There is nothing as good as snow on the ground to show exactly where the plant terrorizing deer walk around the garden. One doesn't need extensive CSI training to decipher what is going on. Fortunately the recent snow and frigid weather has preserved lots of evidence.
We now know the deer are coming around the end of the fence on the north side of our property, and walking along the top edge of the hill. As the first photo shows, there is are regular tracks around that edge and up into the labyrinth. The most frequent exit is through a visually open section of the hedge which has deciduous hollies, at the top left side of this photo.
In this second photo that same exit is also at the top left. But the trail continues around the path of the labyrinth. "Continues" is the wrong word, since the deer clearly likes to hang out in front of the evergreens. Occasionally the critter of destruction exits through the hedge along the road, on the right side of this photo, to go into the county nature preserve.
Maybe I am being cruel about the pointy toed creature. In this last shot, it is clear the deer is following the labyrinth trail around the viburnum in the center. Maybe walking the labyrinth is a spiritual practice, and it is drawn to the holy mystery of the place, finding God in the pathways strewn with treasured plants?
However, eventually it is overcome by its voracious hunger and destroys the beauty around it! Beast of destruction!
