CasaSugar

How-To: Keeping Deer Out of Your Garden

CasaSugar — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:30:00 -0700

Growing up in the country, deer and other creatures were daily visitors to my garden, nibbling and trampling upon everything in sight, and they often caused car accidents in the area. Needless to say, they're not my favorite forest creature. But that doesn't necessarily mean you have to wait for deer season to keep them away from your casa; there are plenty of ways to keep them out of your garden without increasing your daily venison intake. Here are a few:

Install an extremely high fence. Deer can jump quite high, so it must be about eight feet tall to keep them out. Consider invisible deer fence, which isn't such an eyesore. And remember to fence off your driveway entrance or install cattle guards, which they can't cross.
Get a dog to scare the deer away.

There are plenty more to hear about, so read more.

Spray deer repellents about 30" off the ground around your garden. Try Not Tonight Deer, Liquid Fence, Deer Away, Deer Out, Deer Off, Hinder, or a homemade repellent. You'll have to reapply according to the instructions.
Soak a clothesline in repellent and hang it at a low height around your garden.
Soak the area in animal urine. Don't worry: You can buy it, rather than gather yourself!
Pick up hair clippings from your hairdresser and fill a nylon stocking with it. Place a few around your planting beds.
Hang bars of strong-smelling soap from the trees and bushes, or grate soap bars and scatter the soap around your garden.
Install a baited, electric fence like Wireless Deer Fence.
Install a motion activated sprinkler like Scarecrow Sprinkler.

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Garden Therapy: Preventing Creatures From Eating Fall Bulbs

CasaSugar — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:00:00 -0700

Ann Whitman, the green goods supervisor at Gardener's Supply, recently offered some advice for preventing squirrels, deer, and other critters from digging up and destroying your Fall bulbs. Check out her tips below.

Squirrels love to dig in newly disturbed soil, so prevent them from exploring by disguising your newly planted bulbs. Cover the planting area with rocks, boards, buckets, or chicken wire. Once the ground freezes, you can move the rocks or other materials.
Since deer don't care about bulbs until the Spring, protect tender leaves by covering them with wire mesh once they start popping up next Spring.
Avoid damage from chipmunks and voles by surrounding bulbs with sharp gravel and oyster shell. You can also plant them inside a wire cage.
Deter rascally rabbits by spraying repellents, such as Liquid Fence, or predator urine, around bulbs in the Spring.
Try planting bulbs that animals find unappealing. Chief among these are daffodils, alliums, fritillaries, grape hyacinths, and many other spring-flowering bulbs.

Source: Flickr User Gilles Gonthier

Primer: Plants That Deer Don't Like

CasaSugar — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:30:00 -0700

I recently showed you some tricks for repelling deer from your garden without pulling out your rifle. But probably the simplest way to keep Bambi away from your beloved plants is to choose plants that he doesn't find palatable. To begin, you should certainly avoid planting hostas, lilies, tulips, hollyhocks, impatiens, sunflowers, crocus, daylilies, lobelia, phlox, rose, and yews, which are deer faves. Here is a list of plants that should be safe from being Bambi's breakfast, lunch, or dinner:

Ornamental grasses. Try astillbe, baptista, bleeding heart, catmint, bloody cranesbill, dusty miller, evening primrose, ferns, foam flower, foxglove, iris, lavender, monarda, nasturtium, peony, salvia, santolina, and yarrow.
Strongly scented herbs and plants. Try sage, lemon balm, monarda (bee balm), chives, chili pepper, garlic, mints, rosemary, thyme, wintergreen, and Russian sage.
Prickly, thorned plants (except roses). Try cleome, holly, boxwood, butterfly bush, Colorado blue spruce, cotoneaster, honeysuckle, Japanese maple, magnolia, Russian olive, viburnum, barberry, and purple coneflower.

Check out Northern Gardening and UGA for more plants that deer tend to avoid.
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