I have no problem admitting my gardening failures. Many of them are less of an issue of poor planning and more of an ignorance issue, so I figure the best thing to do is just go public, so to speak. That way, if you are a master gardener you can have a good laugh. If, however, you are also a struggling beginner like me, maybe you can learn something. “Let's learn together” should be my motto, because I am certainly learning as I go.
With my current challenge I don't feel that I am so much to blame. Not as much as the deer, anyway.
This spring/early summer a neighbor stopped by and gave me some sweet potato slips. They have been a little slow from the start. In fact, three of the six slips died early on. The other three are planted in various locations of a mulch pile as a sort-of experiment.
All three plants were surviving, one much better than the others, when I noticed a few days ago that the majority of the leaves had been eaten off the vine.
My first guess is that deer are the culprits. If there's one thing we have plenty of, it is deer. So, I set out today with my two beautiful helpers to try and remedy this issue.
Invisible Deer Fency Thingy
Okay, so this possibly isn't the best name for my project, but you'll get the idea.
Materials
5 T-Posts
1 T-post hammer
1 Roll of fishing line
Estimated Project Time: 10 minutes
(Less if you are working alone. Even less if you aren't taking pictures.)
We started by setting the posts as four corners to surround the area we want to be free of hungry deer. Then we added a fifth post because of the height of the mulch pile just to make sure we covered that side well. My daughters tried to set the posts but came up vertically challenged for this project.
Next, we strung the fishing line around the posts at different distances from the ground.
The idea is that the fishing line can't be seen by the deer. They walk up to it and feel it, and not knowing what or exactly where it is, they will go no further. I was originally skeptical of this method, however I used it on my early spring garden and it worked like a charm.
Wish me luck!!!
What about You? Do you have any tried and true deer repelling methods?
(A special thanks to @ryivhnn for the upgoat footer!)