Bulletin - Fall 1979 - North American Rock Garden Society

The Bulletin is, we hope, for yourpleasure and information and may beperused at leisure and even filed forfuture reference. The "Bulletin Board"is of immediate concern and shouldbe read as soon as received and, whennecessary, acted upon.Report on Animal RepellentsHerewith a brief note on the variousdeer repellents suggested last fall andtried with varied success. In our gardenin the northwestern corner of Connecticut,where deer greatly outnumberthe human population, the deer hadalready moved in by August and weresampling the azaleas and rhododendrons,comparative shopping, as it were,for their winter fare. One hundred andfifty nylon mesh bags stuffed with hairfrcm the local hairdressers, were scatteredthroughout the approximately sevenacres. These were attached to thoseshrubs that the deer had found particularlychoice the previous winter, oneto a shrub — not nearly enough accordingto the instructions. The deer,however, apparently got the hint andmoved out of the garden that night.As reenforcement the entire garden wassprayed in October with the hot peppersauce-Wiltproof mixture.We had no snow last winter andthe deer did return to forage in thegarden by late January, but nof nearlyas intensively as in past years, andthe damage was not as extensive. Theydid avoid the side of the shrub towhich a hairball was attached but chewedon branches a few feet away.Perhaps a second spraying with hotpepperfollowing the heavy Januaryrains would have helper! but unfortunatelythe temperature never wentabove 40°F. (the minimum for spraying)the rest of the winter.On the other hand, friends abouta mile down the road attached thesuggested three to live hairballs pershrub to the yews and Euonymusradicans vegetus around their house.These had been completely denuded theprevious winter. Though our friendswere away from January 1 to April1 and their house left vacant, theirshrubs came through the winter unscathed.Unfortunately they had forgottento tie hairballs to the Iberis sempervirensand these were eaten to theground. Draw your own conclusions.Shirley Klett of Bel Air. Marylandsent in the following note on the subject."In connection with the experimentson hot pepper sauce to repel varmints,I should have reported long since thatI concocted a mixture of brown laundrysoap (shaved, covered with water andheated to a jelly in the old way) andTabasco Sauce and made it work forwoodchucks and rabbits. A thin mixturesprayed on the Chinese peas repelledthe woodchuck after one sampling, anda thick paste painted on the stems ofblueberry bushes got them through thewinter (with a couple of renewals)where rabbits were concerned. I cameup with this seven years ago, butwhether I read the idea somewhere orthought it up myself, I do not nowrecall."Horticultural ArchaeologyThe following note is from LarryHochheimer of Norwalk, Connecticut.Last May my wife, Irene, and I werein Beziers near the Mediterranean inFrance. In a guide book we noted briefmention of a spot nearby where artifactsof three successive dead civilizationshad been discovered and we imposedon our hosts' good nature todrive us the ten miles to Nissan-les-Enserune. We found excavations in prog,ress and a small museum exhibiting201