Keeping The Deer At Bay
No deer allowed!
Don’t we wish that’s all that was necessary, to put up a sign in our yards and gardens instructing the deer to stay out? Unfortunately, deer can’t read, but they sure can eat. Our flowers, vegetables and shrubs can attest to that fact.
So what –if anything – can we do to assure a few fresh flowers and vegetables each spring? Personally, I have declared war in my no-holds-barred campaign against the free-loading varmints.
Here are a few tricks I have tried along with some suggestions from those who share my dilemma.
To protect my garden, I first erected a fence, sort of. My garden plot is small, maybe 600 square feet. I didn’t really want to build an elaborate and expensive fence, so I went to Lowe’s and bought some 5-foot steel posts. They are green, metal posts and are often used in temporary landscape borders. You can push them in the ground with your feet, so they’re easy to erect.
I spaced the posts about every 8 feet or so and then tied wire strands about 10 inches apart around the posts. Deer can easily leap across the top wire, but they don’t seem to like to jump into confined spaces. So far, they haven’t. As my vegetables begin to flourish, I will add a 4-foot tall mesh fence to the posts to ensure the fawns won’t slip between the wire strands. As I said, this is war.
But there is more ammo available in our arsenal of tricks.
Irish Spring soap, for one. I don’t know what it is, but there is something in this fragrant bar soap that deer don’t like, and they avoid it at all costs. On recommendation of a friend, I have secured chunks of Irish Spring on the posts. When the soap melts, I will replace it.
Jill Smith of Fluvanna County also has a few suggestions about deer control. Jill recommends a device made by ConTec called ScareCrow. It’s a motion activated device that sends a sudden and noisy spray of water at anything approaching 40 feet, then shoots water at the source up to 20 feet with a “phtt-phtt-phtt” noise. That would keep me away, for sure.
Jill said she even had a bear prowling around and that the intruding bruin, but when he ran into the ScareCrow ignored fences and smelly repellents, he packed up and moved to new scavenging grounds.
But the Fluvanna gardener did not stop there. She also uses a contraption from HavaHart called Electronic Deer Repellent to protect single bushes. It works on battery power, not electricity. It is acorn-scented to attract attention, but when the curious deer or intruder touches the four arched wires across the device, it receives a good shock on the nose.
“Nobody eats my azaleas,” Jill proclaims.
If you have any ideas or tips to keep deer away, share them with us. There are lots of deer out there and we need all the help we can get.