Make Your Garden Deer Resistant

Many rural (and even some urban) gardeners have trouble with deer munching on their precious vegetables. Deer can destroy a small vegetable patch in minutes by consuming just about every plant there. If you are having a deer problem in your garden, here are some things you can try to get those pesky creatures to stay out of your vegetable garden.

• Plant onions, garlic, asparagus, rhubarb, or summer squash around plants that you would like to protect from deer. Deer can not stand the smell of these plants and will avoid them. The great thing about this solution is that you may be already planning on planting some or all of these plants any way; you’ll be killing two birds with one stone, as they say.
• Incorporate deer resistant flowers in the garden. If you have space you can also plant certain flowers that deer hate. Some of the best plants to deter deer are agastache, annual vinca, crocus, bluebells, butterfly bush, butterfly weed, and common tansy to name just a few.
• Use deer repellents. Commercial deer repellent will work to keep away the deer, but be sure the repellent is safe to use around vegetables. Only use this method if other practices do not work. Use this as a last resort; you want to try to keep your garden as organic as possible.
• Put up a Deer Fence. This option can get quite expensive if you have a large garden space. The fence needs to be at least 8 feet in height, because deer are really good jumpers.
• Install motion activated sprinklers. Installing motion activated sprinkler around your garden is a great way to scare off all kinds of unwanted animals from the garden, including birds, raccoons, and deer. This is also an option that can get expensive, but should last for several years.
• Put up a pie pan noise-maker. This is a very simple, yet effective solution to keep deer from chewing on your favorite vegetable plants. Just take two or three aluminum pie pans, drill or punch a hole in the outer part of the pie pan, and then tie the pie pans together with garden twine. Hang the pie pans from a Shepard’s hook, fence post, or any other structure in or near the garden. When the winds blows the pie pans the pans will bang and clang against one another. The sudden noise will frighten the deer off. Having a calm day with no breeze is the only down-side to this contraption.
• A superb deer deterrent is a dog. A dog will serve as a noise maker, a moving object, and the deer will consider it a threat. A dog that has good size and only barks when necessary is the most effective towards keeping deer at bay. Small dogs that bark incessantly are less likely to be effective.