Elderberries and Deer

[Paul E. Lehmann]

Are deer attracted or repelled by elderberry bushes? If they eat them, do they eat the leaves, berries or both?

[Jan Flora]

Deer will eat the woody growth during the winter, if they can't find anything else to eat.

But in general, deer would rather eat your roses...

Jan

[Lilah Morgan]

Deer do eat roses? So it WAS them who ate my only rose...well the plant is still alive, but they ate most of the stem with the big huge bud on it...I had it 'fenced' to protect it from the chickens/geese/bunnies, and it was doing so good, then I noticed that it was gone, and I look, and the stem was chewed down to only a couple inches left of it...I was so upset...it was only a couple days away from blooming...couldn't think what could have eaten it, it being all thorny and hard and such...

[Janet Baraclough]

The message from "Lilah Morgan" contains these words:

One of their gourmet foods (they don't mind thorns in the mouth; holly is another favourite).

I used to be under the delusion that the red deer crossing our land every night would never dare come close to the house; so I had my roses and veg garden right beside it. We woke one morning to munching sounds right outside our groundfloor bedroom window, and there about 2 ft away was a family of deer just finishing off the rosebush which used to grow outside it.

Janet

[Sheldon]

In general deer will eat everything. I have all my young trees fenced. All my shrubs are fenced (I learned the hard/expensive way, munched all my newly planted shubs down to nubs). Even plants that are highly touted to be deer resistant, like forsythia, daffodils, barberry, etc., are not so deer resistant it seems. Squirrels love daffodil bulbs too, the first winter they dug up most every one of the

500 I planted that fall, munched em right in front of me... I won't be planting those any more. So far the only thing I've planted out in the open that hasn't been eaten (yet) are some giant ferns I put in to hide my propane tank.

[William Wagner]

Just wondering were the bulbs planted in a straight line vs naturalized?

Bill

[Sheldon]

Hehe, no, I didn't check if those bulb snatchers were straight or gay.

I suppose my bulbs were naturalized, planted with a 2" auger from Leevalley.com and my trusty cordless drill. That thing can dig hundreds of perfect bulb holes effortlessly in practically no time. I got one good bloom and the next spring practically nothing.

The ones by my little creek are still there but the squirrels ate those under the trees.

[William Wagner]

Wonderful stream !!!

Bill

[Amos Nomore]

[Sheldon]

Yes, Calvatia propanetankus gigantea.

[Amos Nomore]

Wow. Hope nobody tries to cook it. I wondered if they'd evolved little foot brackets. And stuff.

[Sheldon]

Most times it's nice, but during periods of heavy rain the water rises to the very tippy top and looks ready for white water rafting... twice now in early spring before all the snow is melted I've seen it overflow it's banks. This spring the water ras running exceptionally strong and I lost more than two feet on the south bank, especially where the orangeberg pipe from my French drain empties out... that pipe was pretty well hidden, now I need to have that entire area filled with large rocks, soon as there's a dry spell this summer so the heavy equipment can roll up without sinking in... I lost a lot of bulbs and other perennials too.

[Sheldon]

So far no one is cooking... I have a tenent living in that tree but so far that family has not eaten any:

I can't vouch for this ruffiian: greens growing: growing: ladies can't be trusted with greens:

[Sheldon]

connection... just wanted to add a word about if you look real carefully in the field behind those deer there are some wild turkeys that I didn't notice until I downloaded that picture... snapped nigh on 1500 from my rear deck, so pic is a bit rough.

[Amos Nomore]

Big gobblers, good eye. Your environment is so alive! Thanks for all the cool pictures.

[Billy Rose]

You almost seem normal Sheldon but yet you can't tell us why JoeSparebedroom was so wrong. What twisted sickness do you have?

[Sheldon]

JSB posts under many names and is a known phony, as are you (Newbie that you are)... likely you're one and the same, which explains your interest. To date you've posted nothing useful, you are simply a troll. Bye.

[Charlie]

Ya know, Sheldon.......you contribute some good information.

So does Billy, if you would read all the posts.

You have just made a several statements here that are without corroborating information.

Little prickly today, ain't we?

Care Charlie

[Sheldon]

We... speak for your own teensy prickly... I'm sure you're all prick... wtf put you in charge of judgment. Ask me if I care what a know-nothing the likes of you thinks.

[Charlie]

Twas ever thus.

BTW...I'm not quite a know-nothing.......you taught me some good stuff about trees.

Thanks, sorry to have not played with you the way you like.

Yer Olde Irish Buddy Charlie