Of the first sunflowers that we planted, several of them are now taller than me!

Unfortunately, the smaller ones from the second planting are still having deer issues.
Right next to the nearest sunflower in the above picture is this one.

This is one of the ones that had had its head bitten off a while back. It had been recovering, but this morning, almost all the new leaves have been eaten.
Then I found this one.

Newly decapitated, with so many leaves eaten, I wonder if it will recover.
Like this one.

This is just a couple of feet away from the newly decapitated one. Just the head had been eaten off, not the leaves, and now it’s growing a new head out the side.
We will have to think on how to protect the sunflowers from the deer in the future. We intend to plant more in general, plus more of the giant varieties. There’s also variety that is used to make a purple dye that I’d like to try. They only need to be protected when they’re little; once they get big, the deer leave them alone. My daughters and I have been talking about different temporary fencing ideas, though another possibility is to companion plant things that deer don’t like. Or we could try both.
Having deer come right into the yard is one of those things that we have now, that never happened when I was growing up here. Most likely because there was just too much activity, plus we always had dogs. My mother never had to deal with deer eating her garden! I love having the deer, and that they come right up to the house, but they can sure cause some problems! 🙂
The Re-Farmer
There’s an easy fix for those plant problems… Jerky. O_O
😀
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Mmmmm….
Sadly, we do not have our PAL (Possession and Acquisition License) yet, so hunting is not an option.
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Mostly dark humor anyway. 🙂
But as a serious potential option there… Land owners down here are allowed to rent out their land for hunters to use. Lots of largely common sense rules to it, BUT it might be an option up there also.
Deer are beautiful creatures. On one hand, it’s a shame to see them hunted. Over-population leads to everything from starvation to increased occurrences of them panicking and jumping out in front of cars though.
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Yup. I have family members who hunt. Hunting is a vital part of keeping healthy populations.
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Agreed. The only time I disagree with hunting is when it’s purely sport / trophy hunting. Eat it and make use of it if you’re gonna kill it, or only shoot it with a camera. 🙂
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