• Tips For Deer Deterrent In Your Landscape

  Filed under Gardening Tips
  Sep 11

  I love deer. My wife and I enjoy seeing dozens of them running across the Indiana cornfields. But I hate the damage they cause to my beautiful tulips, daylily, arborvitae and other expensive landscape plants.

  Here are a few ways to live with the deer, and also keep your landscape intact.

  I’ve heard professionals in the deer repellant business refer to this as “deer browsing.” I think that’s a cute term, and deer themselves are even cuter, but truthfully, deer damage is devastating to my expensive perennials, trees and shrubs.

  How to Protect Plants From Deer

  It is nearly impossible to completely eliminate deer damage in your landscape, especially if their populations are high, but you can reduce it to the point where it is not noticed. The first step is to keep your plants properly watered and fertilized so that any quick bites at the “salad bar” will be able to grow out quickly.

  deer resistant shrubs

  The quickest and easiest way to reduce deer damage is to install deer resistant plants. Of course, most of you reading this are rolling your eyes because you already have an established landscape and starting over is not in the cards. I agree with you!
  On top of that, I happen to have a passion for tulips and I am not going to let a few deer ruin my spring show.

  However, if you do want to use plants that are deer resistant, check out the label on the pot before you buy. But keep in mind, deer will eat just about anything if they are hungry enough; especially in winter.

  Another idea is to surround the deer’s favorite plants with other ones that they don’t like so much. For example, deer love tulips, but very rarely eat daffodils. So you plant a few tulips within a large ring of daffodils. While this may seem logical, but trust me, it does not always work. Deer are pretty smart and will trample those daffodils on the way to the treat of tulips!

  Deer Prevention using Scents and Deer Deterrent

  The two types of deer repellents are ‘contact’ repellents and ‘area’ repellents.

  Contact repellents are applied directly to plants, causing them to taste bad. Area repellents are placed in a problem area and repel by their foul odor. A great area repellant is my favorite organic fertilizer, Milorganite. It’s also good for the plants and does work fairly well to repel deer. Spread piles of Milorganite around your plants in varied places.

  Apply contact repellents on a dry day with temperatures above freezing. Treat small trees completely. Older, larger trees may be treated only on their new growth as it is most tender. Treat to a height 6 feet above the maximum expected snow depth. Deer browse from the top down. Hang or apply repellents at the bud or new growth level of the plants you wish to protect.

  Home Remedy Deer Deterrent

  A spray of 20 percent whole eggs and 80 percent water is one of the most effective repellents. The egg mixture is weather resistant but must be reapplied in about 30 days. Keep in mind that the egg repellant will rot in the sun, causing a foul smell not only to the deer’s nose, but to yours too!

  Other home-remedy deer repellents are not too effective, but they are worth mentioning anyway just for fun. These include small, fine-mesh bags of human hair (about two handfuls) and bar soap hung from branches of trees. Replace both soap and hair bags monthly. You should use soaps with a sharper smell.
  Scents that work in one area or for one person may not work at all in an area more highly frequented by deer for be prepared to try several of these methods.

  deer fence

  Of course, you could put up fences everywhere and that will pretty much stop the deer, but they can jump pretty high. In addition, fencing blocks the view of my tulips and that defeats the purpose.

  There are also nets sold that you can drape over and around your plants. These nets serve to confuse the deer by making the plants look different. The problem here is that nets don’t look good draped everywhere and the deer are smart enough to figure it out eventually anyway.

  Sometimes, a simple white rope tied to stakes in front of a row of arborvitae will serve to keep the deer away for a couple days. You can further confuse the deer by changing the height of the rope from week-to-week.

  The key is to constantly switch things around. Try several of the above methods in different areas at different times of the year. By constantly making things appear different, you will always keep the deer confused. Keeping them confused means they just decide to go eat at your neighbor’s house, and not yours!

  Next Post: Shapes For Fruit Tress: Practical Gardening Help
  

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