Peas and Deer

It is July -- the beginning of summer abundance, say all the homesteading and garden books (John Seymour, you lied).  With no spring this year the peas, spinach and other early spring crops are just now starting to produce, or in the case of the spinach reach a mature growth of 1.5 cm and then bolt -- irritating -- resulting in a grand total of half a salad per spinach seed pack, just slightly more expensive than buying fully formed spinach from the grocery store if you don't count the cost of land, water, and labor.

The peas, however, were doing great.  One little 4 x 4 plot of ground where I felt good about our vegetables.  They were tall and vigorous and the children were eating handfuls of peas a day straight off the vines.  These peas are supposed to be allowed to mature and then shelled for the delicious green peas soaked in butter that is a favorite health food (much like fresh green beans cooked in bacon -- another favorite health food).  Then we went on a family road/camping trip for a week.  When I returned, I found the peas suspiciously gone and the top foot of the pea plants shorn off.  Deer!  Thinking I'm smarter than a deer, I wrapped the plot in netting and stuck all the pretty little pea tendrils inside the wrap.  The next day . . . the deer had opened a hole in the netting and eaten another 8 inches off the tops of the peas.  I need a fence, a tall, 8 foot, sturdy, deer proof fence, preferably with razor wire on the top and spring loaded shotgun attached to trip wire on the peas, much like the below delightful garden structure.