Probably not this year but we’ll have fruit in the near future. Have to start somewhere . . if we didn’t plant them, we’d never have them. Two peach trees were planted here already when we moved here. One was already dead but the other one is budding out. We need to dig up the dead one and plant another one. They’re inside a fence/cage to keep the deer from getting them.
We’re still putting the fig tree in the well house at night to keep the deer from eating it but it’s doing great — new buds and new leaves.
The strawberries are safely out of reach of the deer . . unless they’re really hungry.
They can and would get those plants if they were hungry but there’s plenty of vegetation out right now for them so I’m hoping they don’t tackle the Honda to eat those strawberries. The more likely thing that will happen is that I’ll forget they’re up there and I’ll drive off and lose them.
The neighbor was telling me yesterday that he had gone out with his RTV to check on the cows. He had put cubes for the cows in a bucket and had left the empty bucket in the back of his RTV. When he got home late that night from being somewhere, the deer were in his carport licking the crumbs out of the empty bucket while it was still in the back of the RTV. The deer are pretty to watch but they sure make it difficult to grow anything.
Trina says
Judy, there may be another creature to be concerned about with having a peach tree. Ants like them too. I don’t know how big the ants are where you live but there were some big black ones in West Texas. We had a peach tree here in VA where we live now. The former owner planted it too close to the house. The blossoms were pretty. And when the fruit came, the ants came. Yuck!! I don’t mind them as long as they don’t crawl on me. 🙂 Or come in the house.
Trina
Linda in NE says
We had trouble with ants getting our peaches in Nebr. too. As soon as they were ripe, here comes the ants. We had to keep a careful watch so we got the peaches before the ants. Deer? Deer is tasty. Do they have predation permits in Texas? Here in Nebr. when they start causing too many problems a landowner can get a predation permit that allows him to shoot several deer or give permission to others to shoot them.
Debbie says
Those darn deer! We think Bambi is so cute…honestly!!!! I’m dreading the hostas coming up because I have to run around and spray all my hostas and just about every other plant with the organic deer repellent. If I don’t they mosey on in and give the plants haircuts! Not flattering haircuts, either!!!! 🙂
I hope they don’t go after those strawberries. That would be awful.
kwiltnkats says
At this rate you’ll be canning your own food in no time. Sandi
Leslie says
Hi! Deer really like strawberry plajnts, especially new, sweet ones! Any pretty blossoms are like cake, ice cream with sprinkles!
I’d be putting the strawberries in the vehicle, the deer will find them, they’ll fall on the ground, the deer will eat up the plants and you’ll be left with the mess!
Good luck with the trees! You may have to put electrical deterants on them! Too bad you couldn’t use a water sprinkler, but water is too dear, aka deer, LOL, down in Texas!
Take care, Leslie
Cris in MA says
We have herds of deer on our property, in spite of that fact that we have a guy who hunts them every year. We have groundhogs too. (In Massachusetts.) We wanted to have a garden anyway. My husband put up four big posts in the corners of a 20 x 60 foot plot (big) and some tall skinny metal posts along the long sides. Then he dug a trench about 2 feet deep all around and sunk a wire fence down and wrapped it around completely. Then he wrapped a tall deer fencing around that and wired it together with the sunken fence. He made a door in the deer fence but not in the groundhog fence – we have to step over about two feet of that fence when we open the door. The garden is narrow, not sure if it was wider, would the deer leap over? They never have. Groundhogs never have dug under. Six years now. We have strawberries. Posts are starting to rot though. I have a new wrap-around fence on my wish list, a bit wider so I can grow more flowers around the sides.
Diana in TX says
And let’s not forget those cute armadillos! They can wreck havoc with anything on the ground!
Bobbie BentNeedle says
Once upon a different lifetime, I lived up in the Hill Country. My ex-MiL wanted a hedge, so we spent Christmas Day planting something like 75 bare-root twigs that were to be some kind of hedge. Ex-FiL put up posts with cross-bars, and a strand of electric fence all the way around the “hedge.” I almost died laughing when I saw a young deer walk up to the electric fence, duck down, go under the first strand and stand up between the strands, and mosey from one end to the other trimming the new growth off all the ‘twigs.” The neighbor showed us a small rose bush that he planted when he moved in – 15 years before. He said that every year, it’d grow like crazy, put on buds, and the deer would wait until the rose blooms started opening – and would eat the bush down to the ground. Good luck ;0}
Quiltinggranna says
in north TX, we have a problem with armadillos coming during the night and eating young tender plants. we keep a live trap baited with cat food to catch them, then my husband takes them to a new habitat near a lake. common problem.
Ava Crotinger says
Planting trees – Old Chinese wisdom – best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. Second best time is today.
Good luck.