Have any good suggestions for ways to keep white-tailed deer out of my garden? They seem to think the commercial deer repellent I bought from my local garden center is just a zesty salad dressing.
Have male members of the household pee around the perimeter.
Also, deer don’t like strong fragrances. I have interplanted a lot of herbs in my garden. They’re ones I use regularly so I get the benefit of pest and critter deterrent with being able to harvest and dry my own herbs, and therefore, know what’s in them, like all the food I process and store myself.
“white-tailed deer out of my garden”
Just the first thought in my head, but maybe some mustard greens might help. Mustard greens grow readily in Florida and if cooked are quite edible.
If you have a fenced yard, some dogs might be borrowed from a neighbor going on vacation.
There is motion activated sprinkler head that is being sold.
I live next to a woods. The deer correctly believe that this housing development stole their land, so they walk up and down the sidewalks and deck stairs, munching.
I’ve had them pull entire plants out of the ground, and also those flimsy green wire garden fences — they pull them out with their teeth. And they leave distinctive pyramids of poop pellets in the yard. On the plus side, in winter when it snows, you can clearly see tracks of where they’ve been the night before.
Best thing to do is resign yourself to a constant and ongoing battle. If you are trying to grow produce in the ground, you will need fencing, and sometimes double fencing — one fence a few feet outside the other one in case they leap the first one. Then you will have the issue of trapped or impaled deer. Just sayin’.
As for ornamentals, work with your county extension and local nurseries to find those few plants they won’t eat. I’ve spent thousands over the years replacing items.
My short list of what they love to eat:
Arbor vitae
Tomatoes
Hostas
Liriope
Zinnias
Any type of lily
Sunfowers
Tulips
English holly
Impatiens
Geraniums
Azaleas
Hydrangeas
Crysanthemums, if desperate
I’ve had better luck with marigolds, garlic, junipers, Japanese hollies, maples, forsythia, itea, ornamental tall grass (some, but not all), catnip, catmint, clematis, daffodils, phlox, lavender., sage, oregano, and bugleweed—they have survived.
Another smell-repellent thing that works but needs constant replacing is that they dislike the strong perfumey smell of fabric softener, so you can cut dryer sheets in strips and tie them all around the edges of fences. I can’t, because HOA; but maybe you can. Some people have luck with grating Irish Spring bar soap around or even on some of the foliage, but of course that needs replacing frequently. I have had some success with sprinkling coffed grounds on the azaleas.
Very interested in the responses that you will get. Dear have eaten all of my Porch Chaka that was on a border of raised planters and surprisingly a good portion of the marigolds
I do have a quantity of crack corn that I bought for the squirrels to keep them away from my birdfeeders. But the squirrels are still in the big birdfeeders. So I’m thinking of putting it out in a large container for them periodically so they have an alternate meal selection, but I don’t even know if they eat cracked corn.