Make My Yard Into A Food Plot???

[Spysar]

I live pretty far in the woods. All the land on one side of a dead end road is mine. It is all forested. Anyone ever heard of anyone making their yard into a food plot? Not really to hunt over, just to help the deer and possibly be able to view them from the house. Is there anything wrong with doing that? It's not a very big yard either....

[dan]

I see no problem with it... I think putting food in night time feeding areas is a good idea. And you will likely get to see occasional deer because of it from the house. The only thing I would worry a little about is pulling bears into the yard. They tend to do damage and get into things.

[DEERSLAYER]

I have run across quite a few people that have done that, but only with the back half of their back yard. I have done it for the whole yard. The only thing that I didn't like is that it attracted snakes and spiders up into the yard because of all the leafy cover the knee high food plot provided. If I had to do it all over again I would use high sugar grass with a low growing clover mixed in and I would keep it mowed if the deer didn't do it for me. I did like that the deer would sometimes bed up near the house in the little two acre plus woodlot between my house and the neighbors. Plus one or two does would share that woodlot during spring fawning. Having a food plot for a yard also brought in a lot of rabbits and turkeys. I miss having the wildlife around.

[oneflag]

I live pretty far in the woods. All the land on one side of a dead end road is mine. It is all forested. Anyone ever heard of anyone making their yard into a food plot? Not really to hunt over, just to help the deer and possibly be able to view them from the house. Is there anything wrong with doing that? It's not a very big yard either....

Just put out a vegetable garden and they will come. They love green beans.
Put a fence around it and they will just jump over it. Plant some fruit trees.
Pears are like candy to a kid. No kidding! What they leave behind you can eat.
P.S. kieffer pears!

[headgear]

I have a foodplot in my back yard, I left a little buffer of woods between my grass and the plot but you can still see deer in there, the kids love it and its a good spot to hunt my little boy. The deer hit the plain old grass pretty hard too, a friend told not to mow the lawn in the fall and the deer will hit and they sometimes walked past the plot to hit the grass.

[Southern Man]

I don't know anyone that has actually put in a food plot but several people I know have deer in their yard all the time. Not an uncommon thing at all here. Just watch your flowers and shrubs! My sister has a time with deer and her flowers.

[Stanley]

I think it's great idea. No mowing and a deer attractant. Win win.

[headgear]

I also forgot to mention I planted a couple of apple trees in the back yard, they are pretty small now and not producing much so the battle is to keep the deer off of them but in 5-10 years I will let the deer have at them a little.

[gjs4]

Though time has been a limiting factor i am shooting to make about 10 ac of homestead (including house area with kids and dogs in the yard) a micro habitat for deer..though surrounded by ag i am surrounded by ridiculous gun pressure and think accompanied iwth topography this will be a fun endevour giving me another place to hunt...have a 1 acre yard up from (where there was an old outbuilding that collpased) that will be plotted, including screening..will try to document the progress..but if you pay tax on it why not do something with it...and mowing stinks...

[DEERSLAYER]

Hey Spy, have you gave the yard/food plot idea any more thought?

[Spysar]

Hey Spy, have you gave the yard/food plot idea any more thought?

Yes. I'm clearing a few trees to let in more light. I may also clear a few acres out back, and try and make things better for the deer. This will probably be a multi year project.

[Singing Bridge]

My yard is a whitetail food mecca, and it wasn't my creation. It consists of only a few acres, but it is laced with mature red and white oaks, I have two apple trees in the front, and the very large garden that I let go was taken over by clover. I have a small pond in the back... the deer love it.

I like Deerslayer's recommendation of clover and grasses- My wild clover and grass never goes to bare ground, I mow it with my rider just like regular grass. It would be very easy to fertilize if that is what you wanted, I don't find the need as the deer are consistently drawn to it (mostly at night). We see deer here fairly regularly during the daytime too- but at night I have to really watch my dog when I let him out because the deer are here and run off a might in all directions... the next night is a repeat all over again.

[Singing Bridge]

After reading my post I realized what an impact having a dog can make on the wildlife coming up to your house...

Prior to having my lab I have a picture of over 130 turkeys in my back yard midmorning... Deer were in my yard and drinking from my pond at all hours of the day...

With the dog the turkeys now skirt the wood line against the yard, and sneak in midday to grab an acorn or visit the pond... the deer show up in the yard at first and last light most of the time, and camp out in the yard during the night. When the coyotes are really bothering them they stay right in my yard even when my lab comes out, they seem comfortable that he is not a threat to them....

Food for thought...

[Spysar]

No dogs here for me yet... Right now the turkeys cruise right by my house almost every day. Never seen them in the yard though.

Slayer, what do you recommend for a seed blend? The yard is small. I'll take a picture later. Plus I want to whack down a few more hemlocks to let more light in.

I also want to start to make a couple of acre field. My land is all forested right now. Mostly hardwood, there is a section of mostly hemlock with a small trout stream through it. The field thing is a couple year project. I'm also gonna include apple trees in there somewhere.

[headgear]

Dogs do seem to matter, my the dog kept all the deer at a distance when I first moved in. After a while they learned the boundaries of her wireless fence. A few times the deer would feed 15-20 yards away from my dog as she was going ballistic on them, funny to watch a big do act like she wasn't even there. Dog has since passed on and the deer moved back in a little more but are still a little skittish.