| Deer are just about everywhere. As the
human population has moved into wooded areas, problems with the native deer eating your
garden are becoming more and more prevalent. If you are an animal lover who is striving to have a garden and live
harmoniously with nature, do not despair. There are numerous humane methods and organic
products available to protect landscape plants from deer browsing (i.e., deer eating your
plants). The most effective methods are described below.
Design Deer Resistance Into Your Landscaping
The most effective means of managing a deer problem is to
use plants deer dislike. While it may seem like deer will eat just about anything, this
really isn’t true. Deer have strong likes and dislikes. They also seem to know which
plants are poisonous to them.
Unfortunately, many of the plants deer like to eat have
become some of the most common landscape plants. However, there are dozens of readily
available plants that deer will almost never eat, many of which are more beautiful and
interesting than the more widely used staples deer find to be so tasty.
Add Natural Deterrents
If you have some mature plants that are all of the sudden
being devoured by deer, or if you long for one or two specimens of a plant deer think of
as candy, deer deterrents are possibly just what you need. While they may not be practical
to use on every plant in your garden, they are very effective and relatively easy to use
on a few select specimens.
Deer will almost always stay away from plants that offend
two or more of their senses. As such, if a plant not only tastes bad, but smells bad too,
deer will stay away from it and the general area it is planted in. The deer resistant
gardener can use this to his or her advantage.
Some of the most effective and natural deer deterrents are:
hot pepper wax, garlic oil, predator urine and fragrant soaps. Hot pepper wax is possibly
the most effective deterrent available that works on the sense of taste. Deer hate spicy
foods! Combined with a deterrent that offends the sense of smell, hot pepper wax will
render your plants almost deer proof.
Garlic oil, predator urine and fragrant soaps are all
highly effective companions to hot pepper wax. When deer smell the urine of their natural
predator, the coyote, they literally run for their lives. If a brave deer decides he or
she needs a quick bite to eat before they start running they will think again once they
bite into a plant covered in hot pepper wax. A deer would have to be on the verge of
starvation to eat a plant covered in hot pepper wax, when the scent of his or her enemy is
nearby and the food smells like soap or garlic. It just doesn’t get worse than this
for deer.
Add A Physical Barrier
Deer netting can be used in combination with sturdy wooden
stakes to create a fence around large plantings or can be wrapped around individual
plants. In addition, deer hate to walk on netting. As such, it may be secured to the
ground to deter deer from entering garden beds.
Please remember, if deer are starving they will take
extraordinary efforts to get to and eat your plants. As such, during extremely bad
conditions, such as drought and/or a severe winter, the effectiveness of any deer
deterrent or barrier will be less than optimal.
Rebecca Green is the Horticulturist and Founder of
My Deer Garden. My Deer Garden is a web site (website is closed) dedicated to
helping homeowners understand their deer problem (called deer browsing). We offer some
free garden plans, a plant encyclopedia, gardening tips and the option to order a custom
garden design just for you (developed with you interactively over the Internet). We
specialize in the use of plants that deer generally don't eat. Additionally we sell a
number of products to help prevent deer from eating your garden. |
