Deer Like Tomatoes? Really???

My garden is decimated!! The deer are having a nightly banquet at my expense. I have had a garden here for going on 6 years now and have never had problems with animals eating my vegetables. This year our yard is suddenly a wildlife refuge. We had a nesting Robin in the eaves of the roof of our house. The empty nest is still there. I think we need a cherry picker to lift us high enough to get it down. In the Spring we had several Mocking Birds nesting in our Arizona Cypress trees. These trees are huge and bushy and bought for the sole purpose of blocking out an annoying neighbor. They were not meant to harbor a bird that liked to swoop down off of the roof of our house and drop a load of you know what on my minivan repeatedly for 5 weeks straight. Each morning my van looked like it had lumpy white polka dots. Some mornings I actually had to get out the hose and blast that nastiness off before I left for work. I could have gotten a ticket for driving with an obstructed view!

After the birds came the rabbits which I think are cute and so does my dog. They are smart those rabbits. They seem to know right where our dog's Invisible Fence line is and they let her chase them and then stop just past that line. I grew lettuce and spinach in the Spring time and didn't get a single salad out of the lettuce and only 1 salad out of the spinach. The rabbits nibbled them down to the nub. We have a chipmunk living in our garage. No complaints. He's cute and I haven't discovered any damage yet that he might be responsible for. There is a toad in the front bushes driving the dog crazy because she is too big to get to it. And now I have deer.

The deer have trampled my tomatoes and have eaten all the green ones. And I had lots of green ones that I was planning to make salsa out of when they turned red. All gone. Deer like tomatoes?????? Seriously, this is news to me! My cucumbers plants have all but shriveled up and died. And my collard greens look like green lace on a stump. Oh, I guess I have an insect problem as well.

So, it looks like it is back to the Farmer's Market for me. But, that's okay...... I was sick of weeding anyway.