Gone are the days when nature was afraid of man. And how they would run, when they either spied us or caught our scent. Not now. Now they have moved in on us. They live with and amongst us.

One can clap our hands, scream, yell and jump up and down and yet there they stand, just looking. Daring us to do something homicidal to them.

Chew on this one for just a moment. It now seems that the deer have formed the opinion that they now want their meals seasoned.

Yes, you have heard it here, my dear gardening friends.

They love these plants we fuss and baby over, ones seasoned — fertilized if you will — with nitrogen.

A gardener did a test.

One plant she did not fertilize, the other she did.

The fertilized plant was gnawed to the ground, whether it was organic or not.

You see, a fertilized plan produces lots of juicy, lush growth.

A chemist friend she knew threw out this theory.

The nitrates found in fertilizers produce the same “salty flavor” as salt.

Which anybody with even a pinch of deer savvy knows this.

How much the deer love their salt.

Do you think you have the deer beaten by buying deer-resistant plants? Think again, my dear gardening friends.

They will even devour any of these, too, if fertilized, and they are lush and “salty.”

Only the poisonous plants will be spared.

And if you choose a fertilizer with a nitrogen value less than 10, like 5-10-10 or something like this, it seems they will eat this, hesitantly, of course.

They will turn up noses at the lesser number.

A less “salty” taste, you see.

Like a child with a plate of spinach or chocolate cake before them.

But now if you use a fertilizer with the starting number of 20, just you look out. Just ring the dinner bell, they will come.

And how do they know if you fertilized with say, 5-10-10 or a 20-10-10 without even nibbling it first?

Maybe I am giving these creatures more credit than they deserve, then again, maybe not.

All I know is that they are getting way too wily for their own good.