personally, I don't have any trouble with deer since I have 2 dogs. Corn is well worth it even with the low yield. One ear per stalk. My sister uses coyote urine around her roses and it works but you have to reapply after rain. good luck

I'm not sure about squash because I've only grown it once, but I do know that pumpkin vines are a great deterrent for deer and raccoons. I suppose since squash and pumpkins are in the same family the vines would be similar... so the vines might not be all that different as far as fuzziness goes. I know I don't like stepping on prickly pumpkin vines though. :)

Abby

The home made stuff works well for me. There are several formulas which contain eggs and one other smelly item such as garlic or hot pepper. The eggs are basic, the other adds more kick. I alternate the extra one which keeps the varmints off balance. Deer/rabbits will eat past the smell if they are hungry enough.

Thanks so much. Aha -- I forgot I have a pack of pumpkins seeds.

I sure would like to have a German Shepperd but the Mr. is alergic. :) One summer I was visiting my sister on her farm. She had one of those sturdy white dogs. Their coat is something like a wool, it never gets dirty looking. Anyway, the poor dog was barking all night at the cyotes. Felt so sorry for him. Every time he started barking all I could think of was some fierce pack of cyotes. He thought he was a goat (that's what he protected).

Those dogs are Great Pyrenes (sp?). The are cattle/ sheep/ goat/ herd animal dogs. They usually see whatever they protect as their "pack" so they're good for critter control.
Its usually the dander that people are allergic to, so giving the dog a bath every couple weeks can cut down on allergic reactions. Small terrier types are just as good as shepherd types for running off herbivores like deer. They're also really good at catching rats and mice.

Abby

If you happen to have any old rusty, junky wire mesh fencing around, just lay it flat on the ground around the corn patch.

Deer can't see their feet because of the placement of their eyes, so when they feel something, they can't see what it is. Deer fear foot traps, because if their get a foot caught in something, they're someone's dinner.

I have laid 2x4" mesh fencing wire (two- or three-foot width or height) all around my corn/pea/lettuce patch and literally watched the deer come by twice a day (going to water). They stop, stare longingly at my crops, then move on. They won't jump it because they don't know how far inward it extends, just like you won't jump a canyon in two jumps.

It sounds too simple, but it really does work.

Sue

I don't know about deer, but the squash planted in the three sisters does keep out raccoons. Pumpkins are a squash. I do have a very large German Shepherd, but he's a house dog. He will be like my others were, chasing deer, rabbits, squirrels, etc. when he's out and they appear. The others didn't particularly want to catch the deer, just chase them for fun.

Supposedly, the historically accurate Three Sisters plantings would have all the pairings of corn and beans inside a ring of squash ~ they would plant the corn and beans inside the field, then a "fence" of squash all the way around it ~ specifically to keep the deer and other varmints out. I've never tried it, but if that's the way the native Americans did it, it must have worked atleast fairly well or surely they would have done something different. I've never grown the native American squashes either, so maybe they had larger spines/pricklies on them so were more of a deterrent? No idea. Maybe not though.

The idea behind the 3 sisters was that the squash would make a living mulch and keep weeds down while the corn provided a living trellis for the beans. Deer were not a major problem for early natives because the hunted the local herds, which learned to be wary of their settlement areas. It was also the job of the dogs and the kids to keep critters out of the crops. All three of those crops were mostly grown for their mature/hard state and harvested primarily at the end of the summer when they had the most protein stored in them. I don't grow corn because it is the only crop that will invite deer to jump our garden fence. The garden is 30x30 and the fence is only 4 ft high but works to keep out most critters, as long as I don't grow corn. Also, if you have groundhogs in the area, they LOVE squashes and melons of all kinds.

I have been using this Copy Kat Deer and Rabbit Repellent for the last 3 years to keep the deer out of my garden, The deer will stand together in a group about 40' away, looking at my corn, but then never touch it. You can almost hear them saying"I will try it if you will". I also have found that deer don't like blood meal.

There is a version of "Liquid Fence" on the market. I found this works just as well, just you have to use it more quickly due to it not having the preservatives in it. It smells bad when you apply it--this is your warning!! You will need 5 one gallon containers to mix this up. Fast and easy.

4 to 6 eggs
1 lg head of garlic, chopped
5 gallons of water
Any hot pepper you may have in the house

Put eggs, garlic and pepper in a blender with some water and blend until well mixed. Empty mixture in one of the gallon containers. Fill the container with water and mix well. Distribute the mixture into the other 4 containers until all 5 containers are equal.

Fill all 5 containers with water and set in the sun for 3 days to "ripen".

Sprinkle around the perimeter of the area you want to protect. You can also strain some mixture and put it into a spray bottle to spray on plants that might need extra treatment. Retreat every month or after a hard rain.

I have also mixed in onions. I donÂt know if it helped or not. I think the eggs and garlic is enough.

From what I have read, it helps to change the recipe every once in a while, so the deer donÂt get used to it. You can add milk, dish soap or salad oil in to help it work better.

Stick with the net!

I experimented last year and deer ate my squash. However, I have found that deer eat differently in different regions so they might not eat the squash where you live.

Deer netting might be a less expensive alternative to the fabric netting.

Also, you might want to try the wire mesh trick mentioned above.

Good luck.

Randy

Well, Glorygrown, looks like we both got it right and wrong. LOL! :) I did a little digging since I remember a discussion on a forum here (I think the Heirloom forum?) where I thought like you, that the beans grew up the corn and each pairing like that was surrounded by squash to act as a living mulch. An heirloom enthusiast (Brook I think was his name? He's studied this stuff and has written about it in Mother Earth News, etc.) corrected me, saying that the squash was surrounding the fields, not interplanted. I thought I remembered him saying that it was to keep the deer out, hence my post here.

Reading Buffalo Bird Woman's account of the Native American gardening practices, the squash were planted at the edges of the fields, but it appears it wasn't to keep the deer out. It was more to separate the different plots in the fields which were run like a community garden (each person having their own plot). You were right that the deer apparently didn't get in the fields (BBW says they "haunted" the wooded areas around the villages, but didn't come into them, nor the gardens). But still, the squash wasn't interplanted with the corn and beans. And actually, the beans weren't even planted at the feet of corn but in rows of hills between the rows of corn hills.

If anyone wants to learn more, I encourage you to read the full story at the link above. It's full of information on everything from sprouting the seeds to drying and storing the harvest. I need to reread the entire thing myself ~ interesting stuff!

I use the 3 sisters, and I use it as you described, not as BBW explained. I've seen historical accounts for both. (I believe that different tribes had different methods, much like gardeners today. Sqft, wide row, vertical, "traditional" row, etc.)

From what I understand, the Indians in the NE regions did it more as a series of hills. The corn was at the center (and highest point) of the hill. The beans were planted two weeks later in a ring around the corn. And the squash were planted on the sides of the hill. Again, I don't know how much of it was for pest deterents vs. good companion gardening techniques, but I do know that it works! The plants love to be together and that's a fact. Lastly, as an additional piece of information, they also added fish parts (heads, entrails, etc.) to the hills at the end of the harvest to compost in for the next year - the precursor to fish emulsion.

I'm glad you commented, EagelsGarden, since it prompted me to search for other historical accounts and I did find some. Here's a Cornell University publication on how the Iriquois did it, and it says they were interplanted, all three. (Look down the page at the link above for "The Three Sisters: Exploring an Iroquois Garden".) I wish I could have found this years ago when I was in that discussion on the heirloom forum. I could have sworn I was right back then in saying they interplanted them, but I didn't have any facts/evidence to back it up, while the heirloom enthusiast (Brook?) did. Vindication is sweet, even though it came years late. *snicker*

foil pie plates smeared with peanut butter and attached to a low voltage electric fence will definitely deter them.