Many rural and urban gardeners experience problems with deer. Deer can be devastating to gardens, devouring everything they find before leaving behind nothing but footprints and droppings in their wake.
Hungry deer are notoriously resourceful animals; therefore it’s essential to utilize physical barriers, scare tactics and odors as an arsenal against them in order to keep your vegetables safe. Some methods, like soap bars are both inexpensive and reusable solutions.
Fences
Deer are predatory animals that will devour anything they come across, but there are ways you can protect your harvests from deer grazers. A fence may be your most effective defense against deer munching down on vegetables, fruit trees and flowers, as well as bulbs.
Garden fences should be tall enough to deter deer from jumping over it; 4- to 6-foot wire fences or wooden pole-and-wire-mesh enclosures work best, although either can work. A good garden fence also prevents rabbits from burrowing under it.
If your garden borders a wooded area or field, having a tall fence around it is especially crucial to its success. Deer often travel through these areas on their way to other food sources and a barrier protects plants from predators such as hawks.
Deer repellents come in both homemade and store-bought forms; just be sure that any you use around edibles is safe for deer to use. Some repellents have pleasant odors (irish spring soap is one such example), while others contain foul smelling substances that could actually attract deer rather than repel them.
Other home remedies for predator urine infestation may include sprays with regular applications of liquid predator urine. Hanging dispensers are another alternative but are typically more costly.
Heavy fragranced foliage can confuse deer’s sense of smell and discourage her from diving in for a nibble. Plant fragrant herbs like sage, thyme, lavender and rosemary in your vegetable garden for maximum effect, or try border plants like catmint (Nepeta), hyssop (Agastache) and bee balm (Monarda). There are also plenty of cultivated flowering plants resistant to deer such as roses, cleome and fuchsias!
Soap Bars
Deer are a common problem for suburban homeowners, particularly in gardens filled with flowers and trees. Unfortunately, planting these items only for them to be destroyed by hungry deer searching for food can be both frustrating and disheartening. There are commercial repellents on the market which contain chemicals which may be dangerous to both children and animals; many gardeners seek natural methods of keeping deer out. There are plenty of effective hacks out there too that work – don’t get discouraged just yet though!
One easy way to protect your garden from deer is by placing out some bars of Irish Spring soap. Simply grate or thinly slice one and scatter its shavings amongst your plants – this scent should scare off deer, plus they can be replenished every few weeks or after rainfall.
Another effective strategy for deterring deer from damaging your vegetable garden is surrounding it with a rock wall, which not only keeps deer away, but will help anchor the soil and prevent erosion as well. Lavender, mint, and sage are popular plants deer don’t like and having these in your vegetable patch will not only deter them but add some beautiful color and charm.
Though some may find the concept offensive, hair clippings strewn throughout your garden can actually be very effective at deterring deer. Simply ask your hairdresser to save some for you, and scatter them around as a deer repellent that doubles up as fertilizer over time. This method provides an economical and sustainable alternative to more costly chemical repellents.
Smells
Deer are an absolute nightmare for gardeners, but one effective solution to keep them at bay is by employing repellents and other methods to ward them away from your vegetables. These include fencing, sprays and scents known to repel deer. Some gardeners even try hanging old CDs or aluminum pie tins around their gardens to bang together and produce noise or flashes of light that scare deer away.
Many plants, like rhubarb, asparagus, garlic and roses are naturally resistant to deer attacks; however, others such as beans, lettuce and cabbage are more vulnerable. Deer also enjoy munching on berries, peas, strawberries and tomatoes! To protect these precious crops from being nibbled upon by deer, consider growing varieties that don’t appeal to deer nearer your house or using scent and taste repellents as ways to repel deer from munching away at them.
Some of the strongest scents deer dislike are dill, mint, lavender and cinnamon; to create an effective deer repellent spray you could combine several drops of each in a spray bottle along with 1 teaspoon of cooking oil and 1 tablespoon of dish soap in your bottle and use this natural homemade deer repellent on plants you wish to protect. It should work quickly.
Hang hair clippings around your garden for deer to deter them and fertilize the plants as the hair decomposes slowly over time. Other gardeners have had success collecting and spraying urine to repel deer, however none of these methods guarantee success against deer damage to your garden.
Hair Clippings
Subscription suggests using hair clippings as one of the cheapest and least intrusive ways of deterring deer from garden plants, by scattering or spraying them around garden plants. Deer don’t like feeling hair on their muzzles when grazing, and eventually these clippings will break down to fertilize the soil. Ask your barber or hairdresser to save clippings they collect after cutting clients; save these in a bag until enough have accumulated for use in your garden.
Other home remedies to keep deer out of your garden include using scents and smells they find offensive, such as applying repellants regularly and particularly around new growth as deer begin their spring foraging activities. You could also try making loud noises or using motion-activated lights, as well as making loud noises or using loud lights to scare them off. Similarly, sprays may also prove effective; repellents are especially effective against new growth when deer begin their foraging activities again in spring.
If the deer-proofing measures in your yard are insufficient to protect your crops from deer, try swapping out your planting mix by switching from tulips to daffodils and roses (especially those that produce thorns like Scotch or Rugosa varieties) or swapping out tulips with other forms like Daffodils for example. Other deer-resistant flowers include lamb’s ears (Stachys), lady’s mantle (Alchemilla), flowering tobacco (Nicotiana), heliotrope, purple top vervain (Verbena bonariensis) and yarrow (Achillea). Furthermore, adding ornamental grasses to your landscape may help keep deer out of vegetable gardens as well. Plants suitable for deer-proof gardens are easy to grow and stunning in appearance, such as bear’s breeches (Acanthus), globe thistle (Echinops), and cardoon (Centaurea nigricans). Deer often favor grasses like these as their food source – though they will occasionally nibble away at ornamental flowers at last resort! These grasses also serve as dense ground covers that provide protection from weeds.
Urine
Once deer have caused enough damage to a garden, homeowners can be desperate to keep them away. When this occurs, homeowners research strategies for deer resistance. When animal urine from coyote, wolf or fox species is found helpful against whitetail deer, it must be applied regularly; but over time its effectiveness decreases, making urine an effective secondary deterrent and best utilized in areas with minimal deer problems.
Shake-Away sells concentrated predator urine in granular form and boasts long lists of testimonials from gardeners who swear it saved their crops, yet no long-term studies have been done to corroborate such claims.
Colorado State University researchers determined that concentrated urine was effective in repelling captive mule deer, with deer having significantly more scent receptors than humans, being able to detect prey animals’ chemical signals such as pheromones that release chemicals to communicate among themselves and identify each other’s scent. Deer can even detect their own urine’s scent which explains why urine granules don’t always provide garden protection.
Utilising predator urine could attract hunters. If hunters use urine-based lures in areas with chronic wasting disease (CWD), their actions could spread it further and can potentially put hunters at risk. To combat CWD spread effectively, organizations such as the Quality Deer Management Association recommend hunters utilize natural baits rather than urine based baits when fishing for deer.