“Deer proof gardening on an island in B.C. Canada”

Today I received some of my bulbs and my seeds to try out in the open area. I know that daffodils do well but have purchased a whole pack of 360 bulbs to try out in the open area. I purchased them online from Costco.ca. I find it so much easier to plan my garden as well as my whole life basically if I have the time and thought to go and purchase what I need on-line rather than having to leave the island, drive into town and find parking. The parking in Vancouver is usually good if you go to a mall but the on street parking can be expensive as well as hard to find. I will rope my family in to help me plant them on Thanksgiving weekend. What a great family activity! (This is sarcasm)

The seeds I received will go to a rocky area that the deer frequent – I will fix it up with a little soil but want it to be more of a tree uncontrolled area like the rest of that area. The seeds may or may not take but time will tell. These are the seeds that I am going to plan with the next rain. I will be putting up before and after photos to see how things have changed. It is quite an exciting time for me to do this.

When I was in Vancouver I had a 50 X 125 foot lot with a southern exposure back yard. I did not have to worry about blocking off areas. But now that I have this contained garden I can honestly say I like it more. When I was gardening in the city I did not have to contend with the deer but my beets use to get attacked on a regular basis by the mice that were in the garden. I had a composting system and would love to put my scrap vegetables and fruit in the compost. But the city animals like racoons and skunks also enjoyed the compost as well. Regularly my tomatoes and lettuce had pieces out of them, sometimes whole plants being up rooted.

I do not compost here on the island – all of our food items can be placed into a tight container and picked up weekly. The small amount of compost I would get was not worth the hassle of having to deal with the pests that would feed on my garden and then eventually rest inside my home. Underneath my tool shed a family of skunks slept during the day while chomping on my garden during the night.