Optimist to a fault (6/3/2024)

Soon we will be having a contractor put in a fence around our back yard. We signed the contract 6 weeks ago and they are finally coming to install it this week. We have lived here without a fence almost 24 years, so the delay is no big deal. We wanted the best fence that will be put in by the best contractor. The fence will be around 5 feet tall, and it is meant to give the dogs more room to play; allow us to train our dogs; and to serve as a deterrent to the deer in the woods behind our home. I understand that deer can easily jump over a 6-foot-high fence, in other words, I do not expect them to totally stay out of our yard, but I hope it will serve as a deterrent or discouragement for them to enter our garden. We fully expect our dog Radar to patrol the fence and bark his head off.

You can see a lot of deer behind our back yard; the other day I counted about a dozen walking behind our home around dusk. Kim, the lady next door, gave one of them a name (Daisy). She calls her and feeds her peanuts by hand. Last night I could approach a herd within 6 feet when they entered the back yard. In the past, I have complaint about the over-browsing or over-grazing in the woods and in our home landscapes. In addition, I have written about the impact this has on the ecology of the area and on the deer themselves. I realize that discouraging the deer from entering our yard makes their habitat even more limited, but that would only reduce their habitat by a quarter acre. We are stealing their habitat for our use and enjoyment, and they are not giving up, they are adapting to live among us.

Being the eternal optimist, I have started planning the hopefully deer free landscape that we could finally be able to establish back there. I am hoping for a few display stands for some of my more prized bonsai; a vegetable patch that may receive more direct sun; some fruit trees and bushes; and a pollinator garden. I have already planted tomatoes and they have started to flower. I have not seen one insect on these flowers and most plants need pollinators to maximize their yield, even tomatoes. We used to have a bee hive or two in our back yard, but colony collapse got them. The other day, Bob our neighbor asked about them. He had trouble with his cucumbers not want to fruit because of the lack of pollinators. This is why I planted a pollinator garden: to attract them.

At the moment I am trying to keep the deer away from it all untill we have that fence. I am fanatically spraying a deterrent called “Liquid Fence.” We have had some success with that and I really hope the deer will leave the plants alone for the next few weeks untill the fence is in. However, we will keep spraying the Liquid Fence realizing deer can jump. Subsequently, we need to start worrying about the dogs not tearing through the planted areas. They are wild and crazy players, so we will find out. As you can see, I am planning for it all to go right, but I am prepared to embrace failure.

Here you have it, an explanation for the title of this short post. Will my yard work be a success? Only time will tell. At least now I have more time to dedicate to landscaping since I am retired.

We constructed a "decorative" stick fence and put in a wood chip path between it and the old vegetable garden.  I have planted pollinators plants, an elderberry and strawberries.  There was already a spindly blue berry along the fence.  Hopefully it will all spill over into the path.  

On the side (in an north to south direction, I created hoops for a green tunnel.  Currently I have tomatoes, green beans, Achorn squash and snap peas (a failure) growing in them.  I planted some basil between the tomatoes and some marigolds. 

Looking back up to where the first two pictures were taken.