My aunt has some hostas right at the edge of a woods and for a season or so the deer ate them down to the ground. This spring someone told her about spraying a mixture of 4 parts water to one part milk. Evidently this sours and the deer do not like. I was there a month ago and the hostas were large and in bloom. I think she must re-apply after a rain though.

Let's not forget Thumper. I don't have deer problems, but the local bunnies have developed a taste for my toad lilies and some of my ferns. I've been spraying the stinky deer repellant and it does seem to help, but boy it is frustrating. This is my first year gardening here and between the drought and the rabbits, I don't have much to show for it.

I have deer, bunnies and drought. For the sake of science :-) I've planted an outer garden (no big fence) to see what is eaten by the deer. I keep reporting on it in my blog. Then, the bunnies showed up, too. Since we have a herd of deer that probably now exceeds 20+ (counted 17 at once two years ago and fawns have been born every year), I decided I had to garden with them instead of against them. I learned the hard way at my previous house where they ate all my favorites. I've shifted focus to butterfly gardening which includes a lot of plants that deer don't like.

I empathize. We persevere in spite of all these challenges. I think we should adopt a new motto --- "Gardening is not for whimps".

Cameron

You know, I've noticed more bunnies this year. Where I live, it seems there was a bunny explosion in the Spring/early Summer. Fortunately for the garden, our cats (those adorable little carnivores) keep the bunnies at bay. If only they could take down a deer, then I would have something!

How come the world is starving while we are overrun with pesky venison?

spazzcat: You must try Milorganite. Both the box stores carry it. About $8. a 40lb bag. It is a fertilizer made from human waste (comes from Michigan I beleive) and fools the deer into thinking a human is in the area. Sprinkle it in early spring, mid-summer and again late fall (if you are concerned about the winter plants). It you have a real, real rainy season, I put down a second dose but have only had to do that one time. Milorganite fertilizes the flower beds so its a win-win situation. Can't beat the price and it's certainly easy enough to dispurse. In the early Spring, I actually use a spreader and run across my beds. I will still see signs of the deer but they don't eat my plants. I can't say enough good things about this product. It doesn't smell any more that any other fertilizer (like a 10-10-10) and for a very short time. Please try it. I have used it for 7-8 years now and it still does the job. I keep thinking they will be the idea and bypass it but so far it still keeps them away from the plants. Please give it a try.

I complained to my mom that deer were eating plants that they normally avoid at my place. I know it's probably due to the number of homes being put up in our development. She advised me to go to the hair dresser and get some human hair to leave around the plants that I really wanted to save. Apparently the deer thinks a human is present and thus avoids the plant. She says if you tie it up with a bread tie it lasts for a while before dispersing. She also advised using tiny bars of soap that you get in hotels and leaving that near the plants too.

I haven't tried either suggestion yet because I've only returned from vacation, but I am definitely going to try both suggestions. I'll let you know.

I'm with you catc, between the darn japaneese beetles, the deer and the bunnies, you'd think I wasn't the avid gardner that my husband complains about.

ncgardener -- is that the Milorganite 6-2-0 Organic Nitrogen Fertilizer 40 lb. Bag? They have another product called Garden Care.

The deer went through my deer-resistant garden last night, but the only thing they found was a volunteer garden phlox and tips of my Lady Banksia (which always needs pruning anyway).

Thanks for the tip.

Cameron

Actually, I have used the Milorgonite. It works beautifully in the Spring, but I've found that for some reason, it loses its effectiveness when the summer heats up. The deer sprays seem to work the best for me.

The sad thing is that we do have a fence around our property, which we ran an electric wire around and baited w/ deer pops (these unassuming little metal containers that hold a few drops of apple juice and an unpleasant surge of voltage). The goal was to "train" the deer that the fence was a very very bad fence and to stay away. This worked initially until some friggin' alpha deer figured out that they could slip through the lower fence slats. How can deer be so clever and stupid at the same time? I think that we will have to reinforce our fence with either wire or deer net fencing.

The "Mil" in Milorganite comes from "Milwaukee". According to their website, the name comes from MILwaukee ORGAnic NITrogEn.

I like a double duty product - protects and feeds! I've had great success using it on pansies.

I have the bars of soap and the hair clippings in mesh bags and I have old cd's that spin in the wind and I have fish line strung between posts four ft high ( about every 10inches)to make an 'invisible ' fence..... worked all last year and up til about a month ago it worked fine this year. Deer have decided that this is the garden of eatin ! Yesterday I must have shooed them 20 times. There is a set of twins that seems think this is their new restaurant ! ~sigh~ . At least I got sick of the tomatoes before they got here.. Maybe it is the heat/drought dried up forest thing. btw I have an over abundance of bunnies too.

Ok, for what it's worth .... I don't have deer problems, back yard is tightly fenced, front is open - but apparently not of interest despite the large deer population in the 'hood. I dunno. But .....

The talk of hair clippings is outing me. For a dozen years I owned and ran a self-serve dog wash here in Raleigh. Not a 'grooming parlor' - very different. I'm not a dog groomer, nor did I employ any. It was not a dog grooming place in the usual vernacular.

Anyway, my facility was squeaky clean all the time thanks to heavy labor and a Beam central vac system that continually sucked all the dog hair into a central can.

Gardening wise, the whole 'dog hair staves off deer' mentality was challenged many times by folks with family dogs in their yards to no avail. We hashed the problems over a lot.

But, over time we discovered that the contents of the Beam cannister did deter the deer. I had a few - purposefully few - customers who would stop by and bag up the Beam central vac contents, take them home and spread 'em about. And it worked!

We scratched our heads over this for awhile .... finally determining that while their family dog hair/scent wasn't a deterrent, the contents of the Beam represented soooo many dogs that the scent was overwhelming to the deer and they backed off. (Holy cow, there must be a pack of dogs here!!)

So that's my story. And, if it works for you, go make friends with a dog groomer and offer to take on all their cuttings/floor sweepings. And if they don't have a central vac, buy 'em one .... it will be cheaper than continually replacing deer nibbled plants!

JMO - good luck!

I don't hate Bambi. I like to watch the deer. When I walking through my woods on my way to go skinny dipping I see deer some time. They shake their tail at me and I shake my tail at them. We do this a few times then they run away. Most of the time they don't eat my plants.

When we moved here (Chatham county) 11 years ago we had a few deer nibble on a few choice plants - no big deal. But the closer Cary comes (1 1/2 miles now vs. 10 miles when we moved here), the worse our deer problem gets. I can't grow much of anything outside my fenced area anymore and they have even jumped my fence to get to some things. I always thought tomato plants were poisonous, but apparently not to deer. They completely destroyed those this year and even ate my castor bean plants. This was the first year they touched my hydrangeas and they ate some of those to the ground. We have tried everything short of fencing the entire 4+ acres and nothing has worked this year. I don't like deer much, but I like rampant development even less.

We have also seen an explosion in the bunny population here. I don't know where that comes from. They are everywhere and this is the first year we have ever had a real problem with them.

Dana

I've had the bunny problem this year also. In my herb garden I have huge stands of yarrow that never made it past the inch high stage. I couldn't understand why they always looked so "freshly mowed" till I saw the little rascals bound out of the garden one afternoon. Duh I should have guessed but I've never had any problems with them before. Adele

This weekend, the deer snuck in between the slats of the fence and ate to the ground the Japanese anemones (A. 'Pamina') that were just about to bloom. Then, they moved onto the pineapple lilies. Once again, these are plants they've never touched before. This has thrown me for a loop because I don't know what to spray anymore. Everything but the herbs, it seems.

Hollyclyff - I understand. Cary is out of control w/ its growth. It's a shame that all that farmland and those unique old farmhouses in east Chatham have been replaced by a sea of developments. A good friend of mine is on the planning board for Chatham county and he is constantly battling ill-conceived plans for more growth.

week before last, Susan Coe (sp?) wrote a funny column in the Smokey Mountain Times (the Swain County paper) about all the problems she was having with voles and rabbits in her garden this year. She commented that she has no deer problems because so many folk around here shoot and eat deer year round in spite of silly things like hunting regulations. I looked to see if the column was posted online, but alas, they don't consider the gardening column worthy. Maybe you need hungrier neighbors?

Most neighborhoods have covenants against hunting. One of my neighbors puts out corn for the deer. They wander around like pet dogs anytime of day or night. They continue to search my outer flower garden, but they are leaving 99% of everything alone (to my surprise). It's actually raining here right now!

Cameron

We have had deer ever since we moved here but because it is a wooded area I had expected that. Up until now they have only nibbled early in the spring - daylilies and hostas out in the wooded area. This year they are eating EVERYTHING. We spray that 'Deer Stop' and that helps some but they manage to chomp on stuff the night we say we should spray again tomorrow. I think they are out there listening. Latest dinner consisted of caladiums, my new Heuchera/foam flower bed which was struggling anyway and one hyderangea - gggrrrrrrrrrr. My gardens are planted to encourage wildlife but it is more for the pretty flittering around the flowers kind not the four legged ones......

Lynne

I'll still maintain my thankfulness that I'm not on the regular deer menu, but recently did determine that 'they' must be the ones nibbling my asters and maybe a heuchera out front ..... everything else is untouched, so I'm grateful. Folks with borderline woodland problems might want to consider the solution I mentioned above - not esthetically great for near the house beds, but might work on the outskirts.

Also, up until this year we had a nearby condo owner w/a major deer feeding station open for business. OTOH, it attracted them, but OTOtherH it probably satisfied them enough so they didn't need to do as much garden damage. That person has moved, feeding station has closed and the deer are venturing further into residential yards. Makes sense.

I spray with Tree Guard - but I think they have just come to think of it as Brenda's cajun spices.

Today we had the first bucks of the year. The twin fawns have been here all year it seems and we have never seen any antlers til now. There were two 6 pointers and one looked like they were growing straight up , really long and no nubs to branch out yet. The fourth one was either a 6 pointer or an 8 pointer, he didn't come quite as close. Guess the does showed them where the buffet is......We've been here 3 years and this is the first bucks we have seen. At 10 in the morning no less !! Earlier in the summer when the fawns were small, the mother must have put them 'down' in the woods behind the shed. I went out back and they jumped up and took off. I kept working back there and sure enough they circled back around and laid back down where they were before.

Ive had the same problem,used hair and soap and Ivory soap worked the best,sliced from the bar and placed around the garden. I also bowhunt so that helped curb the problem too!