Birds count, and squirrels. I can see them from my windows, too. A fresh foot of snow last night… and more tonight.
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Looking forward to seeing your property next spring! I’ve also embarked on a mission to plant native wildflowers at the property we’re renting (with enthusiastic landlord approval). It’s been exciting to see so many birds and butterflies enjoying them.
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I put some fencing back up around everything. Cursed rabbits, I didn’t realise they would eat the whole stick. The Hazlenuts are eaten almost to the ground.
That’s the problem with mowed lawns - anything more nutritious is going to be heavily browsed
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This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
Thanks to Tiwane for reopening this.
So a few people seem to enjoy reading about whatever I happen to do around the yard. I’ll try to keep posting those updates here, hopefully frequently enough for the thread to not close again.
Lately, I’ve removed more mulberries, one big one from the lilacs from before I knew you had to dig them out. I’ve added more mulch around the stuff I’ve planted, enjoyed the New England Aster’s first bloom, and moved several caterpillars from my degraded vinyl siding to some hopefully more suitable plants.
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I live far away, but the damn deer do this to saplings all over here!
I think they like to scratch their new horns in the saplings.
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I put chicken wire anchored by rebar stakes around everything. It wouldn’t stop deer, but keeps the rabbits out.
Yes, chicken wire around 1 meter tall. Deer will be able to munch on the leaves but will not stripe the bark of a young sapling, which is a death sentence around here.
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It helps to remove the velvet once their new antlers are fully formed. And hoo boy, a stag with shreds of (sometimes bloody) velvet hanging off everywhere is a truly gnarly sight. A while back when I was at a local wildlife refuge, I had to convince a very sweet, concerned older lady that this was perfectly normal. The deer went through this every fall; and no, we were not witnessing an outbreak of some bizarre zombie deer disease that would turn them into ferocious, flesh eating monsters. 
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Hehehe yes! Well to be honest, the whole ‘make a new pair of antlers every year to seduce the ladies’ is maybe not the best solution now that humans have destroyed the prairies all over the world. It was a bold idea and I would say it does not work very well.
I planted a young white willow in a place I thought was safe from deer and after a couple of years they came and debarked it almost completely. I thought they may be self-medicating with the willow bark. I was pretty worried about the willow, it had only a little strip of bark connecting the bottom and the top of the tree, but as they are so easy to plant from whips and it was already advanced spring, I decided not to do anything.
I was surprised at how well the willow recovered from the attack. It generated a ring of new candidates for trunks in the base, just in case, but it kept the top part undamaged, and it has created a second layer of bark going around the parts damaged by the deer. Later on, some ants came and I think they made a hole on the trunk and are living there. I think this winter I will cut it on the base.
To be honest, it works very well for the deer. You can tell by the population counts.
Tree rubs are to remove velvet and is also a visual and scent marker.The removal of velvet marks the breeding season for male deer, they are not fertile while ‘in velvet’.
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I almost hate to mention this after you’ve dug out a bunch of mulberries (which sounds like a lot of work) but there’s a much easier method that’s been working well on my property.
All I do is cut them down, then cover the stump with something like a large inverted flower pot, and leave it covered for a couple of years. This shades out any sprouts that try to grow, until the stump dies.
At first I wasn’t sure if sprouts would come up from other parts of the root system, but I’ve done several now, and not had any issues with that.
I can’t swear that this method works in all climates or all growing conditions, but in southern Michigan, in rich soil, in part shade, it’s been working great for me!
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You are right, it works for the deer. I think I was thinking it does not work for us :D
Thanks. I had thought about trying to do something like that, but I would rather have them gone quickly.
Looks like the New England Aster flowers are done, but some other kind of white aster has been popping up around my yard to take up the slack :)
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Looks like I have another invasive to deal with.
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Pull before it seeds?
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When does it seed? It’s been there for a while, while I was waiting for an ID. I’m going to pull it tonight anyway.
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