I suppose this war started out like a lot of wars do, when one entity doesn’t respect the sovereign space of a boundary between two pieces of property.

In this case it was hundreds of acres of deciduous woodlands vs. one small garden plot as the conflict focal point. For years, this garden has been in my wife’s agricultural family heritage, starting with her grandparents, her parents, ours and now even moving on to the niece helping this year.

Thus gardening and farming have been a way of life for generations for our family. As with most wars, it started when we least expected it in the middle of a night.

Earlier in the week, I spent some significant time hoeing and weeding and pampering a row of beautiful cabbage plants. They caught on beautifully and had lovely blue-green leaves and softball-sized heads forming.

I would say that they were potential farm show quality cabbages. In fact, the entire garden appeared to be one of the best that we could remember in a long time.

The bad news came one day after my wife went to snip off some herbs and pull a few onions. She has a flair for the dramatic and breathlessly told me that the garden had been assaulted.

In the recent pas,t many of my neighbors had their gardens plundered by beast and man, but ours was never messed with to any degree. I went to survey the damage and found my cabbages decimated, broccoli and beans gone, and the Brussels sprouts … empty stalks.

To add insult to injury, a huge tomato that I had my eye on had one nice bite taken out of it.

This was an act of war and I knew the culprits were the local white tail deer population.

In the past, many more people hunted the area and due to population and posted properties, the deer herd has expanded to the point of being a nuisance. In this case as in many communities that has woodlands surrounding them, deer have become an invasive species.

Some communities have contracted with archery clubs and sharp shooters to cull the deer herd near their homes. With the PA Game Commission selling 60,000 doe licenses for the 2-D WMU which Butler County falls into, I would expect that the population is very healthy and the herd is expanding their environment into many of our communities.

Deer adapt very well to us and the human’s love of landscaping, orchards and gardening plots. Full time agriculture pays a “deer” price when the herd expands.

Pennsylvania has extensive deer hunting opportunities, starting with archery season statewide on Oct. 1. Later in the month the PGC will hold a special firearms hunt for antlerless deer on October 20-22 for Junior and Senior license holders.

There will also be a muzzleloader statewide hunt from Oct. 15-22 for antlerless deer. The Regular Firearms buck season will be set for Nov. 28 through Dec. 10. The Flintlock primitive hunt will be held from Dec. 26 through Jan. 16.

The rule remains in Pennsylvania one buck for one hunter no matter what season you are hunting and fortunate enough to tag your buck.

Doe licenses are more versatile and you can take one deer per license that you possess. The statewide “Three Up” rule is in effect and the buck must have three points on the main beam to be legal.

As for me, I begin operations for the Cabbage Wars on Oct. 1. I am officially in training for the start of archery season and we will see how it goes from there.

I will know when I get my garden raider by the distinct fragrance of the cabbage family on its breath!