For the first time in 15 years, we are going to have a problem with deer eating the flowers and the vegetables. I have heard the sad tale from so many people who have had the deer just ruin everything, and always felt so lucky that they left us alone. It is the worst thing, to wait a whole year to see the flowers, only to find that the deer have eaten them all over night.
Please share what what works for you. Fencing would no be an option here!!!

The two most effective things I've used are a single strand of fishing line strung around the area I want to protect or, where that's not possible, the repellent spray Bobbex. Bobbex did well in this comparison of deer repellents:

http://www.berrymaninstitute.o...

One thing I've learned when using repellents, check out the time for the spray to become rain-fast. Some of them need 24 hours! I think Bobbex is only 6 hours.

Cookies4kids said:For the first time in 15 years, we are going to have a problem with deer eating the flowers and the vegetables. I have heard the sad tale from so many people who have had the deer just ruin everything, and always felt so lucky that they left us alone. It is the worst thing, to wait a whole year to see the flowers, only to find that the deer have eaten them all over night.
Please share what what works for you. Fencing would no be an option here!!!

Can you use a natural form of 'fencing'? I've heard of people planting what are essentially hedgerows of roses or other thorny plants to keep deer out.

I use solar electric fence for animal control.

The best thing that worked for me was hair. The lady at my hair salon saves all the hair in a trash bag for me, then I go to the dollar store and get the strongest, cheapest perfume they have and I spray it on the bag full of hair. Give it a good shake. And then I sprinkle the hair in and around the flower beds. The perfume makes it last a while longer.....that human smell. I have also tried Irish spring soap. But have had better luck with the hair.

I'm lucky in that the deer stay away from my gardens so far, but I have had other people swear by using motion activated water sprinklers. They come on when the deer come buy and start spraying water on them.

Here's a video about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Someone told me once that the best repellent is bob cat urine. The problem was that she hadn't figured out how to get a catheter into a bob cat yet. Here is what they do to Tulips here....they leave Daffs alone

I do not have problems with deer in my garden, thank goodness. I have belonged to the AHS daylily robin for years and some members said they use a single strand of electric fence if I recall they put it about knee high then attach strips of aluminum foil on which they put peanut butter. The deer will lick the peanut butter get a shock training them to keep away from the fenced areas.

Thank you! I really appreciate your suggestions very much!

Thanks to everyone for the great ideas. I will be giving them a try this spring.

We have part of the property deer fenced, but cannot do it all. We had water blaster gadgets along the creek, but turned them off because of the drought and need to conserve water. We have a critter-hunting crazed dog, but he sleeps indoors with us, and in any event had been shipped off to our pet sitter as we recently had to go out of town for 5 days.

On the strength of comments on this thread (and having tried many other deer sprays), I bought some Bobbex. I sprayed the daylilies, roses, and pelargoniums in the (deer accessible) Near 40 just before we went out of town.

I came back to devastation.... almost all of the buds on 7 of the near white Near 40 daylilies in the Moon Garden were eaten, as were miscellaneous buds on 6-7 of the daylilies along the walkway, buds on about half of my seedlings (which had not seen bloom), miscellaneous Flower Carpet roses, the rose 'Lady Emma Hamilton', and some of my pelargoniums.

(WHY did they not rather eat 'Bali Watercolor', 'Alternate Universe', or 'Cameroon Night', all of which are destined for removal??? (It's not because they don't like them... they have been devoured in previous years.))

This was not a happy homecoming. I am still upset. (We just came home last night.) I do not give this spray good marks.

The best spray I have seen thus far (and no spray works perfectly or lasts for longer than a week or so) is Deer Out. I guess I will be buying more. I may also have to put up more deer fencing along the back hillside (over DH's protests) and maybe turn on at least one of the water blaster gadgets along the creek. It will also help that our dog comes home tomorrow.

But all of this feels like closing the barn door after the horse has escaped.

Please excuse my whining.... ... but I felt that I had to weigh in on this product.

I just don't think you can rely on sprays of any kind, for over a couple of days! Hate your plants were eaten, I know what that feels like and it is not good!

I had sworn by Plantskydd, until this year. I sprayed heavily on Friday and Sunday morning 1/2 a row was missing. That's better than last year when I didn't get out soon enough and they ate everything.
Milorganite has worked well. After the munch last week I threw a handful around each plant and more at the most important ones. I haven't seen a deer since and the plants love it too.

Warning, do not leave Milorganite in your SUV overnight. Been there. Done that. Got the noseplug.

I always buy Milorganite at Flleet Farm and I ask them for one of those big heavy orange bags for each bag of mil. They are wrapped up tight as can be or I wouldn be able to stand it on the way home. I have always sworn by that stuff until two days ago when the darn rabbit sat right in it and ate my 3 new vines. I am so P. O'd.

I do love the milorganite, but I think you should always wear a mask while applying and flush out your nose after. It does a nasty number on my sinuses.

I haven't tested this idea because all of my vulnerable plants are fenced. Yesterday, at the nursery, I was told to put salt licks that you buy at the feed store every 100 feet around your garden area and the deer will go for the salt and not your plants. Maybe.

Personally, I don't want to put out anything that will attract deer to my property, so I'll leave it up to someone else to test this idea.

Last year, during the third year of our drought, my neighbor above me didn't water his large lawn area where what I consider his private deer herd foraged. They all came down to my small patch of lawn, which is really more of a cover crop for the roots of my maple tree. They ate every single deer resistant plant I had out in deer territory and I didn't have to cut the grass all season.

btw ... roses are deer candy. They are one of the best ways to invite deer to your garden. Mine are fenced.

Smiles,
Lyn

Good luck with the deer!! I battled with them for many years and finally last year realized it was either give up gardening altogether or do something that would make a sigificant difference, because NOTHING was effective when they had a smorgasbord of hundreds of daylilies, hostas, heucheras and roses to dine on. I was spraying every day, applying milorganite weekly, using electronic repellents, etc. and some things worked for a while, but nothing worked for very long. I tried soap, fishing line, human hair, human urine, every commercial repellant on the market, etc. and even electronic repellants.

An 8' deer fence was installed last fall. It wasn't cheap but when I think of all the money, time and effort spent purchasing every deer repellant known to man over many years, I could probably have paid for the fence several times over if I'd done it years ago. Now It is very reassuring to see scapes coming everywhere in the garden now with lush hosta and heuchera foliage and know the deer will NOT get them this year. I think deer have discouraged more people from growing daylilies than rust. It is incredibly frustrating to see a year's worth of effort in your garden, and many blooms, eaten up in just a few days. I feel your pain!

Julie ...

It was so much fun to watch the deer pacing back and forth trying to find a way into the bed where Mrs. J. , the previous owner of my house, had planted roses out in front of the house after I finally got the right deer fencing installed.

I watched with pure glee.

Smiles,
Lyn

Our property has issues, such that we really can't fence along one part (what visually looks like the property line is actually our neighbors' property, plus it is along a creek, to boot). Theoretically the problem could be solved by deer fencing along the entire length of the creek (which runs the width of our property) on both banks, but that would give the property a concentration camp look, and DH refuses to do so. Therefore, half measures are used: deer fence where possible (and not unsightly), deer sprays, water blasters, dog. (But our dog is not an outside only dog... he goes outside when he wants, but otherwise is inside with us. He really is a critter hunting machine, though, and not at all deterred by deer; if he sees them from inside, he will growl and bark and we let him out to chase them out.)

I know that many people swear by Milorganite as a deer deterrent, but I decline to use sewage sludge (processed or otherwise) on or in my garden. (I know of one lady who swears by Sevin and liberally throws that around her garden... Sevin is a "likely human carcinogen" and also not anything that I care to use in my garden.)

Lyn, don't believe that salt lick story. My neighbor on one side (also exasperated by the deer; she has given up on growing roses) told me that our problems are due to one of the neighbors uphill from us, who deliberately puts salt licks out. (No, they are not gardeners.) We gather that the deer come for the salt lick, and stay for the herbaceous salad bar (our gardens).

I do have a smallish and shady side yard where I am able to protect some things from the deer; I keep the polymerous daylilies (plus a few other favored cultivars) there and they do okay, I suppose. I also have roses and irises in there (they do not do that well, due to the shade), and that is where my vegetable garden (which gets raided by critters every year) is.

@Polymerous ...

I agree that it is not wise to issue any kind of invitation to deer.

I chase them off whenever I happen to see them resting under the shade of my maple tree. Good grief, there is a park across the road full of trees that will provide all of the shade they want. Everything out in front of the house is well fenced, so I am not worried about any damage they might do. I just want them to think of my property as hostile territory.

Up here, having a dog that chases deer is illegal. Back in the day, ranchers got an ordinance passed to make it illegal because they believed that once a dog started chasing deer, it wouldn't be long before the dog started chasing livestock. Actually, there is some truth to that. Last week there was an article in the paper about dogs chasing a mule to death.

Lyn

Lyn, that is interesting about the anti- deer chasing ordinance. I trust that it is a local one (county wide, or whatever).

I live in a subdivision of houses in a city that is not quite in the Santa Cruz mountains. The deer are only part of the local wildlife, but they are arguably the most troublesome (not that the gophers, rats, and raccoons don't give us grief). Three-quarters of a mile or so north or east of us, and they don't appear to have deer problems, judging from what I can see of front yard gardens.

If we ever move, my property criteria has expanded to 1) being able to fence the garden against deer, and 2) being able to have a greenhouse again. (I had an old rickety one at our last house, but that is not really an option here, partly because of the shade.)