I am still pouting and plotting revenge on the 4 legged marauders who ravaged my rose garden last night. Bambi's relatives have struck again. I know Bambi didn't do it because the tracks are too big, so I think this is the work of Bambi's relatives, the dad or brother as men have such little respect for finery and there have been multiple sightings in our 'hood of a large buck! One afternoon I was backing out of our driveway and noticed a big buck across the street standing in the neighbor's pines. I stopped and waited not wanting to encounter it in my car just in case he decided to come across the street. He did not. Likely he was eyeing the rose garden guaging just when he might come for a treat.
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| Bush trimmed |
I have been anticipating the blooms of 3 buds about 3 inches each on the Melody Parfumee rosebush. This is quite a big deal for this time of the year and for this area when we have had a hotter summer than normal. Besides the MN rose blooms just don't match CA size but I thought that this triplet just might. I will never know now. Such a devastating sight, 3 buds gone, trimmed before they ever had a chance to bloom, cut down before their prime. Maybe there is a poem somewhere in these words but the words I had this morning were not poetic.
Overnight, the marauders came and nipped all the buds, chomping them like candy and further adding insult to injury by leaving their calling card, piles of skat in the lawn where I have walked barefooted! Fortunately this morning I had on flip flops and was not indulging my tootsies in the morning lawn dew. If you haven't seen it, here is just one deposit, I mean how rude, they could at least have left this as fertilizer in the rose garden, don't you think? Dine and dump has to be their motto. When Jerry and his friends deer hunted in the mountains on horseback in CA, I would stay at home and hope they didn't bag any. When I was a little girl, and my uncle and others shot deer I would think it so mean and had to be reassured that it was not Bambi nor Rudolph. So I have been a deer advocate but with the experiences here in MN, I have changed my attitude.
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| Chomped to the middle |
I did buy some a spray, Tree Guard developed at the University of Iowa that local farmers use and that does seem to turn them away, but I used the last of it around the bottoms of the bushes because we have been over run by bunnies this year and the bunnies chomped on all the bottom leaves. This is our 2nd year without the foxes in the hillside, they went to Florida during a harsh winter and never returned. We enjoyed the fox and we had no problem with rabbit population but they have left us to battle the bunnies alone.
Meantime, I did find a way to extend my decor with wine bottles into the rose garden, shielding the bottoms from the bunnies. It seemed to work, but nothing stops the deer who seem not to look down but prefer the eye level tall buds and blooms.
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| Wine bottle Bunny repellent |
Melody is not the only rose bush they have enjoyed, Kiss Me along the drive was devastated a week ago, nipped in the bud too. I will now wait for several more weeks for this bloom.
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| Kiss Me in recovery So with this start to my day followed by a good work out at Curves, I went on about my errands in the heat and decided to seek solace in the Aldi's European dark chocolate bar. While there I discovered a new cookie line they have added, Benton's which includes various flavors but one of which is chocolate mint, which reminded me of my all time favorite Girl Scout cookie, thin mints. I have never yet found an Aldi's product that I did not like, so I added both these to my cart and brought them home. One more errand involved a trip to Woodman's to replenish my wine racks and browse their massive alcohol offerings. A new mojito mix looked inviting so it made it's way home with me. Colonel Wally, my laptop and kitchen TV bear welcomed the set up for my own little afternoon party. |
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Wally welcomes the party A trip to the local farmers' market, would take up the rest of my afternoon but I did have time for some refreshment, a tall mojito and a few mint cookies. Ummmm, delicious, my mood is now better. |
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| Afternoon break time Tomorrow I will post my trip to the farmer's market, because my blog writer is acting up and I am beginning to get annoyed with the spastics of trying to post and add the photos. Besides, it is evening and time for a nibble of the Aldi's chocolate bar! G'night. |
Here in the UK we have a similar problem with the growing army of "Urban Foxes".
ReplyDeleteWe used to have a den of foxes that lived down behind the creek; will have to post about them, they were no trouble to us. Each spring Momma would have another litter and later in spring/early summer we would see the little ones as she brought them up the hill to feast on the scraps I would leave for them down by our garden. But as I said, they disappeared and have not been back. I so preferred them to the proliferation of rabbits. I will have to find some old photos and post on the blog someday.
ReplyDeleteThat deer thing is one of the reasons I have been letting this place gradually drift back to the way either God or Mother Nature intended it to be. I enjoy seeing the wild life more than the flowers, anyway. I used to grumble when they got to the grapes and fruit trees before I did but finally capitulated, trading produce for the photo ops. Tom
ReplyDeleteLiquid Fence was the only thing we found that worked..I used to spray heavily once a month and then spray the new growth every Sunday..the deer are terrible and they will eat once and remember it forever..I am sorry about your roses..makes you want to take up hunting doesn't it! :)
ReplyDeleteThe deer problem would be hard to deal with. I don't live in the wilderness but I guess that is something to consider if I were to move there. Roses are hard enough to grow without them taking a taste.
ReplyDelete