The deer are coming! The deer are coming! Did you know that late fall and spring is the time when your gardens and landscape are most vulnerable to deer damage? If you read my last blog which deals with facts about the white tail deer including their life stages and habits, you will know that deer are here to stay. Although many of us, including me, live in deer country, we can still have a beautiful and successful flower garden and landscape as well as a loving relationship with deer. In this blog I hope to provide you with the basic knowledge and information you need to make deer ‘resistant’ gardens and landscapes using organic and humane principals. Deer are not habitat specific. They are great adjusters that do well wherever there is food and a place to hide. Their current strength is their adaptability which enables them to thrive in man-made landscapes. Most of their natural landscapes have already disappeared and have been transformed into suburbs, shopping centers, roads, bustling cities and towns. Deer love edges and we find them thriving in suburbs because there is a dramatic increase in the amount of edge between lawns and woods. Home gardens are the main target for deer because of the new plantings as well as maintained gardens. We plant food that deer love: arborvitae, balsam, cedar, daylily, eastern hemlock, fir, geraniums and hosta. Think of these plants as ‘deer candy’. In our vegetable gardens we plant peas, broccoli, garlic, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkins, and squash. Pretty much any vegetable we eat, deer will eat! Deer are creatures of habit! Once they have found a new feeding area to their liking, future damage is easily predicted as your garden will become a constant stop on their nocturnal feeding forays. (Note: Think of the time you found a new restaurant and because the food was great not only did you come back often, but you told your friends about it so they could go as well!) One can break this pattern by the use of physical barriers, repellants and deer resistant plantings. By being consistent and persistent, deer may eventually give up browsing on your landscape. However, all bets are off when deer are under deep stress or are approaching starvation. At that point, they will eat just about anything they can find. PART 1 - A LIST OF SOME DEFENSES TO DETER DEER FROM YOUR LANDSCAPE: 1.Fences: This is the best means of defense and protection against deer damage. Make sure that fencing is at least 8’ tall and that it is not loosely constructed or deer will crawl under it. Permanent fencing is the most expensive but most effective way of dealing with deer. Electric fences also provide protection but require periodic maintenance and may need to be replaced more often. They are less expensive than permanent fencing. Look for the new generation of chargers called the ‘New Zealand Charger’. The least expensive form of fencing is to install posts around your gardens and run 50 lb heavy gauge fishing line between the posts starting at one foot from the ground. Then continue at two foot intervals until you reach the top of the 8’ tall post. When deer run into this ‘invisible barrier’, they really dislike it and will leave your garden untouched. Another trick is to lay mesh chicken wire or plastic netting, (like the type used to protect berry bushes or fruit trees), horizontally on the ground around your gardens or landscaping. Deer don’t like the feeling of walking on it and getting their feet tangled up in it. You can easily remove it to mow your lawn and then return it when finished mowing. 2.Repellents: Repellents provide an invisible although temporary and seasonal means of deer control. The duration of effectiveness on all repellants is much shorter than what is advertised. Make sure when applying the repellant that the temperature stays above 40 degrees until it is completely dried. Use organic chemicals or herbal repellants that: 1. Provide an odorous barrier – you can make a completely organic spray by adding 6 drops of peppermint essential oil and 4 drops of rosemary essential oil to a spray bottle with vinegar. You can also use garlic powder and cayenne pepper with vinegar effectively. Ready-made you can buy ‘Deer Away’ or ‘Deer Off’. This type of repellent must be reapplied after every rain! Deer do not like the smell of these herbs. Other natural herbs to try are mint, oregano, sage and thyme. You can also add hot sauce and liquid dish soap to your mixtures. 2. Systemic organic deer deterrents can be sprayed on the plant or scratched into the ground around the plant. They provide a slightly longer protection because they get absorbed into the plant itself and can not be washed off with rain. They should be applied every 2 to 4 weeks. A few popular and easy organic systemic deer deterrents are ‘Liquid Fence’ and ‘Deer Solution’ which repels both deer and rabbits. Deer do not like the taste of any systemic repellent. NOTE: Do not use any deer deterrents that contain coyote, fox or bobcat urine due to the extremely inhumane practices used in collecting it. NOTE: To get optimal results, don’t keep using one deterrent but alternate brands or herbal solutions! And, remember to spray any new planting as soon as it is in the ground! If the deer’s first encounter with a new plant is unpleasant, chances are they will avoid that plant in the future. OTHER METHODS FOR DEALING WITH DEER:
PART II - PLANTING BASICS FOR DEER RESISTANT GARDENS AND LANDSCAPES Deer are known to eat more than 500 different kinds of plants. Deer’s taste can change and depends primarily on the season, nutritional needs and the abundance or lack of favorite foods. Be assured that if and when times are bad, and preferred foods are scarce, deer will eat just about anything! Although many solutions and products exist on the market for controlling deer browsing, the most logical and cost-efficient way to prevent deer from making a meal of your garden is by using plants that deer simply don’t like. New landscapes and gardens can be designed and planned using only deer resistant plantings. In existing landscapes and gardens a transitional method can be used. As you slowly and methodically remove plantings loved by deer and replace them with more resistant plants, the use of repellents will be crucial to prevent devastation. Keys for choosing plants for a deer resistant garden: Toxicity – Daffodils, hyacinths, sorrel, rhubarb and spinach either have calcium oxalate or lycorine. These plants are both distasteful and even poisonous not only to deer but rabbits and other mammals. Foxglove and poppies are also toxic. Aroma – Aromatic foliage is more often than not shunned by deer. Most commonly cultivated herbs used for cooking, aromatherapy and medicinal purposes are deer resistant. Remember these plants also have an ornamental value and can be inter-dispersed in your flower and vegetable gardens. Examples: mint, fennel, yarrow, basil, lavender, catnip, oregano, rosemary and thyme. Fuzzy foliage – There is probably nothing more disagreeable to deer than a mouth full of fuzz! Plants with short hairs that cover the leaves are shunned by deer. Examples: lamb’s ear, dead nettle, dusty miller, catmint and black-eyed Susan. Prickly parts – Thornes, spines and needles provide plants with good deer resistance. Example: Evergreens with hard needle type foliage- spruce, pine and juniper. Example: Thorny stems and branches – roses, barberry, hawthorn and quince. However, deer will eat the buds and flowers of the rose bush. Example: Hard prickly edge leaves- holly, leucothoe. Example: Prickly flower heads - coneflowers. NOTE: For a complete list of annuals, biennials, ferns, groundcovers, ornamental grasses, perennials, shrubs, trees and vines that are deer resistant go to the web site of Rutgers Cooperative Research & Extension: www.rce.rutgers.edu Here you will find an extensive list of plants rated according to their resistance to deer damage. Plants are listed in the following categories: rarely damaged, seldom severely damaged and occasionally severely damaged. Only plants that have some amount of deer resistance will be found on these lists. NEXT BLOG: The third and final blog related to deer will be in a form of a deer tale. It is my story of a unique encounter with a deer that I had only once in my life. What happened during that magical hour has changed how I experience deer and other wild animals and has left me with many unanswered questions about the meaning and mystery of life.
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