Restricting the Deer Diet

Peggy, Mark, Glenn, and Claudia, part of Wednesday’s fencing crew

Some deer live in the woods behind the VegHeadz garden and patrol the area for tasty meals. One of their favorites is Roselle. Last year we managed to mostly discourage them with vinegar soaked rags tied to a line around the Roselle bed.  Keeping the flags fresh and vinegary was time-consuming for Peggy, who bears most of the burden. This week, to keep the deer away from this year’s Roselle,  we installed a 6’ x 50’ chain link fence enclosure in the garden.  The work crew, including Peggy, Mark, Jessica, Glenn, Michael, Peter, Cathy A., Annie, and Claudia did a great job.

Peggy has been growing Roselle starts and will be planting two Roselle plants in the enclosure the first week in May.  That may sound like very few, but last year Peggy harvested gallons and gallons of the beautiful and delicious ruby-colored calyxes from just two plants.  Roselle needs really warm weather before it will take off. We’ve had a relatively cool spring, so there’s no need to plant it earlier.

Peggy and more than a dozen other Master Gardeners are nurturing Roselle seedlings for sale at the Spring Open House and Plant Sale to be held on Saturday, May 10, 2025, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., at the UF/IFAS Leon County Extension, 615 Paul Russell Road, Tallahassee.  Be there early to get what you want. We quickly sell out of Roselle and many other popular plants.  Thousands of plants, hundreds of varieties, will be offered at the sale, all propagated by Master Gardeners.