My Dear Little Deer,

I've noticed how you took the time to sample absolutely everything in my garden. You've eaten tomato plants, green beans, baby watermelon, pie pumpkins, and even bell pepper leaves. I'm certain that the majority of these items don't even appeal to you. While I've always considered you a graceful and beautiful animal and have admired you as you run around the neighboring woods, I now realize that you are an arrogant and snooty animal and think you can just ravage and waste what is not rightfully yours! I see you decided to try an unripened pie pumpkin rind and then spit it out all over the ground. Not your taste? Please stop ravaging my garden!!!

Sincerely,

The Gardener

ps - I'll be seeing you this fall with my first ever deer tag and a big fat grin on my face.

So, you see we are learning with the garden. The deer weren't a problem until all of a sudden. And then, within a day or two, the entire garden had been ravaged. I had a beautiful crop of green beans coming in and I was so looking forward to canning them. Not only did they eat them, they trampled them and I think I even found a spot where a deer laid down and took a nap in them. The tomatoes are mostly fine as they have the cages around them, so the deer are merely pruning the tops for me, making the plant more bushy and hardy. I had a baby watermelon plant that looks similar to the pie pumpkin.

The pie pumpkin was heartbreaking for me. Where we live, there was a pie pumpkin shortage last fall and I was unable to buy pie pumpkin all winter. I've heard it's easy to can and was so looking forward to growing my own and enjoying pumpkin bread and pumpkin walnut pancakes and pumpkin and black bean soup. I basically had a tantrum when I found that pumpkin. We were given two pieces of advice from everyone who heard our troubles. #1: Let my boys pee all around the garden. #2: Cover the leaves of everything with cayenne pepper. We have neighbors and they're trying to sell their house so I went with the second option.

You can see how the top of the bell pepper plant in the photo above has been nibbled away. It's been two days now since I peppered the garden and they've left it alone. I picked a sad amount of beans. I think it may be too late for them - the deer really worked them over quickly - but I'm determined to save our corn.

Also, I have many new watermelons coming in and some more little pie pumpkins. Notice how spicy they are. I think it won't affect the flavor as they have a naturally dense rind and it's not near the roots.

Still, as frustrating as this was, it was a learning experience. It'll make us better gardeners next year. I'm not sure if we'll be putting in an electric fence or not but we have some time to think about it. We'll definitely have to do something differently. Hopefully we can fend them off for the rest of the season with the pepper. Fingers crossed...