Seedlings

One of the problems that we run into with the family's mountain top property is that as soon as the cold hits and the snow starts falling the deer start moving down the mountain for the winter.  We have been trying to come up with some ideas to keep them around longer so that we have good movement for the majority of deer season.  The next few years are going to be trial and error as we try to see what the deer like and what will survive on the property.  This year we are going to plant a variety of vegetables to start our trail.  One of the largest problems that we face is a lack of irrigation; this is just a wooded property there is no well for us to pull from.  We do, however, have a small creek and a little pond on one corner.  Also the ground seems to stay pretty moist through most of the year so we may have some luck. 

This afternoon I planted hundreds of seeds into little peat moss pots our garage is overflowing with boxes of vegetable starts;

We are going to grow the plants here for as long as we possibly can, then when they are just about out of room we will take them up to the property and plant the peat moss pots in the ground on the property with lots of water.  Hopefully they will be established enough by that point that they will survive a slight drought in August and be all ready for the fall.  If all goes well our deer will have access to pumpkins, melons, corn, cabbage and sunflowers as autumn comes.  I am new to gardening and planting vegetables so I'm not entirely sure which plants will survive the summer.  Getting the property transformed into a deer haven will take a lot of work over the next few years but we couldn't be more excited.  It will be fun learning what works, what doesn't and getting to know the mountain better.