The Repellent: Two Versions of the Same Story

“Plastic owl don’t scare anyone!”

I will tell you my version of the story of The Repellent and then let the garden fairies tell you their version of the same story. 

You can then tell us which one tells it better though you should probably just comment that the garden fairies tell it better because they can really get their petals in a twist if they don’t win.

My version…

I was looking in the garage for some fertilizer and ran across a sample of a deer repellent. This particular repellent consisted of four small plastic bags filled with something coyote related. I decided if it repels deer, which are not a problem for me, it would also repel rabbits, which are a problem in my garden.

I took the little bags of something coyote related and used some flower stakes to hang them around the garden at a height of about two feet off the ground, as directed.

All was well, it seemed, until Sunday evening. I went out rather late to tie up the tomatoes. Toward the one end of the garden, where the tomato plants are, I smelled the most awful smell. I was sure something had died and was either under the grape arbor or beneath the big shrub in the corner, rotting away.

I didn’t want to deal with it then so I went inside and mostly forgot about it. The next evening, last night, I decided to go back out to the veg garden to weed. This time, I went way down to the other end of the garden to stay away from “the smell”.

Wouldn’t you know it, I smelled it down at the other end of the garden, too. I was horrified at my first two conclusions. Maybe something else had died at this end of the garden? Or worse, maybe whatever died at the other end of the garden smelled so bad it now was stinking up the entire garden. What must the neighbors think?

I tried to ignore the bad smell and keep weeding, but it got worse as I came to the corner of the garden. It was then I realized, as I was kneeling near one of the bags of something related to coyote, that the bags were giving off the foul odor.

I don’t know if it repelled any deer, since there are no deer around here, but I can assure you it repelled me and kept me away from the garden.

This evening I bravely went back to the garden, rounded up all those bags of something coyote related, double bagged them in some old shopping bags and put them in the trash, which is now at the curb, waiting to be picked up.

Tomorrow, I can safely return to the garden.

~~~~~~~~

Potatoes in a Smart Pot

Garden fairies here…

We are garden fairies and we cannot believe how long it took for Carol to realize that those bags of deer repellent were the most awfully smelling bags of deer repellent we have ever smelled.

We tried to get her out to the garden to notice them and get them out of there. We finally succeeded but it took two evenings and then she still waited until the third evening to get rid of them.

All the while, Granny Gus McGarden, who reigns over the vegetable garden, was fit to be tied. We have never seen her in such a state.

She organized a protest and led all the garden fairies out of the veg garden, across the great lawn, to the patio where they huddled around the potatoes growing in pots.

They felt safe there, seeing as how they are vegetable garden fairies and those were potatoes. In fact, I’d say some of them treated it more like a holiday than an evacuation and had a bit too much fun. So much fun  that now that Carol has finally removed those bags, it may be difficult to get them to go back across the great lawn to the vegetable garden.

Oh, who are we kidding? We are garden fairies and we each like our own kinds of gardens. Those veg garden fairies will grow weary of just potatoes. They’ll gaze off in the distance toward the vegetable garden, see that first blush of pink on a cherry tomato and then you better stay out of their way because they’ll knock you down in their rush to return to the vegetable garden.

Yes, they will. And they’ll forget all about that smell. Wait, who are we kidding? They won’t ever forget that awful smell. We just hope Carol never does that again!

Submitted by,

Violet Greenpea Maydreams, Chief Scribe for the Garden Fairies at May Dreams Gardens.