Deer can cause substantial damage in your garden, costing you hundreds of dollars and lots of time and frustration.How many times have you walked outside in the early Spring to see all of the tops eaten off of your tulips or had your arborvitaes eaten down to the trunk?There are four main ways to keep deer damage to a minimum (and you may have to use all four to be truly effective!): ·Scare the Deer ·Use Repellents ·Plant Deer Resistant Plants ·Put Up a Physical Barrier
Scare the Deer:
To truly scare the deer a combination of motion and noise is most effective.Dogs can be particularly effective in helping with this if you have one.If not, there are products that you can buy that make noise and or move (click here to see some), but most deer seem to get used to their predictability. We sell the Yard Guard ultrasonic noise maker that can repel a number of different animals.
The Yard Guard
We sell a variety of repellents to help keep deer away.
Use Repellents: Another way is to help save your plants is to make your existing plants unpleasant for the deer to eat.Some people hang soap up around their property as they claim that deer do not like the smell of soap. (I tried Ivory around my vegetable garden last year- other people swear by Irish Spring). Other people swear by dryer sheets. The only problem is that they have to be replaced frequently after rain because they lose their smell. With either one you need to space them about 3 feet apart to be effective. If you don't have a great place to hang soap or dryer sheets (or don't want to look at soap hanging all over your yard) we sell a variety of repellents to help keep deer away.Very popular with our customers (which they find the most effective) are Liquid Fence and Deer Scram.Liquid fence comes in a trigger bottle that you can spray on your plants.It is very effective when reapplied often (especially after rainfall).Deer Scram is a granular that you sprinkle all around your yard and garden beds.It doesn't have to be reapplied quite as often and is a popular product to put down in the Fall to help prevent Winter damage.We also sell I Must Garden deer repellant (in both a liquid and a granular).Some people like this brand because it doesn't have an offensive odor like the previous two products.Blood Meal is also an effective repellant that we sell (a natural Espoma product). With any of the products it is always good to mix it up and "layer" them for extra protection.
Plant Deer Resistant Plants: There are a number of deer resistant plants that work well in the Capital District.That said, they are just that- deer RESISTANT!!This does not guarantee that a deer will not eat them.If a deer is hungry enough, it will eat ANYTHING!On the tags of our plants (trees, shrubs, and perennials) you will find a deer head crossed out if the plant is deer resistant. Here is a partial list of plants that we carry that are deer resistant: Perennials: Astilbe, Bleeding Heart, Catmint, Colombine, Coneflower, Coreopsis, Dianthus, False Indigo, Geranium, Grasses, Hibiscus, Iris, Joe Pye Weed, Lambs Ear, Phlox (creeping), Russian Sage, Salvia, Snow-In-Summer, Veronica Shrubs:Barberry, Boxwood, Butterfly Bush, Cypress, Dogwood, Forsythia, Holly, Hydrangea (esp Oakleaf), Juniper, Lilac, Potentilla, Privet, Spirea, Spruce, Viburnum, Weigela, Willow Trees:Maple, Locust (Honey), Oak, Dogwood, Magnolia, Mugho Pine, Plum
Put up a Physical Barrier: This can mean anything from wrapping your plants with burlap or deer netting during the winter to putting up a fence around your entire property! For some people deer damage is a year round problem and for others it is mostly winter damage. For those with year round problems a permanent fence is probably the best solution. Deer netting can be attached to poles or trees around the perimeter of the property and should be 8 feet high. Some of it is almost invisible from a distance and is not as much of an eyesore as you might think. For protection during the wither months small areas can be fenced in with netting or bushes can be wrapped in netting or burlap. Click here for info on how to wrap your bushes with burlap.
