Keeping Deer Out
Although some would call deer cute and most of us believe they are quite tasty, they can devastate a vegetable garden overnight. There have been many methods put forth for keeping deer out of your garden. We have had significant problems with the deer this year because of the drought here in Texas. They are continually eating all the foliage on the bushes around the neighborhood. Everything deer height is bare. We started with a four foot chain-link fence like the rest of the homes in our older neighborhood. The deer practically step over them going from yard to yard eating all that they find.
If you are having these kinds of problems with deer try some combination of the following:
- Irish Spring bar soap (or any strong odor soap)grated or whole around the perimeter
- Motion sensor water sprinkler or flood light as a scare tactic are great physical scare methods for keeping deer out of the veggies
- Dog that won’t eat the garden himself
- Human urine or hair around the edges of your garden; or coyote urine purchased from a hunting supply store
- Rotten eggs, if you can stand it yourself, have been used to around the edges of gardens
- Draw them away from your garden with corn or a salt lick; this can backfire so use sparingly and with caution
- There are several commercial deer repellent products offered at home improvement and feed and seed stores
- Lavender; don’t really know why, but the deer don’t like it
- 6’+ fence (possibly electric if the deer are persistent): We extended the fence around our garden area with two inch pipe attached to the fence posts extending them up to just over six foot. We then ran electric fence wire (non-electrified) and tied vertical wire approximately every six feet. I believe this method would have worked with normal country deer. However, our desperate city deer jump right through our wire leaving hair and broken wire in their wake. The bad part is that they waited until everything bloomed. So for a month we thought we had outsmarted them, then we get up one morning to water and everything was gone.
Don’t rely on any one method for keeping deer out and don’t underestimate hungry deer. And keep in mind that you may have to change strategies often as the deer become accustomed to certain techniques, especially scare tactics. If you have other ideas please use the contact us page to let us know and we’ll post it here.
