Not so deer resistant plants

I live in a small city in Central Texas that over the past few years has grown by leaps and bounds, because of all the building going on the deer are losing their natural habitat and are coming into town in search of food and water. We've bought and planted all the deer resistant plants we can find and seems like the deer just eat them anyway. Anything we can do besides letting out son build a deer stand in the large tree in our front yard?

Chris

Hi Chris, this winter we had the same problem. Deer were eating things they normally wouldn't touch because not only are we using up their natural habitat but we had an unusually cold and snowy winter. I called in on our local radio talk show for gardeners and they said it's the same thing everywhere. The one gentleman takes regular walks in the woods around here to keep up on the behavior of the animals and he said he saw the same thing in the wooded areas....deer eating things they don't usually care for. There are deer resistant plants but no such thing as "deer proof" unless you have it surounded by very tall fences or covered with chicken wire or something of that sort. Sorry you're going through it too, a sign of the times I guess.

Thanks, guess there isn't much we can do. This has been going on for a few years but they usually left certain plants alone. Guess it's time to quit throwing money down the drain, maybe start a cactus garden and see how they like thorns. My luck they'd probably eat those too.

Chris

They devour roses, thorns (or prickles) and all.

There are deer repellents that you can spray on your plants--it'll take some effort because you'll have to reapply every so often but they can definitely help.

It's the constant spraying of new growth, the favorite part for the deer, that becomes so time consuming and so costly. Very heavy rains, such as we've had today and had last week, will also wash it off so for less than an acre it's $128. a week.

Chris, I'm sorry I sounded so negative. Like Pirl said there are preventative measures that will increase your chances. I was talking to my preacher who said they were eating all his tomatoes out of his garden and he was told to tie strips of white sheets around his garden and it would fool the deer into thinking there was a white-tail around. Some have said they heard hanging dryer sheets around your plants deters them or Irish Spring soap, they don't like the smell. Here is a website on some recipes you can make yourself and spray on your plants and surrounding area http://www.deer-departed.com/deer-repellent-recipes.html And there are certain plants you can put in your garden they really don't like and it discourages them too....onion and garlic I think? That one I'm not sure of and need to research more. But don't give up, do what you can and let us know your results. We're all looking for a way that works!

Scarecrows do not work!