There is always something to do in an orchard. But this was a suprise.

You have been attacked by swarms of aphids. Canker and mildew have been almost controlled. But this came right out the blue. We do occasionally have Muntjac deer, but never Roe deer.

We thought there was something going on, with leaves being nibbled, and we were blaming the rabbits.        Then the nibbling got more excessive and the height of the leaves being cleared were getting higher. It had got to be Muntjac deer, so out came the trail cameras to catch the critters. A whole row of 40 different grape vines, had all the lower leaves stripped.

Then it was noticed that there were bark stripping on a few trees.

Here is the culprit, a Roe deer, there is a buck as well, but I have not managed to get a decent inage of him. If there is a pair that means there is a small on somewhere.

We have put up temporary netting, just to get a bit of height to stop them jumping over. But there are areas where we only added an extra strand of barbed wire above the existing sheep fencing, thinking that would stop them jumping. But that was a failure. So we put some rags soaked in diesel over the fencing. This still did not stop the, so we will have to continue with the additional fencing above the existing sheep fencing.

The additional fencing is only a few 50m rolls of barrier fencing, but its only temporary. Until we get to winter time to erect taller posts and fencing wire.