Blithewold has been pretty lucky so far.  For a while it seemed like there must be an invisible 8′ high barrier encircling the property but in the past couple-three (four?) years the phantom fence has been breached on occasion by those timid, hungry, cloven hoofed landscape destroyers we affectionately call deer.  Lately we’ve seen the tell-tail evidence of more frequent visits and today I caught sight of a pair just after they had breakfasted on delicious tulip tops in the North Garden and Rose Garden.  What worries me is that all of the deer in Bristol probably know now about the Blithewold All-You-Can-Eat breakfast buffet.  Gail and I scattered Milorganite fertilizer (they hate that stuff) over all the tulips in every garden to try to discourage these hungry visitors. And we’ll have to keep reapplying as more and more tasty buds surface.

You know me – I prefer to encourage visitors to Blithewold so here’s my two-birds/one-stone solution: The more welcome visitors there are on the grounds, the less frequently (much less!) we’ll see the unwelcome ones – and with any luck we’ll still have a stupendous tulip display.  Here are a few shots from my morning walk to entice you…

I hope you can help!  Now if we could just book some pre-dawn bus tours…  Do deer dine in your garden?  How do you discourage them?