tough problem with not a lot of great solutions. But the one sided approach to managing it has frustrated me because so many other species are discounted when everything is eaten.