Rose is Rose by Don Wimmer and Pat Brady for July 13, 2023

Asleep at the job.

I’m in security, that’s why I’m in-secure.

Once, a security questionnaire ask if I ever had a memory lapse – I answered “Not that I recall.”

Looks like someone’s enjoying their nap…until they find out what happened to the garden!

I had a friend that grew roses for the neighborhood deer to eat. Apparently they like the flowers. He would cover some of the plants with a net so that he could cut some of the roses for inside the house.

Don’t know any gardeners though that grew food plants for wild animals to indulge in though another friend had apple trees to feed his horses and I know many people (including myself) who have complained about animals eating their crops

My family has planted sugar maples at the family cabin. Deer like sugar maples. This will not end well.

The garden security is immersed in music meditation.

Need to get fattened up for hunting season……

Awakened one night by the sound of deer eating my zucchinis. (crunch crunch…).

Hybrid tea rose petals have a thin cuticle that is easily eaten by insects (Japaese beetle for one) and deer. The other types ae not as vulnerable. “Knock Out” is a hybrid tea that gets very large. THe deer can eat is all they want as they don’t eat my miniatures or dwarf roses. By eating the “Knock Out”s they are forcing the roses to produce more blooms and keep the bush within in bounds. My favorite isture is of a doe, with a long stem rose in her mouth posing as if she were a 1940s Hollywood star looking over her shoulder.

“Don’t know any gardeners though that grew food plants for wild animals to indulge in…”

At one point we owned a 55-acre farm, of which we leased about 35 for crops. The leasing farmer was quite progressive, plowing and planting in contour format and rotating the crops each year. Every year he planted about a full acre to corn that he never harvested – just left it standing. The deer in our area loved it, and kept away from most of the rest of the crops. We allowed one bow hunter on our property (no firearms). The first year, he came up to the house with a tale of wonder. He had seen the “Hartford Stag” out in the corn, one about 1/3 larger than any others. ‘Hartford’ lived in our woods for about 14 years, and my kids loved him. The year after we sold the farm and moved away, the new (land investment) owners allowed gun hunting. Hartford disappeared – gone for good. I’m told that he left lots of oversized progeny, though.

Seen deer running in the residential areas on Fire Island,NY.