Deer may be beautiful and elegant, but theyaren't always welcome in the garden. Even just a few visiting deer can tear upa landscape, eat an entire crop, destroy a carefully cultivated bed and causeother havoc, such as creating a traffic hazard, damaging bird feeders orleaving behind unwanted "gifts" on sidewalks and pathways. But howcan you keep deer out of your yard and away from your garden and landscape?
Popular Deer Deterrent Techniques
People try all sorts of home-grown methods tokeep deer from destroying their landscape and gardens. Some of the more commontactics include…
- 8 ft. fencing, including wire or electric fences
- Big, loud dogs on guard in the yard
- Deer repellents, like Repellex should be applied once a month
- Predator urine or other anti-deer scents, like Shake-Away (Shake-Away granule packets lasts about 90 days).
- Motion detectors connected to lights or sprinklers
All of these methods work but are limited intheir effectiveness. Fencing is costly and unsightly. Repellents and urineeventually wash away. Sprinklers or lighted areas can be easily avoided. Sowhat can you do to keep deer away permanently?
Deer are creatures of habit and they are easilyscared. Anything you can do to mix up their habits or make them think there isdanger nearby might be enough to make them go elsewhere in search of food. Butdeer aren’t foolish and if they realize the danger isn’t real, they willreturn. Therefore, you must rotate any scare tactics you try and reapply repellentsfrequently. This can be a lot of work to keep your garden safe, but you canmake your garden do the work for you.
Plants Deer Won’t Like
While deer in large herds with insufficient foodwill eat almost any garden vegetation, particularly in harsh winters, you canopt for plants that aren't popular with deer to minimize deer damage. At thesame time, avoid planting favorite deer plants, such as azaleas, rhododendrons,yews, roses, Japanese maples, winged euonymous, hemlocks and arborvitae, aswell as any edible garden produce.
So what can you plant in your landscape todiscourage deer? There are many attractive plants deer will avoid. The followingare rarely damaged by deer.
Trees
- Beech
- Colorado Blue Spruce
- Honey Locust
- Red Cedar
- Red Pine
Shrubs
- Barberry
- Forsythia
- Lilac
- Boxwood
- Junipers
- Bittersweet
Try using these less deer-friendly plants tocreate a dense border around your yard and garden area, and deer will be lessinclined to work their way toward the tastier plants.
There are several other plant choices that areseldom damaged by deer. Stop in to Wedel’s and pick up the complete list ofover 50 “seldom damaged” trees, shrubs and evergreens.
When these plants are included in yourlandscape, combined with other deterrent techniques, it is possible to have astunning landscape without being stunned by deer damage.
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Deer may be beautiful and elegant, but theyaren't always welcome in the garden. Even just a few visiting deer can tear upa landscape, eat an entire crop, destroy a carefully cultivated bed and causeother havoc, such as creating a traffic hazard, damaging bird feeders orleaving behind unwanted "gifts" on sidewalks and pathways. But howcan you keep deer out of your yard and away from your garden and landscape?
Popular Deer Deterrent Techniques
People try all sorts of home-grown methods tokeep deer from destroying their landscape and gardens. Some of the more commontactics include…
- 8 ft. fencing, including wire or electric fences
- Big, loud dogs on guard in the yard
- Deer repellents, like Repellex should be applied once a month
- Predator urine or other anti-deer scents, like Shake-Away (Shake-Away granule packets lasts about 90 days).
- Motion detectors connected to lights or sprinklers
All of these methods work but are limited intheir effectiveness. Fencing is costly and unsightly. Repellents and urineeventually wash away. Sprinklers or lighted areas can be easily avoided. Sowhat can you do to keep deer away permanently?
Deer are creatures of habit and they are easilyscared. Anything you can do to mix up their habits or make them think there isdanger nearby might be enough to make them go elsewhere in search of food. Butdeer aren’t foolish and if they realize the danger isn’t real, they willreturn. Therefore, you must rotate any scare tactics you try and reapply repellentsfrequently. This can be a lot of work to keep your garden safe, but you canmake your garden do the work for you.
Plants Deer Won’t Like
While deer in large herds with insufficient foodwill eat almost any garden vegetation, particularly in harsh winters, you canopt for plants that aren't popular with deer to minimize deer damage. At thesame time, avoid planting favorite deer plants, such as azaleas, rhododendrons,yews, roses, Japanese maples, winged euonymous, hemlocks and arborvitae, aswell as any edible garden produce.
So what can you plant in your landscape todiscourage deer? There are many attractive plants deer will avoid. The followingare rarely damaged by deer.
Trees
- Beech
- Colorado Blue Spruce
- Honey Locust
- Red Cedar
- Red Pine
Shrubs
- Barberry
- Forsythia
- Lilac
- Boxwood
- Junipers
- Bittersweet
Try using these less deer-friendly plants tocreate a dense border around your yard and garden area, and deer will be lessinclined to work their way toward the tastier plants.
There are several other plant choices that areseldom damaged by deer. Stop in to Wedel’s and pick up the complete list ofover 50 “seldom damaged” trees, shrubs and evergreens.
When these plants are included in yourlandscape, combined with other deterrent techniques, it is possible to have astunning landscape without being stunned by deer damage.