Mid-South Gardening: September already! Cooler? Maybe, maybe not., 1 by marsue

marsue wrote:
We do have deer here, especially in the fall and they nibbled the two Japanese Maples last year. Those j-maples are the ones I got at Jim's last September. The bigger one managed to survive and we have it surrounded with hogwire and plastic bags tied on the wire. It doesn't look very pretty but if it will save the maple, then I don't care how ugly it is.
One guy in our local garden club says he puts up poles all around his trees (probably 3 or 4 around each tree) and wraps fishing line around and around the poles. The deer can't see the fishing line and when their noses touch it, they get confused because they don't know what it is. They have left his trees alone since he started doing that. It sounds like a lot of trouble but it works and when the trees get bigger you can remove the poles and the fishing line.

I agree there is no such thing as maintenance-free garden but there are ways to cut down on the amount of maintenance needed, such as mulching heavily, etc. The thing about living in the country is that the wind blows in weed seeds that settle on top of the mulch and then put down roots. A gardener's work is never done! :D

A few weeks ago, I suggested to Al that he plant some seeds from a cantaloupe we had bought at the grocery store. He did and now we have this little fellow in our garden! I don't know if it will make it to maturity before the weather gets too cold, but we will see. Wish us luck.