As much as some people try to promote wildlife health and longevity, the bottom line is that some critters can be a nuisance to people.  It's a very common and costly issue, costing the nation millions of dollars every year.  I've known humans to try fences, noise makers, hanging objects and the like around their treasured vegetable and flower gardens.  Because all of these methods tend to be costly and time consuming (not to mention frustrating) Whitetail Micro-Plotters has taken a different approach to deter troublesome wildlife - Buffer Plots.

 

The use of Buffer Plots is a very bizarre concept to some people.  A buffer plot is a small plot (often no more than 10ft x 20 ft) that serves to keep specific wildlife's attention away from whatever you've planted that is of value to you.  However, the typical, standard thought is, "I want to keep the deer away.  Why would I want to plant something to attract them?".  Whether it's deer, raccoons, bunnies or some other furred or feathered "friend", some wildlife species are going to be there anyway - something has already attracted them - that's why there is a problem that results in the homeowner taking some sort of action.  With buffer plots you draw the attention from your gardens and give the nuisance wildlife something better.  The logic being, "if the grass is greener on the other side", they'll stay on the other side.  Buffer plots can also become beautiful gardens in their own right.  Many native wildlflowers will pop out and compliment the greenery in your plot's original seed blend.

 

When we first bought our property several years ago, we set about resurrecting the abandonned lawn and flowerbeds. We also tilled a vegetable garden and planted many new perennials, bulbs, shrubs and trees.  By mid-autumn we had a moose wade through our zucchini, a young buck ate three newly-planted apple trees, a woodchuck cleaned out the peas, and raccoons ate all the corn.  Because I'm an avid hunter (and because I still had planting urges and assumed the vegetable growing season was over) I created several small hunting plots in the area.  I noticed the wildlife traffic shifted toward the plots.  The following spring I created several more small plots in closer proximity to our vegetable garden and shrubs.  We haven't had a problem with nibbling critters since, and now have some beautiful wildflower-looking plots/gardens that border our lawn. 

 

The size of your buffer plots obviously depends on the plantable, physical space you have to work with - do you live on 1/4 acre or 20 acres?  It should be noted that any size buffer plot can be effictive if propery "scaled" to the location.  Though not a perfect solution (often times NOTHING is!), the use of buffer plots can be an aesthetically pleasing - and successful - method of nuisance wildlife control to many humans.

 

*** See Chapter 10 in Whitetail Gardening