Deer in the potager

We have been expecting the deer to find the potager one day, and they finally have. I went up there a couple of days ago to find they had nibbled on the broccoli and left hoof prints all over the place.

I put up some sheep fence around it immediately. I didn't electrify it though

Unfortunately the next day they had been back and had just plowed through the fence and scoffed the rest of the broccoli and the leaves off the beetroot - leaving the beetroots themselves pulled out of the ground and scattered around the bed.

I then electrified the fence and bated it with peanut butter - I read that if you put some on foil wrapped round the wire of the fence the deer are attracted to lick it and never never never dare to come near the area again having been zapped with 10,000 volts in the tongue!

You can see how close they were to the house. Much braver than usual. There is still grass and no snow on the ground so strange they are coming in so close. Perhaps they just really love broccoli - which was just starting with the purple sprouts - v annoyed, I really like purple sprouting broccoli!

Strangely, they seemed uninterested in the peas and broad beans. There were footsteps all over the beds, but the plants were unharmed.

The potager looks a bit bleak at the moment. We haven't weeded or mulched and prepared for spring as we intended to have by this point. Hopefully we will manage to get something done 'just in time'. We are planning on focusing on the house this year, but we will plant things we know work and save experiments for later - 'When the house is done' is a common refrain!