I've actually seen deer across the street, but thankfully, I've never seem them on my side of the street, nor seen any evidence of them. I've heard that this is quite unusual.

You have my sympathies. I have an elderly neighbor that has always fead the wildlife. For the first time ever he has managed to get Bambi to come and eat every day. Bambi comes back at night for dessert. She ate my best phlox last night and a few hostas. Did you all here my scream of anguish.

We have semi-tame suburban deer. Hunting isn't permitted because of the housing density so the only control on the deer population is automobiles. This results in a very heavy deer pressure. The HOA does not allow any fencing over three feet in height so deer fence isn't a solution. I rotate Deer Stopper, Bobex and Liquid Fence and spray weekly. Weekly. Yes, its expensive. I've removed companion plants that are tasty to deer, replacing them with foxgloves, monarda, nepeta, etc from the deer resistant list. Tomatoes and peppers are grown in pots on the deck. I'm not going to give up gardening, but all the accomidations needed to garden with deer are frustrating.

I haven't had much problem with my roses, because my deer eat so much else in my yard (not all cultivated). They eat some fat blooms after a day or two past their prime, but that's very polite of them, considering!

I use a light mesh netting on my mulberry bush, which must be their favorite salad in the world, because they eat it all year. The netting looks like black netting, but it still might help some folks preserve the blooms, anyway.

Landscapers here are using that mesh extensively - there wouldn't be any winter pansies without it. I'm hesitant to use it in my yard for fear a bird might become trapped in it.

I do spray that guck on new shoots and canes (basal breaks) which I am excited about, and buds also if I notice them. We always cage newly planted roses, until they get big enough so that some grazing will not kill them. We are lucky - we live 4 blocks from downtown, and as my DH says, by the time the deer get to our garden, they are just on dessert. Only 1/3rd of an acre, and by a busy street in the middle of lots of houses. The deer walk down the sidewalks and cross at the corners - really! We have 150+ roses, and I do not mind some nibbling, especially since they are either full or lazy, and only munch at deer height - hardly anything below or above. That's why I have always planted lots of climbers!

This year about 6 weeks ago, a doe gave birth to twins in our garden (parts of it are sort of wild and overgrown). One morning I woke up to see the below out of my bedroom window. I grabbed my camera - the below pics were taken through our 110 year old wiggly Victorian window glass, so pls forgive the bad quality. She spotted me in the window (see the second pic) took umbrage at me staring at her kids, and took them away, and I haven't seen that trio since. There has been some nibbling at night, but no sightings. I must admit that, although I would never feed them deliberately, they are welcome to some food and shelter and water in my garden now when we are in the 5th year of a horrible drought.

Jackie

I love wildlife But yesterday morning when I saw our bambi had munched on a few great basal breaks and ate a large portion of the asclepias that I had planted for the monarchs well I'm almost ready for deer stew. I'm almost afraid to look for what was eaten last night.

I read a study some years ago that compared commercial deer repellants among other things. The very best repellent ended up being Dial soap...the commercial ones were actually the worse. This young lady has something different to say. You might find this interesting as well as this. They contradict my initial statement (which I cannot find with a quick search) but I remember that it was specifically Dial soap, other soaps were ineffective. I live way out in the country with many deer. They do not seem to bother our garden but it could be the poultry yard is next to it. You could always thin the herd, deer is yummy and fat free! Good luck!

Those are really great pics of the deer family, Jackie. Can't believe something so adorable can be so destructive to roses. Thank God I don't have to deal with deers though I do have to deal with the bunnies, the other "adorable" animals.

Gee, I heard it was Irish Spring soap. I tried both Dial and Irish Spring and they didn't work. Just think how many bars you would have to use to protect, say, 100 roses. Diane

The only truly effective deterrent I've found is this water Scarecrow . Thanks to Kim R for putting me on to it. If you have just one area that's being munched, it works great. Scares the *!@&* out of them without hurting them. But if they are browsing the whole yard, it might get expensive and ugly with hoses snaking everywhere. You don't need to keep full pressure on the hose, just enough to create a good spurt when the deer trigger it. The pressure will build back up in the hose in a few minutes and it will be primed to go again.

John

oh, P.S. I deal with deer, groundhogs, rabbits, raccoons, chipmunks, voles, turkeys (they love to dig in mulch!), and the neighbor's dogs. I've tried it ALL, lol.

Saw a deer at neighbor's yard tonight, sprayed liquid fence in the front yard, didn't have time to spray the back yard before dark. I am going to tie up some plastic bags for the back yard just in case. Check this thread out, it might work for you too. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/3042886/deer-repellant-that-worked-100

Such sweet pictures, Jacqueline. Yesterday, my husband came inside and wanted me to see something. A baby deer was lying in the area right by the door to our chicken coop run. It was shady there and it was resting. They are darling. I have such mixed feeling about them. I love them, but dislike it when they eat everything we work hard to take care of in our yard. I just have to be more diligent about spraying.

Yes, they're pretty, I have a 8 points huge deer head in my living room, bought it from a hunter's wife. Try to find another one for the family room.