So how are things?

Oh no! Melody I’m so sorry to hear about your tomatoes. 🙁 If you can maybe get some green ones, they are phenominal fried-but they only work when green. My grandmother makes wonderful fried green tomatoes! I loved your picture on the blog with the deer

Maybe you could build a little chicken-wire fence just around your tomato section, and build it super tall? At least until you can get a deer fence put up.

I hope you guys can get the casting department up and running again! Do you think it has anything to do with the change in altitude and weather?

Did you ever try peppermint oil (I believe it is peppermint… I’ll double check)? If I remember correctly, this is something you can spray on your plants to fend off deer (deer don’t like it, plus it smells nice!). Garlic oil, lemon, or onion oil could help as well. Just spray it on the plants regularly.

Found this on a website (for some ideas – though more flowery and herb related, it does give you an idea of some flavors… they also don’t like onions or chives). Grow some around the base of the tomato plants and surround the plants with sachets filled with chives/onions/minty smells, even some dog hair and just replenish these ever so often.

“Rhododendrons, azaleas, and heathers top my personal list, although I also have masses of irises, lupins, foxgloves, dahlias, and all kinds of daisies, from rudbeckia through echinacea. Herbs are also featured; following the theory that deer don’t like plants that taste bad, which to a deer means lemony, minty, sagey, spicy, or bitter, I have lavender, rosemary, sage, and oregano in my beds (but not parsley)! And for summer colour, I bed annuals such as alyssum, candytuft, nicotiana, nasturtiums, zinnias, and marigolds. Besides these ‘staples’, I’ve had good luck with other annuals such as ageratum and heliotrope by closely interplanting them with known deer-deterring plants such as marigolds.”

“If you have problems with deer eating your garden, you can use herbs to keep them at bay. I have had great success with Parks Chocolate mint planted in areas the deer used as pathways to reach my garden. Deer will not walk through it. It also repels squash bugs.”

If you ever want tulips, intermix some daffodil bulbs, and ring them with the daffodils. Deer will not have anything to do with daffodils and they will leave the tulips alone because they don’t want a mouth full of daffodil.

Bars of ivory soup, or yellow dial soup (it has to be the bars). Cut pieces off of it or stick bars on stakes surrounding the garden and throughout. The deer don’t like them one bit. You can also place slices, or bars themselves around the ground as well. I have heard of this sometimes not being as effective overtime, so placing plants around not working so much over time

If the deer are not as timid (ie. used to people and foraging in backyards), using human scent won’t be much of a deterrent. Use a combination of things. Things they don’t like to eat will probably do the most good, but other things to make them not want to be there as well will help as well.

Deer are quick learners, but if they think that something tastes nasty, they won’t bother.

At this rate, if you were to try a tomato plant, try something that is already growing and transplant. You might be able to get one with a short growing season to work, so it might not be too late to start again if you started up a plant or two relatively soon. Ours are over 4 feet now (our neighbors, started about the same time as ours, and they have *cough* “dwarf” tomatoes as they are now saying 😀 ). My dad is great at growing them, so if you need any advice on giving them a boost to grow, just PM me. We started last year around the 4th of July and we had more than we could possibly eat from just 2 plants. We started this year a bit earlier, but are trying different varieties, including some heirlooms, some big boys, and a short growing season. We’re harvesting radishes this weekend. Wax beans are growing and we have cucumbers and rhubarb growing. Not sure if we will add anything else this year.