Garden Pests and Diseases: about deer, 0 by ldy_gardenermd

ldy_gardenermd wrote:
Deer eat everything, including marigolds and any other plant that anyone tells you they don't eat they will eat or at least the entire heard will have a taste of which is just as bad as if one deer ate the whole plant! If it says native, it means yummy for deer, they go for anything native that I plant! I have two red bud trees that I have been calling all manner of names because I gave them prime real estate and they have never bloomed properly. Well, we know why now, the deer are eating the pretty little flower buds! The young deer are not picky at all about what they will eat or taste. They have no qualms about munching anything that is tender and green. It floors me that they eat roses as hello, thorns! I so much as get near the rose and the thorns have grabbed my clothing or skin, the deer no worries at all! I live on five acres of mostly wooded (sans the house and sad, sad attempt at grass) property. We have heards of 15 to 30 that will move through the yard at various times of the year. Right now they have been spending their time in the woods eating all the new growth that it coming out, however yesterday while looking I saw that they have already started the "eat the hosta before its a leaf" mode.

So it is time to spray. I highly suggest two things, (as I have been playing this came for about 5 years now!) Go to http://www.deerbusters.com/ I have had great sucess with their Plant Protector clips (do not run these over with the lawn mower or put them through the chipper as they smell awful!) The Hanging Sachets are great and work for a very long time. I don't know what is in them however my dogs find them a marvelous thing to tear apart so hang them high! The biggest success came with the liquid repellent in concetrate form. For the first time since I have lived here I got to see my hostas bloom last year!

The second suggestion is a book called Deer Proofing Your Yard. It talks about what works and what doesn't, it compares the old wives tales (like soap on a rope and pie plates) to some of the newer methods. It also gives you plant suggestions, like things to plant around plants you want to protect.

I love the deer I love watching them in the woods and seeing them playing tag is grand. I just wish that they didn't eat so much! They are smart too, they know just where the fence line is for my dogs and will go just over it and look back (scent I assume). Ugh!

The attached photo is from winter, there are actually about four sections to the picture as the heard was to large to get into one picture! This was the middle standing in my front yard, near my bird feeders!