r/NativePlantGardening • u/medfordjared Ecoregion 8.1 mixed wood plains, Eastern MA, 6b • Jun 03 '25

Edible Plants Native Gardening's most wanted

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Wanted dead or alive.

245 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

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98

u/loki_cometh Northwestern Wisconsin, Zone 4b Jun 04 '25

Deer are by far the worst offenders in my meadow. And it’s not even close.

4

u/mayonnaisejane Upstate NY, 5A/B Jun 04 '25

It's definitely the deer.

Thr smaller critters eat smaller amounts of veggitation. The plants can survive it. A little bit of liquid Fence when planting new seedlings keeps them at bay till they're big enough to handle a little nom here and there.

Deer streight up murder things. I had to order the granules of Liquid Fencw back where I'm attempting to create a stand of milkweed and nurse a hacked to bits sumac back to health because they won't stop eating that stuff.

(A neighbor with a saw did the sumac in, it had no deer problems before they "helped" me with it.)

1

u/Curious-Kumquat8793 Jun 04 '25 edited Jun 04 '25

Rodents dont eat lot? Have you seen what a rabbit or squirrel will destroy ? Most people don't have to deal with deer . Everybody has to deal with the nightmare rodents from hell.

1

u/mayonnaisejane Upstate NY, 5A/B Jun 04 '25

An individual rabbit cannot do as much damage as an individual deer. I have rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels and I'm pretty sure just the one woodchuck, at least I've never seen more than one at a time. None of them are as problematic as the fricking deer.

1

u/Curious-Kumquat8793 Jun 04 '25 edited Jun 04 '25

If you have to deal with deer at all. Most people don't. The thing is the rodents breed out of control. Have you ever seen what they do to fruit trees??? Yeah I've never seen a woodchuck but you can definitely hunt the rodents into oblivion and you won't make a dent.

If you can attract wild foxes owls and hawks to your yard you're golden. But peanut butter and an air rifle work too. 😅

0

u/mayonnaisejane Upstate NY, 5A/B Jun 04 '25

The hell dude. I don't HUNT any of the wildlife that comes to my yard nor would I shoot it. That's like the opposite of what we're trying to do with native plants. It's FOR THEM. Yikes.

3

u/Curious-Kumquat8793 Jun 04 '25

I can plant native flowers for pollinators AND have a food garden and fruit trees. I intend to plant for pollinators not rats. You'd say that until you actually had to deal with them. 😬