Deer Joe

[digitS']

I have only very seldom had a deer problem. (If'n @thistlebloom 's moose show up - oh, Good Grief !)

This season, Growing a Greener World has a good show on deer and other pests. LINK

Joe may be making a few controversial statements like: soap and pie pans hung in the garden work only for a very limited time; there is no evidence that human hair repels anything; and urine - human or otherwise - won't work for long!

Steve

 

[Collector]

The only things that I know deer don’t eat are black eyed Susan’s and most succulents. I hear that they don’t like them because of the fuzzy stems and leaves which means there are probably more perennial flowers they will leave alone. We have fenced in the vegetable garden and that has ended the deer diner at our place. The perennial borders and beds we use deer netting it has been highly affective and invisible even close up, it just takes a little maintenance keeping it lifted above the plants so they don’t grow thru it. For small fruit trees we have made cages out of 6’ tall 2”x4” welded wire and that has protected them from having the buds stripped off. The only thing we are still having trouble with are the raspberries dang deer come in and nibble the tops off the canes during the winter and stunting the plants for the next season. We field fenced our entire property with 4’ field fence it has greatly slowed the deer traffic down but some still come in. If we could figure out how to deter them from the raspberries we will have nearly 100% stopped the deer predation around here. I subscribe to the joe gardener podcast and have watched the episode you posted a couple weeks ago. He has some good info and gardening tips I’m going to watch this episode

 

[Ridgerunner]

Joe may be making a few controversial statements like: soap and pie pans hung in the garden work only for a very limited time; there is no evidence that human hair repels anything; and urine - human or otherwise - won't work for long!

Steve

I don't see anything controversial there, except maybe that soap works at all for any length of time. I've tried Irish Spring, the soap of choice. Two days after I cut up a couple of bars and scattered the chunks in my sweet potatoes the deer came back and finished stripping them. I've hung Irish Spring in fruit trees, deer and raccoons did't seem bothered at all.

I have not tried human hair but dog hair had no effect on deer, groundhogs, or rabbits. Coyote urine was also tremendously uneffective with groundhogs, the intended target. Rabbits seemed unconcerned too.

I think some things will work for a short period of time, but these critters seem to learn really quickly there is no real threat. The best luck I've had with anything for more than a few days as to hang some white plastic strips with variety names that flapped in the wind around my tomatoes. I think that slowed the birds down pecking the tomatoes.

 

[seedcorn]

Coyote urine? Don’t even want to know HOW you collect that......

 

[flowerbug]

good fence. nothing else works as reliably for all plants.

4 feet is not much of a challenge to deer. 7-8ft will be better, but some deer may even try to get over that. you can kinda fake them out by using taller poles and stringing a wire across the top and then letting some strips of cloth come down off the wire (every other pole may work depending upon the distance between poles and how tight you care to pull the wire).

we have 8ft around the vegetable gardens and deer don't get in there at all. not since we went from 6ft to 8ft. they have not got an easy shot at jumping from any place around it so that may be why they've not bothered to give it a try.

my perimeter fence is still in the works, at 6ft i don't expect it to keep them all out especially since we don't have the whole property line fenced (we'd need to do the driveway too since they come in via that now). it has made some difference. right now it need repairs. not happening until spring or early summer...

 

[digitS']

good fence. nothing else works as reliably

That's what Joe said and he said it rather forcefully.

It was really like he has had deer problems in the past. He was out spraying repellent on bushes and trees. Wrapping the trunks of young trees with plastic.

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

Coyote urine? Don’t even want to know HOW you collect that......

Some people have talents you would not believe.

For me the collection was pretty easy. I bought it at a country hardware store.

 

[Collector]

I agree only physical barriers work everything else soon becomes normal to them. We fenced off our property with 4’ field fence and it has slowed the traffic down a lot. They would rather travel where they don’t have to jump fences. We haven’t had a rabbit outbreak around our place in a long time so haven’t had to deal with them. We had a vole in the garden a couple years ago, fed him some juicy fruit gum. Not sure if it worked or not but the vole was gone, more likely it was our cat it knew something was in there and patrolled heavy. Also have gophers, easy to trap but growing in numbers it seems. Always something trying to do damage.

 

[digitS']

This article really goes into ornamental plants that are, shall I say, deer-resistant.

Deer proof gardens: 4 sure-fire ways to keep deer out of your garden

Are your gardens chewed to the nub by Bambi and her kin? Follow this 4 step plan for deer proof gardens that are colorful and gorgeous with minimal effort.

savvygardening.com

Joe has links near the bottom of the 2020 webpage for those ideas also.

I can hardly imagine trying to garden in some deerie neighborhoods .

Steve

 

[R2elk]

The only things that I know deer don’t eat are black eyed Susan’s

In most years, deer will leave yellow flowers other than roses alone. In a dry year with limited food supplys they clean out the yellow flowers too including the black-eyed susans. The only flowering plant that I have seen deer never eat is Catmint.