Don't Want Deer in Your Flower Bed? A Variety of Techniques May Help (2024)

Our back yard is a mature stand of trees. There are hickories, red maples, serviceberries, dogwoods, spicebushes and several white oaks with trunks 3 to 4 feet in diameter. This piece of woodland is surrounded by housing developments, and for a decade we had no deer. Last year they found us -- not just the woods, but the sunny areas, too.

Rhonda Massingham Hart, author of "Deer-Proofing Your Yard & Garden" (Storey Publishing, 1997), says there are about 50 times as many deer today as there were 60 years ago. So any plant that has foliage or fresh green edible stems in winter, such as azaleas, roses and yews, is being mowed down as food.

There is no foolproof way to protect your plantings, except to erect a fence that is too high for deer to vault -- perhaps 8 to 10 feet. Since most county codes allow only 6- to 7-foot fences, I recommend planting tall, spreading shrubs along both sides of the fence to widen the horizontal distance the deer must jump. The extra width, though, is a deterrent only if you choose deer-resistant shrubs.

Another option is deer fence, a stiff plastic mesh that comes in rolls. It can be wrapped around and drawn between trees in woodland areas. There's no staking required. It is 7 to 8 feet high, black and thus not extremely visible, as it blends with the woods. A see-through mesh netting is also available. Check garden or home-improvement centers and gardening catalogues. If your local government considers this mesh to be a fence, the height might not be permitted unless you file for a variance.

Another barrier is an electric fence that runs off house current, a battery or solar power, and comes complete with bait. The idea is to bring the deer to the wire for a "safe" jolt that will train them to stay away. It sounds good in theory, but the shortcoming of all fences is that they don't look good, and my job is to aesthetically enhance properties. Here are some alternatives to consider, but none guarantees results.

There is a motion-activated sprinkler, a type of sensor-controlled animal repellent that emits a blast of water when deer pass. It is mounted in the garden and connected to a hose. A nine-volt battery powers the sensors. The downside is you cannot use it in winter, and I question the effectiveness of the spray of water. If someone were to invent a sprayer with the force of a fire hose, they might have something. The values of trying the system are that the plants get watered when deer wander through, and it might effectively startle the animals.

Another physical control is to drape netting over the deer's favorite plants. It is effective for the inside foliage, but the deer will eat all the leaves they can reach.

Applying repellents to plants so the deer won't want to eat them is another theory. It is based on the fact that deer are herbivores and therefore eat only vegetable matter, avoiding all products that smell or taste like animals.

Home remedies include human hair in a wool bag hung onto the plant, bar soap rubbed and strung onto shrubs and trees, and suet that, when used in conjunction with bird seed, will repel one type of wildlife while attracting others. These should be hung on or applied to the stems and leaves of plants that deer eat and monitored to determine if they work.

When used properly, repellents work. We saved liriope, azaleas, roses, hostas, candytufts, hakone grasses and hollies last season. Deer Off and Liquid Fence are the two we tried. They were equally effective, each one for about a two- to three-month period, without heavy rain. Concentrates cost $30 to $50 a quart. A quart makes four gallons, so that's $10 a gallon.

Another way to approach the problem is to install plants that deer don't like to eat. It's too bad to limit our plant selection so severely, but from a landscape design standpoint, you can still have a practical and aesthetically pleasing garden.

Generally, plants that have sticky or hairy leaves; thick, leathery foliage; medicinal uses; or a minty or lemony fragrance are seldom damaged. Deer prefer fertilized and irrigated plants, and the more accustomed they are to people, the better the chance they'll eat your ornamentals. If they're hungry, they'll eat almost anything.

Another class of deer repellent is made from products that simply make the plants taste bad or create discomfort when eaten. Bad-tasting home remedies are garlic, Tabasco and other spicy sauces spread or sprayed onto the leaves of plants. Castor oil is known to make plants taste bitter and has been a successful deterrent for other wildlife as well as deer.

These items are available from just about every garden and home-improvement center. Deerbusters, on the Web at Deer-busters.com, sells a full line of deer deterrents. Call 1-888-422-3337 for more information. And remember that all natural powders and liquids are chemicals; always follow labeled instructions.

If all else fails, try a dog. Provided you can train it to stay on your property, a dog is a predator that deer are supposed to fear. I'm sure it will also offer its share of canine urine on your plants as a further deterrent.

The following evergreen shrubs and trees have the best chance of surviving the deer-browsing this winter: firs, hollies, junipers, pines, spruces, boxwoods, cherrylaurels, mahonias, nandinas, pyracanthas, rhododendrons and viburnums that hold their leaves through winter.

That said, deer don't know that they are not supposed to eat certain hollies. In our yard, they didn't eat Japanese or the thornie*st of them, but they ate the foliage of Nellie R. Stevens hollies as far as they could reach. With the huge plant palette that is used in landscape design today, this is a learning process for us and for the deer.

Joel M. Lerner is president of Environmental Design in Capitol View Park, Md. His e-mail address is jml@gardenlerner.com; his Web page is at www.gardenlerner.com.