forum for deer issues??

Hello, am wondering if there is a separate forum for deer issues - am gardening in zone 6 (philly suburbs) and would like advice on shrubs that deer do not prefer.

thanks,

L

There's not a separate forum about deer, but I'm sure some people here will have advice, or you could try on the Garden Pests & Diseases forum.

Hi cousart! I gardened near Philly for 10 years. I once asked a neighbor if there was anything the deer wouldn't eat, and he said, "Concrete...in large chunks." However, I did have success growing Buxus (Box), Berberis (Barberry), Potentilla fruticosa (Shrubby Cinquefoil), Chaenomeles (Japonica), Perovskia (Russian Sage), Buddleia (Butterfly Bush), and Juniperus rigida (Needle Juniper). Basically, try anything that is prickly, pungent, or hairy.

"Concrete...in large chunks."- That's pretty funny and was good for deep belly laugh.

They're eating Barberry and Butterfly Bush around here. My girlfriend said she's getting rid of her Russian Sage because she's convinced the deer are eating it. Actually, there isn't much they aren't sampling so seems as if you might just as well plant what ever you want to plant.

Resin, what was it you once said about razor blades or was it barbed wire?

Mind if I join you all in the LOL at the " concrete in large chunks" .... I am living with a woods full of deer that sample almost everything in my yard. Some they sample all the way down to the ground! I haven't noticed any munching on the Potentilla fruticosa and am considering getting more of them.
June, I have to disagree on the "prickly", they love my rose bushes!
Resin, I'll pass on the wolves...:-)

I am doing most of my planting in containers now, and keeping most of them on the deck. So far the hooved rodents have not came on the deck. I may start leaving the hand truck as a gate at the head of the steps again ( like I did last year) just as a precaution.
Now, how do I keep the coons from digging them out of the containers?

I bit off topic to be sure, but here's how you can tell a Wisconsin driver with a recent DUI.

I always assumed that the old razor-in-apple Halloween scare originated as a deer trap.

There was no more thrilling day this spring but that one when I turned my new electric deer fence on for the first time. I instantly baited it with peanut butter. Sometimes, my relationship to deer bears an uncanny resemblance to certain scenes in American Psycho.

Here's a thread ya'll all enjoy . . . ;-)

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/730390/

Resin

Resin, I may disagree with some of your coments, but you are the best! A great link! How do you do all of this stuff? Remember, I'im just an old retired guy in central Alabama. I have a corner of my little piece of Alabama heaven that has Kudzu and honey suckle - that's the only thing that keeps them from my plants. My neighbor tapes the deer as they move through the former creek bed to good eating. As the area is developed, the deer have more difficulties. I'm not taking a side here, but in my case, we changed the environment, the deer did not. I don't know that we have a solution to this problem that won't be troublesome.
Peace. Thanks.

Oh yes, the deer's has been very much altered by our ever more successful intervention and exploitation of its natural habitat. Why, I myself liken the the skulking of hunters up and down my road during deer hunting season as very little more than the behaviour of child molesters, lurking in their vehicles for their next precious victim. It's vile in its own way.

Yet I think of the coyote and wolves that no longer inhabit this area and wonder how Bambi would feel being chased down by an organized pack of predators; perhaps, like a Japanese Beetle grub being chased down by powdery mildew. Yet, in some ways, I'm more thankful for the grub. They, at least, do not jump out in front of my car at twilight.

The deer change the enviroment as much as they can to suit their needs and wants and, frankly, sometimes I think that they're out to undermine the Gardener's way of life. This must stop. Peace through victory.

Think of the deer in your yard as mobile garden art. That's how I kept my blood pressure down while I watched a herd of about 30 white-tails browse their way through my flower beds.

June, That's brilliant. Kinda like a snippet of Apocalypse Now........but right in my back yard! I really like that suggestion for an alteration of perception that I can go with. The thought of motherless Bambi somehow didn't do it for me.

We had a neighbor who was driven crazy by the deer. He had apple trees and all kinds of lush foundation planting of the kind that landscapers install annually, so his yard was one big deer magnet. His consuming fear was that a visiting grandchild would pick up a deer tick and catch Lyme disease. To keep the verminous deer at bay, he hung aluminum pie plates from all the trees and stuck little plastic whirligigs on sticks all around his plantings. One day I came home to find he had surrounded his yard with plastic, yellow "caution - do not cross" tape, like a vast crime scene. Then he tried string with woolly bobbles on it. Nothing worked! He would run out of the house and shout at the deer, and wave his arms. The deer would run a few steps, then stop again - I swear these animals have a sense of humor. One day he fired a shotgun into the air "to scare the deer off", and nearly gave me a heart attack instead.

Has anyone had any success protecting flowers from deer with any of the deer repellents?
Dick from Closter, NJ

Try Northern Bayberry, the deer never touch the Myrica species that I have. I don't think they like the way it smells.

I use 'liquid fence', an all natural spray. Spray it on every 2 to 3 weeks, at night. When freshly applied it stinks terribly! But when it's dry you don't smell it anymore, but they do, and they stay away.
Absolutely works wonders for the stinkers around me.
And yes, I too have a neighbour who would fit in fine with the people on the wonderful thread Resin put us on. She feeds anyone who carries fleas...
Christie

This message was edited Aug 30, 2007 8:28 PM

I've tried Liquid Fence, but it hasn't protected my Hibiscus or Hollyhocks. Has anyone had success with other deer repellents?

I thought I would alert ya'll to this little item. It works like an invisible fence that people use on their dogs, minus the electrical shock!

Liquid Fence Deer & Rabbit Repellent

Basically, you spray about a 3 foot wide “fence” around the area you want protected.

I don’t want to come across as trying to sell anything, just wanted people to know that there IS a fix for deer problems. But now remember, If they can’t find anything to eat else where and are starving in the winter, deer will find some way to get to food. Liquid Fence will stop your nibblers that are just out gallivanting around, but in the worst of conditions, deer, just like humans, will do almost whatever it takes to survive.