For a place that is largely unfenced and merges seamlessly with the surrounding landscape, the Dumfriesshire Garden has been mercifully free of serious damage by rabbits and deer. Certainly the former have been scarce in numbers in recent years, but the latter are seen regularly in the nearby woods and fields and do occasionally visit the garden. In the past they have browsed on young holly and on dogwood stems in winter. One year they munched off all the seedheads of my meconopsis before I could collect and store them. But in general they have not caused serious damage.
The night of 9th/10th February 2024 was a different story however. On this occasion what may have been a small group of deer, species unknown, came into the orchard and with antlers and teeth, made play with the trunks of some still fairly young apple and plum trees.
I rapidly closed the stable door after the horse had bolted. Wire netting was found in the garden shed and quickly wrapped around a half dozen trees. In a few cases I wondered whether the damage had been enough to kill the tree. Fortunately that was not the case. But the uninvited guests of a February night undoubtedly contributed to the sub-optimal apple crop of 2024.
Come the spring, one plum tree failed to come into leaf and was later pronounced dead. Paradoxically it was one the deer had left alone.
The full list of pieces that make up my A-Z in the Dumfriesshire Garden in 2024 can be found here: https://davidgrahamclark.net/a-z-of-the-dumfriesshire-garden-in-2024/
Quotidian 
What a lot of damage they did! The worst we have around here are raccoons, and I thought they were bad.
Very sad about the plum tree, though.
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