High Country Gardens: Biodegradable garlic plant tags

Biodegradable garlic plant tags to discourage deer. Has anybody used these with success?

http://www.highcountrygardens.com/catalog/product/99827/

Hi Katie,
I have not tried them, but my mom has tried every deer deterant known to man..with no success. If deer are hungry they will eat whatever is available. They may even eat this plant tag! Garlic..YUM! She ended up having a lovely stucco wall around her property which has kept out the deer..but now rabbits have dug burroughs under it and are having so much fun in her garden!! She has humane traps and relocates them..but more just come. She has open space behind her..but lovely CA ocean view! It's always something!!

I always have extra loose garlic cloves after I plant in the Fall. I used garlic oil to repel tent caterpillars one year by soaking thick twine in garlic oil and tying it around the trunks of trees they were climbing up. It was semi-effective. I wonder if a similar thing would discourage deer.

Maybe just hanging a few cloves of garlic & scraping them a little each day would work.

I can see it now-- little fishing line garlic necklaces hung in the trees and shrubs.

^_^

I have big dogs. They are very affectionate and effective at barking off deer. Only a bit of food and veterinary care and they're good for years! They don't dissolve or wash off in rain, are available 24/7 unless snoozing heavily from too much exercise.

Other than that, Liquid Fence has worked great for me for a couple years. You just have to be diligent at actually applying it in a timely fashion. I don't know how it might work for rabbits. We don't have a long lived rabbit population here thanks to the resident bobcat. :(

Liquid Fence also works well for rabbits, but has the same darn problem - you have to be diligent about it!!!!!

I also have a big dog who used to thunder down the drive chasing off deer and keep them at bay with his commanding bark. He is now 15 years old, partly deaf, losing eyesight, not too spry anymore, and sleeps most of the time. He does still try to keep up his deer guard routine when he is awake. My seven foot fence is helpful, but does not keep them all out (the high jumpers). I guess, I'll try a combination of methods. Maybe the deer won't go to such great effort to get into the yard if it smells kind of garlicky and they know that sometimes a crotchety old dog might notice them.

Oh MHF your old dog sounds wonderful, infirmities aside. Actually he sounds a lot like me! He deserves to have a good snooze all day and night long after being such a faithful deer watcher all those years! And a belly rub.

I must say, you have to give the deer credit for their athletic skills involved in getting into our gardens. We were never bothered by them at all until a couple years ago, even though deer are seen on all sides of us. Then they found the sedum and the phlox, the occasional blueberry or raspberry. The first one who dabbles with a dahlia is going to be in for hand to hand combat with me. That's when I put on my helmet and cry "Game On, Bambi!"

I want tickets.

Poochella, I hope they don't acquire a taste for your dahlias, though it doesn't sound like you will allow them to entertain the idea. I have found that when I have the vegetable garden going, with plenty of lettuce, peas, and tomatoes to chow down on, the deer leave my other plants alone. A misshapen lettuce is better than a destroyed shrub.
Here's a picture of my doggy on the lookout (sort of, really thinking about a nap) for intruding hoofed beasts.

He is a good looking boy, I love the husky mix.
^_^

Look at him - what an angel . . .

Katie,

I bought "not tonight deer" from gardensalive.com and so far the deer have left the roses, rasberries, etc alone. They nibbled a bit on my golden bleeding heart and I hadn't hit that with the repellent so I aim to do that tomorrow. I mix it up with Messenger and so I get to fertilize and repell the deer both at the same time.

Jacquie - good tip!! My nieghbor and I are really struggling with the deer; they're coming right up to the front of the house to eat - so nothing is safe. They've totally munched on her oak leaf hydrangeas, which are right by the front door. And I haven't had a heuchera bloom in I-don't-know-how-long . . .

How long have you been using Messenger? I'm thinking of trying it on my dogwood tree this year.

I used it once last year, but this year I'm trying to use it consistently. I really want it to help my roses with black spot and I like that it isn't a chemical. So far, the roses have very little black spot (though it is early) and have leafed out really nicely. My neighbor whose rose in right in the path of the deer says its never looked so good. :)

Last year all the deer bothered in my garden was the strawberries-right to the ground.I'll protect the new ones with some fence this year.

Might be a good idea for me as my fence isn't high enough to keep out the deer. And they are getting so bold that they may chance it even though my dogs are often out there. I did surprise a young buck once in the back yard, but not enough for him to jump out until he saw the dogs. They are fast, but he was much, much faster and took the 5 ft fence more easily than I could have imagined - as though it wasn't really there . . .