I've Got A Nibbler Visiting...

Although, gardening season is coming to an end and just about over, I do still have pepper and tomato plants alive and plugging away.

The tomato plants are all but gone and the plants look pathetic but they still have green and reddish fruit a com'n.  The pepper plants are still looking good and are loaded with peppers.  However, this year was a frustrating one for my peppers - in years past I would leave some of the bigger green peppers alone to let them turn red.  This year, as they were in the midst of turning, most began to rot from the bottom up and sadly those went into the compost instead of my freezer. This was a weird gardening season here in New England overall, so I'll chalk it up to that.

What's happening now, and although I've not seen it or them myself, there is clear evidence that the deer are sneaking in my yard and eating the ends of both my pepper and tomato plants, see below -

You don't need to be Daniel Boone or some Indian tracker to see the signs beyond the missing plant ends!

Here are a couple examples -

At this time of the year I would prefer they stick to eating the perennials that are starting to die off.  This way there will be less Fall clean up work for me to do.

Speaking about deer, here is what I believe is a mother and daughter deer that I spotted while out on my delivery route the other afternoon -

Mother with daughter having just walked into the golden rod to the right -

Although, I'm not seeing them in my yard, I have been seeing them when out driving more often lately.  I suspect they know the colder weather is a coming, so they're bolder on their pursuit to bulk up as they forage in preparation.