Deer Love Hosta

Turkey Tracks: August 16, 2020

Deer Love Hosta

Oh yes, deer do love hosta.

And I have a lot of hosta.

I knew they were snacking on the hosta in the bed where I had the overgrown river birches cut down. And topping off numerous other plants as they strolled by—like the flower part of the Borage. But I kept thinking I would spray all the hosta as soon as the next predicted rain had come and gone. Only, that rain has not happened.

When I put AC out for his morning run a few days ago, we both saw that a deer was standing in this garden bed, I presume eating more of the hosta.

AC put the deer up the side of the mountain in short order, and I got out the sprayer later that day. Leslie Smith swears by “orange” Listerine for deterring deer—used full strength. She also swore that it would not hurt the plants. I found the “original” Listerine at our local drug store—and it is “orange” colored, so I bought it.

Time will tell…

But I don’t see more deer damage since I sprayed. And, that was an easy task. My little $14 sprayer worked just fine. And the spray didn’t seem to hurt the plants.

Here’s the “deer” chasing dog yesterday:

He can go up the side of the hill back of me in about 3 seconds.

And he loves to swim even more this year, but still doesn’t like to get over his head.

We have had some blessedly cool weather these past two days. A late summer treat for sure. But no rain. And it is terribly dry.

The light is changing now. And the hummingbirds are feeding up in preparation for their upcoming flight south. I have to refill their feeders every day or so.

Repair and cleaning projects are making the house “sparkly.” One never finishes with a house, but the obvious projects will wind down this next week. It’s been really good to get this work done.