Last week on this day I wrote about how I was happy and pleased because we had planted some true blue pansies by the sidewalk leading up to our front door. Today I am saddened to tell you, my gentle readers, that last Friday night the deer ate 70% of my special, pretty pansies.
Apparently the deer were having their very own T.G.I.F. party out in front of our house. And they didn’t even invite us. SNOBS.
This experience reminds me of a Bible verse: “Pride goeth before Destruction, and Haughtiness goeth before the Fall.”
[Don’t know where that is in the Bible, but I know it’s there. My mother used to say that every so often. While not a church lady by any stretch of the imagination, she knew all sorts of Bible quotes that she used, along with French phrases + literary quotes, to keep me on the straight and narrow. Or to confuse me, thereby slowing me down as I sauntered along the crooked and wide.]
So yesterday morning Z-D and I went to Lowe’s to buy some average, run-of-the-mill pansies. We bought one 6-pack of pansies with yellow/brown faces and one 6-pack of pansies with purple/white faces. We came home and planted them all mixed-up with the remaining true blue pansies that the deer were too full to eat.
THEN Zen-Den gave the whole mess of pansies a thorough spraying with Liquid Fence, Deer & Rabbit Repellent. Or as I call it– the deer stink stuff.
All of which means that our flowers look lovely from afar, but smell icky when you walk by them. I believe that Fernando Lamas would approve of this solution to our deer/pansy problem. In fact, I can imagine him saying that it is better to look good than it is to smell good.
Yes, my pansies: “You look MAHVELOUS!”
[There’s more to the story. Click here.]
THE SPECTACLED BEAN 
They have a repellant that works on both deer and rabbits? Does that mean it also works on other mammals like dogs and cats?
LikeLike
la p, the bottle that we have says “deer & rabbits” on the front of it. I have no idea if it works for dogs & cats as we have neither. All I care about is trying to give my pansies a fighting chance to root before winter arrives. Poor babies!
LikeLike
Okay, I am mad at those deer! Sheesh! I would have been disappointed too – I love Pansies and Johnny-Jump-Ups (that look like baby Pansies to me). Well I hope that repellent works! I hate to have to use chemicals (plus I always kind of feel bad for the animals), on the other hand, if they had asked (nicely) to have a nibble, maybe you could have planted a few (non-special) Pansies for their enjoyment. 🙂
LikeLike
Kristen, thank you for your support. I know what you mean about not wanting to use chemicals, but desperate times & all that. I would gladly plant a whole pansy buffet around back of the house for the deer– if I could get them to understand that the pansies out front were off limits!
LikeLike
I love deer, but they are a nuisance. We don’t have any around here, but we have some destructive slugs!
LikeLike
Margaret, we have a few slugs occasionally. Aren’t you supposed to serve them beer to kill them? Or maybe it’s that you drink a lot of beer and then you no longer care that the slugs are destroying your flowers!
LikeLike
Ally, I have read that human hair strewn around the plants will keep deer away, something about the smell of humans. In a similar vein, I have also read that human pee sprinkled around also repels deer, but I imagine Zen Den wouldn’t be willing to assist in that fashion!
LikeLike
Voyager, I’ve not heard of either of those solutions. Human hair might not be a bad idea, but as for the other idea… ICK! [Of course, you knew that I was going to reject the last one, didn’t you? 😉]
LikeLike