{"id":354,"date":"2010-07-18T22:01:13","date_gmt":"2010-07-19T02:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.annakatedonovan.com\/?p=354"},"modified":"2010-07-18T22:01:13","modified_gmt":"2010-07-19T02:01:13","slug":"you-say-tomato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/?p=354","title":{"rendered":"you say tomato…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have grown herbs and tomatoes for many summers but I’ve never planted what I would call a serious garden.\u00a0 This year I had enough room in the yard to plant a few things without taking over the whole yard.\u00a0 So in April, Robert prepared the plot and the girls and I planted three varieties of heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, lettuce and an assortment of herbs.\u00a0 We were all very excited.<\/p>\n

After a few weeks we started to see some progress.\u00a0 Then the nights warmed up and things really took off.\u00a0 I’ve got enough cucumbers to feed my whole neighborhood.\u00a0 The lettuce is delicious.\u00a0 The tomato plants are taller than my 8 year old.\u00a0 The actual tomatoes are slow coming in but there is an abundance of flowers and little green tomatoes so I know that they’re coming soon.\u00a0 I just have to be patient.\u00a0 Not an easy task for me….I really<\/em> like tomatoes…<\/p>\n

Here’s my problem.\u00a0 Deer.\u00a0 Vegetarian, hungry, persistent deer.\u00a0 When we lived in Franklin, TN I had to fight off the rabbits.\u00a0 I’m not ashamed to tell you that I won.\u00a0 They touched my impatiens once and never again.\u00a0 Don’t worry, I didn’t hurt any rabbits.\u00a0 I just used my Liquid Fence<\/a> spray and the rabbits understood that they were not welcome amongst my flowers.<\/p>\n

Liquid fence is an organic scented spray that stinks to high heaven.\u00a0 After a day, humans can no longer pick up the scent but animals can.\u00a0 In the past, this has been enough to protect my tender plants.\u00a0 Unfortunately we have had so many hard downpours that I can’t make the scent strong enough to keep the deer at bay.\u00a0 Case in point…last Thursday I went outside for my daily veggie check.\u00a0 I had three yellow tomatoes.\u00a0 They were fist sized and beautiful.\u00a0 They were still a little too hard so I decided to leave them on the vine overnight and pick them the next day.\u00a0 Wrong choice, Anna Kate.\u00a0 The next morning I went out to pick the tomatoes and water the plants.\u00a0 The deer had eaten not only the fruit but also the top half of the plant, about a third of the lettuce and the tops of several of my pepper plants.\u00a0 I was pissed.\u00a0 I had waited 2 and a half months for a homegrown tomato from my yard and the damn deer ate the first ones.\u00a0 Stupid nature.\u00a0 Stupid heart shaped deer tracks.\u00a0 I just want to eat the tomatoes that I grew.\u00a0 Is that so wrong?<\/p>\n

I have no desire to harm the deer.\u00a0 I am not a hunter.\u00a0 I enjoy wildlife.\u00a0 I understand that we humans have demolished much of the animals’ habitats so we have to live in the same areas.\u00a0 Fine.\u00a0 I like hearing the owls at night and watching the hawks soar.\u00a0 I think it’s kind of cool that deer live in the woods near our house and that they feel comfortable enough to walk around our yards at night.\u00a0 They really don’t hurt anything.\u00a0 Except my plants.\u00a0 Am I asking too much here?\u00a0 ALL I WANT IS A TOMATO FROM MY OWN GARDEN!<\/strong> Sorry to yell….<\/p>\n

I’ve heard several “tricks” for keeping the deer away.\u00a0 Human hair.\u00a0 Chicken wire.\u00a0 An assortment of sprays and chemicals.\u00a0 I don’t really want to spray anything on the plants.\u00a0 We’re planning to eat the veggies, you know?\u00a0 Since my liquid fence isn’t doing the job I’ve decided to try the invisible fence method. \u00a0 You place some stakes around the perimeter and lace between the posts with cheap fishing line.\u00a0 It creates a “fence” that the deer do not see.\u00a0 When they bump into the fishing wire they are frightened away and unable to get to the plants but they are not harmed.\u00a0 A friend of my neighbors swears by this method.\u00a0 My garden plot is not very large so it shouldn’t be too difficult.\u00a0 I’ll let you know how it goes.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, we are eating cucumbers at every meal and making do with heirloom tomatoes from our local farmers market.\u00a0 If all else fails, at least I’ll know that the tomatoes I grow are being enjoyed.\u00a0 Not exactly what I had in mind….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have grown herbs and tomatoes for many summers but I’ve never planted what I would call a serious garden.\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[193,194,192,180],"class_list":["post-354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gardening","tag-deer","tag-liquid-fence","tag-tomato","tag-vegetable-garden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":356,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions\/356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}