4Leggeds & Hedgerows

By 4 leggeds I mean deer & others.  I am building hedgerows of deer deflecting blackberry.  They are so far from 5' to 15' wide in places, and are approaching 15' tall in some places.  I find they work great, but......  what if I planted rape seeds on the deer side of the hedgerows?

I got them by accident, I meant to get ramp.  I do not want to waste the organic seeds, so I was thinking of broadcasting the little seedballs of them on the deer friendly side of the hedgerows.  Thoughts?

Toby Hemenway in Gaia's garden talks about how he made a deer hedgerow planting people food on the inside and deer/critter food on the outside, he said it pretty much worked for him until the neighbors screwed it up by supplying tasty food which drew the deer across his property...same thing happens here..but the deer really don't bother my gardens much as long as there is plenty of natural feed for them around..i haven't lost a plant to deer in many many years.

i think the reason most people complain of the deer, is cause they plant only human food and forget to put things in for the deer to browse on..and then there is nothing else for the deer to eat..so your idea makes sense..

if the deer can more easily get to things they prefer, they have no reason to go into your garden.

our neighbors down the road planted a huge field of corn and sunflower seeds, and we have no problem with any critters here right now, they don't even bother my bird feeders..good for them..i donb't mind

Brenda Groth wrote:
Toby Hemenway in Gaia's garden talks about how he made a deer hedgerow planting people food on the inside and deer/critter food on the outside, he said it pretty much worked for him until the neighbors screwed it up by supplying tasty food which drew the deer across his property...same thing happens here..but the deer really don't bother my gardens much as long as there is plenty of natural feed for them around..i haven't lost a plant to deer in many many years.

I totally spaced that...  ..I own that book and totally forgot about it.  Looks like I got some reading to do. 

here on our property i attempt to direct the wildlife to where I want them to go, and provide lots of food for them, mostly russian and autumn olive, honeysuckle, elderberry, wild cherry, lovely lawn paths mixed with clover and yarrow and other herbals, wild grapes, woodbine vine and others..etc..along the perimeters, and I include some winter browse like canadian hemlock, etc..and the deer tend to leave all of my people plants alone..occasional nibble but they really prefer the abundance of more native foods

And here I thought of the blackberry as people deflecting additions to the hedgerow  : )

Synergy wrote:
And here I thought of the blackberry as people deflecting additions to the hedgerow   : )

Isn't there an app for that? 

thats so more like it  : )

My neighbour planted a corner in bamboo and I love it, spreading all over their property so I have a section of  an almost evergreen hedgerow growing and the horses seem to eat it readily so it stops abruptly outside my property line .  I let blackberries grow on the fence perimeter where they have intermitantly popped up  but I  cut them back to keep them under control. 

Muzhik wrote:
Isn't there an app for that?   

It's a manual app; you throw it at someone.