I live in a very rural (mountain) area. Deer 'do not read' the books that say a plant is 'toxic' / deer proof / safe from deer, etc. You only need ONE deer that likes a plant for that plant to be GONE.

Knew a lady used to have about 900 different daylilies, farm in the middle of nowhere... asked her why she had no deer. She said Milorganite and Liquid Fence. Two years later, in March, not a lot of food (or snow). Deer dug down and took out about HALF of her daylilies...

She was heart-broken, trying to get some of them back from people she had sold to.

Two solutions that work... 1) very tall fence. 2) gun.

I vote option 1.

Yes, I first wrote about some of the many commercial repellants I've either bought or concocted to deal with deer way back in 2013, the year before I had a 7' fence installed. Liquid Fence, Milorganite, ( you name it, I've tried it. ) ALL the concoctions using Irish Spring Soap, Tabasco, Urine sprays, ugh! They all work for a time, until the deer get really hungry or used to whatever repellant you're using that week. Deer must change their grazing patterns, or eventually you'll learn just how destructive deer can be and how quickly they can completely decimate even a large garden. How I've wished that all the money I'd spent on expensive sprays over several years had been spent on paying for a fence sooner rather than later. Several club members have rather inexpensively used an electric fence composed of two wires of different heights placed around their gardens which they and their husbands installed themselves. It wasn't very expensive, and it ended their deer problems in the areas fenced. I ended up with a black heavy duty coated metal fence, had originally thought green fencing would blend better, but the fencing guy showed me that black would fade into the background better. You can tell it's


there in bloom season, but it's far less distracting than half eaten blooms.

I have had great luck for the last several years with liquid PlantSkydd for deer and rabbits. Our property is surrounded by forest with lots of deer.

crawgarden said: I have had great luck for the last several years with liquid PlantSkydd for deer and rabbits. Our property is surrounded by forest with lots of deer.

Surrounded by forest with lots of deer... I live in the Adirondack Mountains - 5.3 million acres of wilderness and forest preserve.

You pay for a fence 'once' ... protective sprays are an endless expense and need to be applied, reapplied, and applied yet again... until the day / night when it rains / you're not there / family emergency / someone is sick, whatever... and you miss spraying. Or the deer get used to it. Or a deer has no sense of smell / can't taste it, etc.

I had a great bed of Pacific Giant delphiniums for years - totally toxic. Took down the fence (a friend complained the fence spoiled the view, and hey: toxic) . Lost the whole bed in just a few hours while I was at work. Sure ... the deer may have wandered off into the woods and died later. Plants were still gone - never grew back.

None of the chemicals / sprays / deterrents are cheap ... my gardens cover more than 2 acres. No way to spray every time it rains (while I'm on a 15-hr shift at work).

Fence, or gun. Take your pick... because "everything else" works... until it doesn't.

From the site, and I have found it to be true, FWIW:

Unlike other repellents that quickly lose their effectiveness after irrigating or rainfall, Plantskydd is rain and snow resistant. It does not require immediate re-application and is now the #1 animal repellent choice of professional growers, foresters, and landscapers.

crawgarden said: From the site, and I have found it to be true, FWIW:

Unlike other repellents that quickly lose their effectiveness after irrigating or rainfall, Plantskydd is rain and snow resistant. It does not require immediate re-application and is now the #1 animal repellent choice of professional growers, foresters, and landscapers.

I understand that, for some people whose schedules may be more flexible than my own ... and whose budgets may be larger... 'not' having a fence may be more appealing. Visually, at the very least.

I use a 6-inch grid wire that's intended for concrete, comes on 75- and 150-ft rolls ... and fades into the back ground within just a few weeks, becoming essentially invisible once it's been up for a while. Very strong and lasts decades... and I have seen a deer jump 'into' the fencing ... and bounce off.

The problem with info on a product's site is... it is intended to market a product. And it may be accurate... for some people, under certain circumstances. But it's always the 'qualifier' words that get my attention: such as "rain and snow resistant" or "does not require immediate re-application"

'Resistant' and 'immediate' both negate the claims they are making. The product WILL wash off and it DOES require reapplication. Working 15-hr shifts, I don't have time to keep checking ... and my garden budget is for plants, not chemicals. My gardens are 100% organic and my only fertilizer is compost.

Other people make other choices, and that is 100% THEIR RIGHT to make their own choices. Regardless of the convenience of just spraying something on your gardens... not everyone wants to take that path.

In my gardens, no chemicals of any kind are allowed. I plant for pollinators and local wildlife and my gardens are certified (by 4 different organizations) ... as a Monarch Way Station, a Swallowtail Butterfly Garden, a Pollinator Habitat and a Wildlife Habitat.

I say again: build a fence once, it lasts for decades.

But I also have venison in the freezer (legally acquired and properly tagged). I grew up in the Adirondacks and deer meat is delicious.

I've even had a deer die in one of my gardens... the poor thing was hit by a car and ran at least a mile to end up where it did, then dropped in my upper garden... where I found the poor thing still alive, unable to get up. It was not hunting season and I had to call a Conservation officer to come put the poor thing down, put it out of its pain. They are beautiful animals and I hate to see one suffer.

That's another reason I suggest a sturdy fence: the deer still wander through my yard ... but stay out of my gardens. We get along just fine that way.

Oh, and rabbits? No rabbits in the Adirondacks: we have snowshoe hares. I run 'rabbit wire' for the bottom 3-ft of every fence, and they stay out of the gardens, too. (Except for the upper garden... don't care if they hop through there, I only plant potatoes and onions there, and they won't touch either one.)

As the saying goes "good fences make good neighbors" (Robert Frost). In this particular case the neighbors are the deer.

I agree with everything that's been said here. Unfortunately, some of us live in subdivisions with strict rules about fences. We can have a back fence only, but it has to be approved by the board, and our board would not approve a typical deer fence.

I have lost some daylilies in front of my house to deer, but they have not yet come into the back yard, where I do have a fence deer could jump over if they wanted to. So far they haven't. I think the dog next door is a deterrent.

Fences are an effective solution, but not everyone wants one, can afford it, or depending where they live able to install them.

Yes the statement about rain in snow resistance is part of a marketing tool I'm sure, but from my experience its very accurate, so long as the instructions are followed. My experience is that I apply the product a few times in the spring, than in late fall.

My employment caused me to be gone for typically 4-5 days at a time, and occasionally 10-12 days. The only thing I had to worry about was watering, so I had an irrigation system installed.

I also only use organic products in my yard and garden

To each their own, not sure how NY is for CWD, but its going at a pretty good rate here in the midwest.

Thanks for the acorn, Dianne.
I am sorry for your strict HOA, nan. Sounds very restrictive. But it is true that the place would look like a prison yard if people had high fences in the front of their homes.

While the kangaroos, wallabies and hares have taken a break from eating my hems to the ground, after my new plantings of almost anything were dug up by our native bandicoots or echidnas, I put chicken wire around all new plantings. doesn't look great but must leave it until they are well established.

To my delight one of my new hems WHITE TUXEDO flowered promptly and is very white.

The deer didn't jump the fence in our back yard for the first 15 years we lived here, then nothing kept them out and they ate my tulips, buds off the daylilies, cleaned the seed out of the bird feeders. So we put a few feet of wire on top of the 6 ft. wood fence, not pretty looking but it keeps the buggers out. They have destroyed most peoples shrubs in front of the houses, we have a herd of about 10 that roam the streets almost daily. I love to see them, but boy they are destructive.

plasko20 said: I am sorry for your strict HOA, nan. Sounds very restrictive. But it is true that the place would look like a prison yard if people had high fences in the front of their homes.

Ours isn't bad compared to some. At least I can have a clothesline (as long as it is retractable). Some of the HOAs even restrict what kind of mailbox residents can have, whether or not the garage door can be left open, etc. And I appreciate that we don't allow signs in the yards. I've read stories about violent confrontations over political signs. That's not the kind of interaction I want to have with my neighbors.

My yard would be literally impossible to fence completely without also installing multiple gates. Luckily, all the large busy roads in the area create a sort of car fence, a little like living on an island. At any rate I've only extremely occasionally seen a deer walk through. But rabbits, voles, squirrels and other rodents are a bane here. Luckily, they are mostly disinterested in Daylilies ( anyway, the rabbits) which is what got me into fandom in the first place.

Voles are fond of Asiatic lilies, they are a lot of mine.

[ ...Some of the HOAs even restrict what kind of mailbox residents can have, whether or not the garage door can be left open, etc. ....]

Nan, I never leave my garage door open as snakes would love to go in as it is always warm being on the western side. Australia has several deadly kinds so it is always on my mind. esplly the past 6 months when I have almost trodden on some.

Wow, that's something I don't worry about. We have rattlesnakes here, but I never have seen one anywhere near the garage. We leave ours open because we have an outdoor cat who sleeps and eats in the garage.

I did hear about a snake laying its eggs in an opened bag of potting soil in someone's shed. After I heard that, I always look into the bag before I reach in.

I walked out the back door into the garage one day, as I looked out the open garage door I saw what I thought was a rattle snake headed into the garage, perfect timing for me to turn him around. Turned out not to be a rattle snake, but a very large copperhead. I try to keep the doors down as much as possible because the dang birds fly in and start trying to build a nest within minutes.

Yes, that happens to me as well (the birds, not the copperhead!). We have a very persistent pair of Carolina Wrens. After I chased them out of the garage once, and they abandoned their first nest, they sneaked in again and nested right on top of the other one. We moved the truck away so they cat might have less access to the nestlings, but I am not optimistic.