I hear ya'. I should be pulling weeds myself.
Store-Bought Potatoes
- Thread starter TNTreeHugger
- Start date
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Trying to weed and cultivate here again. spuds starting to die back and nuttin under them that I can find! Never did put seed pods on them, just flowers. Weird for sure. Never had them do that before!
That is what 2,4-D contamination did to things in my yard two years ago. Flowers, but almost no seed pods, or nuts formed. Those few that did didn't mature, were deformed, or fell off prematurely.
Did your neighbors spray recently?
EVERYBODY around here is ALWAYS dumpin something on the fields! Semi tankers and oversized sprayers run up and down my road right by the garden all the time! --- YA! probably fumes from all that and no rain to wash thing down! pisses me off anyway!! NO respect for peoples food supply around here!
Deer just messed up my second crop of taters the other night. Went to water my pots and my tater plants where gone. I dont think I have ever had a deer eat my taters. They also eat every leaf off my crooked neck squash. squash seems to be putting on more leaves, dont know if the taters will come back or not.. Looking for advise on making deer burger, how much tallow do I need per lb of deer meat. I usually go 80/20 for pork sauage made out of boston butts, but I dont trim the butts, but I have never tried grinding deer into hamburger.
Why not plant a 'deer garden?" Things they like to eat so they will stay out of your veggies?
Leave a grassy area where you don't mow?
I don't add anything to venison burger, ruins the taste of the meat imo. But if you must. In order of personal perferance most to least. Bacon ends. Guy I work with does 30/70 bacon ends to venison. Taste is ok, the bacon kinda overpowers the venison. Extremely greasy/dripping fat.
My uncle and cousin use beef or pork depending on what they are making. Just grinding for normal burger meat get the beef, sausage will get either mixed in. I don't care for him adding the pork, kinda like the bacon ends it doesn't really taste like venison and is pretty greasy, but not as bad as the bacon ends.
I tried pork fat once years ago. Didnt care for the taste, to much like sausage without the seasoning. My brother told me he uses lots of beef fat. I cant stand dry burgers and if you dont add some fat, the patties will just crumble.
Depends on the deer for how much fat you "need" to add. The deer we get from happy land don't need any fat added, plenty of bean/corn fields and food plots for them to eat year round. The mountain deer on public land are pretty lean, but I still won't/don't typically add anything to them.
I'm wondering if that would work?
I don't see why not. They are going after the garden because they're hungry. Their natural diet, I'm sure, isn't potatoes, squash, beans, and tomatoes. Make them a nice tall grass area and give them some food.
I very seldom see deer in my yard, like maybe five times in 30 years, but they are in the area.
I've let the yard grow up, mowing short around the house and letting the rest grow. About once a month I do mow at the highest level just to knock the tops off the grass/weeds.
I know I have possums, an armadillo, at least two wood chucks, possibly skunks, moles, and other assorted rodents and reptiles in the yard, but, Knock wood, the only critters I see in the garden area are frogs. And they eat the bugs.
I still don't know what ate my 9 goldfish.
The Ocoee vines I let grow in the garden draws the pollinators, it also attracts the other bugs like stink bugs and Jap beetles (and butterflies) and the bugs stay away from my veggies, they eat the Ocoee leaves. The frogs and the birds eat the bugs.
I've noticed a LOT of bees around the ponds, they love having their own water source.
Idk. I'm no expert gardener, or farmer, but I try to keep everything in the yard happy and healthy and I really don't want to exclude anything from my little "wildlife sanctuary."
I noticed this hole near the end of my carport about a month ago. It's probably 60' from my garden.
Idk what it is but it's big.
The deer here have a ton of everything to eat. I planted field corn far away from my produce. Also soybeans. They eat that and then come to the produce for dessert. We planted 50 strawberry plants this spring and I had to put electric fence around them. From when hunting season started last fall till about a week ago, 40 deer were killed within a mile of me. That's counting the 1/2 dozen hit on the road. I chased 7 out of the sweetcorn at 1:30 this morning.I don't see why not. They are going after the garden because they're hungry. Their natural diet, I'm sure, isn't potatoes, squash, beans, and tomatoes. Make them a nice tall grass area and give them some food.
I very seldom see deer in my yard, like maybe five times in 30 years, but they are in the area.
I've let the yard grow up, mowing short around the house and letting the rest grow. About once a month I do mow at the highest level just to knock the tops off the grass/weeds.
I know I have possums, an armadillo, at least two wood chucks, possibly skunks, moles, and other assorted rodents and reptiles in the yard, but, Knock wood, the only critters I see in the garden area are frogs. And they eat the bugs.
I still don't know what ate my 9 goldfish.
The Ocoee vines I let grow in the garden draws the pollinators, it also attracts the other bugs like stink bugs and Jap beetles (and butterflies) and the bugs stay away from my veggies, they eat the Ocoee leaves. The frogs and the birds eat the bugs.
I've noticed a LOT of bees around the ponds, they love having their own water source.
Idk. I'm no expert gardener, or farmer, but I try to keep everything in the yard happy and healthy and I really don't want to exclude anything from my little "wildlife sanctuary."
I noticed this hole near the end of my carport about a month ago. It's probably 60' from my garden.
Idk what it is but it's big.
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Deer are about the most destructive animal there is. They just tear up stuff for the hell of it! They are NOT hungry! At least not around central Illinois !!
My cousin in NJ near the pines, in a development, has deer issues too. Says they eat nearly everything in her yard.
I'd rather have the deer than a garden. But, that's just me. 
Yep, don't have a fence around the garden the deer tear it up bad. We even fenced in the blueberry and raspberry bushes this year. Talking about fencing the apple trees too. Year 5 on them and the stupid deer just walk right up and eat the green apples right out of the tree. They don't touch the food plots at happy land till it's cold out and the fields are all down. Then it's turnip time for them.
Thats what they do here too! Destroy everything in sight instead of eating whats planted for them! ---- A car got one here today!!! YAYYYY!
When planting food plotts, you dont plant grass. Deer dont like grass. When you see a deer eating in a grassy field, they aint eating the grass, they are eating the brouse, weeds, growing in the grass. People plant food plots for the sole purpose of attracting deer to a certain area. Once the deer start coming to a certian area, they quickly eat everything in sight. When the food plot is diminished, they eat what ever they can find. My problem is those folks around me dont plant gardens, they put up feeders full of corn. They draw the deer in so they can just look at them out their windows. They cant see my garden from their windows so they dont see the deer. Potatoes and squash are not on a deers preferred food list, but if the feeders are empty, they eat what ever they can find. I see deer everyday, I can legally shoot 2 deer every year to put in my freezer, without a license and without having to report to the state. I can legally kill three if I dispose of the third on on my property. I can get a permit to kill every deer I see on my property if I want to dig a pit and bury them all on my property. The people putting up feeders are what are causing the problems and baiting deer is illegal. More corn is sold at the local farm supply to people feeding deer than is sold to the farmers feeding livestock. You can buy deer corn at Lowes, Homedepot, walmart, Tractor supply, Local grocery stores, Hunting supplys, and who knows how many corn growers are selling to the public. With out the public feeding the deer, the forest around here cannot support the deer population in this area. I shoot doe's, if I cant eat taters and squash, I will eat deer. Killing doe's is the best way to control the deer population and I cant eat horns. I killed 4 does a couple of years ago, within 50 yards of my porch, and it didnt make a dent in the population, they still ate my wifes hostas, her day lillies, her spider grass, and only she knows what other kinds of flowers she planted.
If you havent guessed by now. I think your suggestion to plant a wildlife food plot next to your garden is a very bad ideal unless you dont care if you get a harvest.
Obviously. that was a bad suggestion! I must confess, I have also thought about putting out something to attract more deer - but I did have the sense to know that was a bad idea, for many reasons, not including all the ones you mentioned.
Why can't someone start a deer meat business??
They will arrest you like a farmer selling unpasteurized raw milk.
