How Do I Fight the Deer?

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susanh6920 Reston, VA May 29, 2015

How do I prevent deer from eating my hostas, hydrangeas, euonymous, etc. in my front yard?
I live in Reston VA. A suburb of Wash DC. I have a normal suburban yard with a fence in the
rear, and back to woods that are a common area.

The deer come from the woods and eat everything in the front yard except the thorny items. I have tried garlic oil tubes that hang from plants, electronic Deer Gard boxes, and putting out cracked corn at the rear of my fence wanting to keep them on the wooded side of my property. I bought a kids water blaster gun but can't get close enough to blast them.

I just went outside and found my giant hostas chewed to the ground.

Can I spray garlic oil ON THE PLANTS? Does anyone have any ideas?

Susan
Reston VA

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hcmcdole Powder Springs, GA(Zone 7b) May 29, 2015

Tall fence? With big dogs on the inside of it. Anyway that is how we've had a deer free yard for as long as we've had the fence.

Bird netting will work but you probably won't like the looks. A hosta grower I visited a few years ago (grows 7,000 plugs then and may still do it) uses a low electric fence. I was incredulous as how this would stop deer from walking over it like we did. He said they don't see the fence and once they get shocked they don't come back.

Other people spray animal repellent - maybe there is one that stands out among all others but I've tried a couple different ones for squirrels and didn't see it help at all.

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mazmom Prescott, AZ(Zone 8a) Jun 04, 2015

The sad fact is deer will eat almost anything, even plants listed as deer resistant, and those like roses with nasty thorns. Only a tall deer fence will keep your plants completely safe. I've tried all sorts of commercial and home-made sprays, hung Irish Spring soap, surrounded the plants with hair clippings, even had the men in the family urinate around the edges of the garden...you name it, I've tried it! I bought one of those $69 sprinklers with the motion detector that set off the sprinkler when a deer walked close. It broke within a couple of weeks. I experimented with an electric fence, but the deer jumped over it or scooted under it. Dogs are good when they're awake and patrolling the yard. But they tend to take too many naps. You might try the bird netting suggested above...but then you won't be able to see the plants very well. We back up to national forest and I've spent 30 years trying to outsmart the deer. Nothing but a tall fence works all day every day.

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