Between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Between the Iowa and Cedar. Between the Des Moines and Skunk. I've lived or worked by them all. (Except the Missouri - that one doesn't count.) And fought floods against two of them more than once.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Deer season
It's open season at Camp Stranded to prevent more of this:
It's a challenge growing trees with the deer herd we have nowadays. I recommend that folks kill the grass and let weeds grow to make the trees less visible, and forget about mowing. Mowing between your rows allows the deer to find every one of them. When deer were rare, we recommended using pre-emergent herbicides around trees to speed up growth, but then the deer will destroy every tree.
Bucks love to rip up black walnuts even more than white pine. I think they love the smell of shredded walnut bark.
Individual trees around your home/campsite need to have woven wire cages erected to keep the deer away, and keep in mind that aggressive bucks will flip cages off of trees if they aren't tied down.
I have cages around the smaller trees and there's a small roll of used woven wire that was left on the ground to make larger cages. I hadn't gotten enough made up yet, unfortunately.
Of the half dozen pines without protection, the bucks really liked this 4 ft one and left the others alone. That surprised me. I might decorate him as my Charlie Brown tree this year if any branches are left on him.
If snow stays south, I might be able to get some work done this weekend.
2 comments:
It's a challenge growing trees with the deer herd we have nowadays. I recommend that folks kill the grass and let weeds grow to make the trees less visible, and forget about mowing. Mowing between your rows allows the deer to find every one of them. When deer were rare, we recommended using pre-emergent herbicides around trees to speed up growth, but then the deer will destroy every tree.
Bucks love to rip up black walnuts even more than white pine. I think they love the smell of shredded walnut bark.
Individual trees around your home/campsite need to have woven wire cages erected to keep the deer away, and keep in mind that aggressive bucks will flip cages off of trees if they aren't tied down.
Thanks, Sam.
I have cages around the smaller trees and there's a small roll of used woven wire that was left on the ground to make larger cages. I hadn't gotten enough made up yet, unfortunately.
Of the half dozen pines without protection, the bucks really liked this 4 ft one and left the others alone. That surprised me. I might decorate him as my Charlie Brown tree this year if any branches are left on him.
If snow stays south, I might be able to get some work done this weekend.
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