<strong>By Lee Scott</strong>

Like many people at this time of the year, I decided to work on my garden. The oak leaves which have been dropping for weeks had covered both the lawn and the garden. It was time to pull out my trusty (or should I say rusty) rake. This tool has seen much better days and has lost some of its tines, but for now, it does the job.

Fortunately, I also discovered a box of large green lawn bags, my garden gloves from the local dollar store and my trowel. I think my trowel and garden gloves have a very limited life span, but they also work.

I started by cleaning out the garden, got rid of the leaves and weeds and started to plant. That is when the word when out to the local deer population: The Scotts’ Salad Bar is open for business.

I know this happens because last winter, when I planted my winter pansies, the deer showed up for snacking. Within one week, the pansies were just stubs. This time, I was prepared. I had attended a Garden Club meeting prior to our “Social Distancing” order and the Master Gardener had a slew of ideas to discourage deer from eating in your garden.

Naturally, there are plants she recommended that deer do not particularly like, but that does not mean they won’t try to eat them. It’s like a child looking at the dinner plate with mac n’ cheese on one side and peas on the other. Both are food, but some things are more fun to eat.

So, I was trying to find a combination of deer resistant plants and colorful flowers.

I also vacuumed the whole house and picked up dog hair. The practice of spreading dog hair around the flowerpots and in the gardens is supposed to discourage the deer.

There are some other ideas which I won’t mention now, but we tried them. However, the deer in my neighborhood are not discouraged. Like the 5-year-old, they ignore the peas and herbs and go straight for the geraniums and hibiscus.

So, after waking up one morning and finding some of my potted flowers completely dined on, it was time to rethink my garden. I went to the local hardware store and found some very realistic plastic geraniums and some other fake plants. These are my new electric fence.

Like a child eating those fake wax lips, the deer have discovered that plastic just does not taste as good.

Now as long as my Homeowners’ Association does not find out, I am good, and my garden looks great.

So, for now, the Scotts’ Salad Bar is officially closed.

<i>Lee Scott, a writer and recent retiree, shares her everyday observations about life after career. A former commercial banker responsible for helping her clients to reach their business objectives, Scott now translates those analytical skills to her writings. She lives on St. Helena Island and enjoys boating, traveling and reading.</i>