Jim Murphy told me to go with 8'. He says he's seen deer jump 6' fences all the time and he should know. Their garden was eaten down to NUBS before they got deer fencing. He and George Doorakian use the same kind of deer fence, either Benners or Deerfence.com, which they both recommended to me. I've put it off but MUST do something soon!

NONE of the repellants I've used - Milorganite, Deer Scram, Deer Off, Liquid Fence, you name it, they aren't working when the deer decide they love your daylilies. Oh, have used the soap, hair, egg whites, hot chili pepper mixes. None of it works sadly. Wish it did.

We use Plantskydd repellent and it has worked for us...so far anyway. We had a big buck jump the seven foot fence at the front, then we got the repellent and it's been working for 2 years, same at the back, there the fence is only 6 feet, every few months dh goes around and sprays the out side of it and they definitely stay away, stuff stinks something awful for awhile.

I have a big wildlife problem. Deer, Groundhogs, Rabbits, skunks you name it I have it. This is what I have done. FYI....... I have a 8' fence and they jump that like it is only 4'

I am using many methods to keep them out. ........................................


I purchased...
Wolf urine that I put in a spray bottle and Spray that occasionally on grocery store plastic bags and hang them on the fence where I see they may have been by the poop evidence.

I put some of the Sweeney's Deer Repellent gadgets. They are covered containers that you put on a stem. That is suppose to trigger flight response to the deer. I suspect it is a wolf urine concoction. Home Depot purchase.

Homemade spray. Onion, Garlic, hot sauce, wolf urine, egg, mixture. This is sprayed around if we have a lot of rain to save on using the expensive store purchased stuff.

Biondi Deer off work for my deer. I tried every one on the market. Every area deer are different. Sometime you have to try them all to see which one your deer do not like.

Nite Guard system. It is a flashing red solar light to fool the deer that they think danger wolf blinking eyes. Of course near that area I spray the wolf urine. So it is a site and smell fix I am using.

I have herds of deer not an occasional walk through deer problem. When I see deer it is 10 or more. I have had as many as 20 deer in the front yard at one time.

I also sprinkle Millorganite 3 times a year.

Finally, for their path coming up from the woods....... I have picked up pallets from the grocery store for free. They have trouble walking on these because their feet go through the slat space and they fall down. I painted them green and I can walk on them just fine.

I have done everything short of a gun. So far it seems to be working just one hosta had some bites. So I am not sure if that was deer, rabbit, groundhog, etc. since it was only one hosta none of the daylilies.

The deer can look over my 6 ft.fence, don't have to look through it.

We do have a stretch of 5.5' or so opaque fence (stone base with wood on top), but on the rear side the yard is somewhat congested with a pool equipment enclosure and caged citrus trees, so we don't know if it is all the clutter or the opaque fence instead which make the deer reluctant to exit the yard by that route. We know they are right there on the front/opposite side of the fence (as they always eat my agapanthus blooms), but we have never seen them try to jump the fence from the front. (Then again, apart from the visual obstruction, there is noise from the ac unit and also the pool equipment which may be offputting to them.)

The deer have a nearby visually unobstructed route through the neighbors' yard which they use in preference to tackling that stretch of fence. My guess is that if there is an easier route to go than jumping an opaque fence, one where they can see everything around them, they will go that way.

Cinta, edited to add that my sole hosta is in a thoroughly fenced side yard where the deer do not have access. A year or so ago we discovered that we had rabbits, and something (almost certainly said rabbits, but possibly a ground traveling gopher (which I caught in an electronic rat trap)) was chomping on that hosta. I got a rabbit spray from the Deer Out company and drenched the hosta that one year, and have had no issues with it since (even though we still have rabbits, which really, really like that part of the garden).

Oddly, this discussion comes up now. I saw a deer this morning on my neighbor's property close to our joint vegetable garden. Big white tail doe. I was walking my 10 pound Pomeranian to check the garden. I didn't want her to see the deer because she would have gone right after her.

Living in the mountains we have a huge problem with deer. Hosta is like butter to the deer. What I do know is that deer don't like walking on gravel or a stone walkway. It hurts there hooves, and they avoid it like the plague. I have a gravel pathway on one side of my daylily beds. That helps. My dog will bark at anything that comes on the property at any time day and night. That includes 3 am in the morning. This also helps.

I'm not sure what you mean by a "stone walkway". We have a flagstone (set in mortar) main pathway in the "Near 40" (house side of the creek) part of the garden. The deer here have no problems walking on that! They also don't seem to mind the stone staircase on the other side of the bridge, nor the stepping stones on the rustic paths over there in the "Back 40". They also didn't mind the brick walkway and patio behind my sheds (my utility and potting area and incoming daylily area); they all but destroyed the property line hedge back there (and enjoyed side salads of daylilies) until we put up wire fencing. We also have a large stone patio outside our master bedroom and the dining room/media room; they have been up on that patio several times, to eat the potted daylilies and potted Pelargonium flowers.

That is interesting, though, about the gravel...but we're not about to put gravel in here! rant on/ We took OUT obnoxious pea gravel pathways in the side yard when we moved in, and as we installed irrigation and built up raised beds there, stupidly let our contractor talk us into "gravel fines" pathways there, and on some "rustic" stairs at one end of the garden (going down to the creek). I hate the stuff! The fines get tracked into the house unless I am wearing my garden clogs and promptly take them off (and the fines tracked indoors have damaged our wood floor). The dust/dirt gets all over my feet when I wear the garden clogs, the pathways (and rustic steps) turn to mud during the rainy season, and weeds take root in it! Grrrrr. /rant off

No Gravel!

Polymerous... I guess I should have specified the type of gravel I use. This is a granite and marble state. I used a mixture of marble and granite stones, about 2" circumference. It works for me.

I live on a gravel road, and the deer are running up and down the road, all day long. Maybe just some deer don't like it. The ones around here couldn't care less about it!

Yes deer are different in every area. That is why I had to try so many different things to see what my deer did not like. I do think universal they love Hostas. The one plant I love for the shade garden and have so much trouble growing because of the deer problem.

Cinta, we have a fair amount of shade in parts of our garden. While we do not grow Hostas outside my fenced side yard, we do grow calla lilies, ferns, Ligularia, some Azaleas and Camellias (the latter does suffer some browsing) and Loropetalums galore. (That last is really a backbone shrub here; the deer ignore it, as do the gophers.) We also have some Heuchera, Heucherella, Berberis, and Euphorbias.

I know those plants aren't Hostas...but I'm throwing it out there if you need some ideas or options as the deer don't seem to bother any of those (excepting the Camellias).

Once I am satisfied that we have covered all of the deer entry points and they have stopped damage even in the Back 40, I am considering putting some Hosta out in the shadier spots of the garden.

ARoseBlush, I am trying to get my head around 2" diameter gravel. It rather sounds like some stones that we have in a dry creek bed. (That thing is something of an ongoing frustration and disappointment. We had an area where water funneled down from the back hillside during the rainy season, ended up spilling over in a little waterfall into our real creek. When discussing what to do about it, I recalled a Fine Gardening article where the author faced a similar situation, and solved it by creating a beautiful season-ly dry creek bed, full of stones of varying sizes, and bordered by various plants. In execution, while our landscape designer did a marvelous job of laying out the rocks and gravel in the dry creek bed (once I pointed her to the FG article), the contractor rather undermined things by putting in far too good drainage underneath the entire length of the dry creek bed. The end result was that this creek bed is dry even during the rainy season! (I have also had problems getting desirable plants growing there, as there is a lot of shade in that part of the garden. Right now, Euphorbia keeps self sowing into the dry creek bed.))

Here is some deer fencing at a pretty good price!
http://www.homedepot.com/p/7-f...

I live in central Arkansas (Little Rock area) which is zone 7B. I'm on 12 acres surrounded by woods, so I have just about every critter you can imagine roaming my place at night (deer, rabbits, squirrels, armadillos, skunk, coyotes, and new to the "pack" is a black bear). Up until this spring, I've had zero problems with any of them eating the flowers I've worked so hard to grow. Yesterday morning I went out and discovered deer had munched my day lilies down to the ground! I was simply devastated.

I have a large garden that's completely enclosed with fencing, as well as netting above. Last year I planted a butterfly garden outside the enclosure. The wildlife had a field day with that so I purchased some of the Liquid Fence granules. It worked like a charm! I guess I'll try that around what's left of my day lilies, as well as my iris bed. I have a Great Dane and three cats, so I don't think their scent inhibits them, otherwise, they wouldn't have done the damage they've already done.

I realize we've encroached on much of the natural habitat for these animals, so I can't get mad at them for simply doing what comes natural to them, however, I can't just sit back and allow them to destroy what I've worked so hard to create, not to mention the money used to do it. That being said, my husband loves to watch the deer in the back part of the property, so I'm going to enlist his help in planting some deer-friendly grass and making sure he keeps his deer feeders full so they won't have any interest in MY flowers!!!!

Deer are browsers, they eat a bite here, move on eat a bite there, move on etc. So my philosophy is to keep food as far away as possible. Do not put out any type of feed that might attract them to the area. They may come for the food in the deer feeders, but then they will wonder around taking bites out of everything that looks appealing.

Deer got my Yucca, and of course every bud they could reach on my apple trees, as well as every leaf on my strawberries. I have an electric fence that I use, but haven't put it up yet, so they are also eating my daylilies right now. They will also eat columbines and tall phlox, and they especially like daylily buds!

You can use Milorganite, which is short for Milwaukee Organic Nitrogen, and is just dried pelleted sewage, and it does work as a fertilizer, but it sure smells. Anything that stinks will work, but I have to caution you about using some of the expensive deer away stuff that is made from urine, as it can seriously burn plants when used directly on them. Even Avon will work! I will often use Gain fabric softener in my sprayer when it is just a small area, and spray fairly often, especially after a heavy rain. Milorganite is very reliable though and can be found at some Lowes home supply stores.

I don't have a terrible deer problem, but Vicks Vapo Rub works for me. Just put it on a few young scapes, stake in the ground near your plants, backside of name tags, near by fence or post. It's greasy texture last for quite a while, depending on how much rain fall you get. I usually start early in the season, to teach the deer and other critters to go else where.
Any thing that will let the vapo rub soak in helps it last longer. Good luck.

Liquid PlantSkydd has worked great for me, deters rabbits and deer.

Worked well at our place too.