Dealing with deer

By Shauna Dobbie

they are wild animals. And they will do the easiest thing necessary to feed themselves. I learned this the hard way.

Many years ago, I had my first up-close-and-personal encounter with deer. I was in Nara, Japan, a city where deer are traditionally considered sacred. These are sika deer, smaller than our white-tail deer, and quite accustomed to humans in Nara. There is a park where they roam free and there are vendors who sell deer crackers you can buy to feed them. The deer watch for people to go to the vendors and then they attack the purchaser to get the food. It turns out that deer bite. And they butt you with their heads. The encounter was not positive.

I do still find them beautiful and graceful, but I don’t think deer are meant to be hand-fed by people. And I understand why people don’t appreciate deer feasting on their hostas and hydrangeas.

Fencing

The one sure-fire way to prevent deer from getting at your garden is to completely surround it by a fence that is 10 feet high. But you aren’t allowed to build a 10-foot-high

fence anywhere that is residential. The height varies slightly, depending on where you live, with back-yard fences allowed at six feet in cities.

You can build a fence to the maximum height that isn’t see-through, though. Deer are very cautious about jumping over something when they can’t see what’s on the other side. You’ll need to make sure there is room for air to get through depending on the material the fence is made of.

You can also build an outside fence and an inside fence four feet apart. These don’t need to be more than five feet high, which is good because double the fencing is double the money. It is an option, though, if you have space.

Alternatively, you can build a cage around your most important plants for a vegetable garden; this won’t help you for ornamental plants though.

Sprays

Several repellent sprays are effective against deer. Bobbex is a favourite amongst our staff at Canada’s Local Gardener, and there are a few others as well. The problem with sprays is that you need to spray them again after a couple of weeks. And the effective and long-lasting sprays cannot be used on plants you will eat.

There are recipes online for home-made deterrents involving hot pepper oil, garlic and eggs. Some of them smell awful and all need to be reapplied frequently. Other solutions are to scatter grated bar-soap (Irish Spring is a favourite), or to use human pee. All of these may work for some, but none of them work for everyone or forever.

Motion-sensing sprayers like ScareCrow do a good job at first and you can enjoy watching deer scamper away when they’ve been scared by a blast of water. You will need to move these devices frequently, though, because deer are smart and will learn how to approach a garden without triggering them. Also, they won’t do much good in winter.

Other sensors emit a high-pitched sound, out of the hearing range of people and within the hearing range of deer. Those may work if you don’t have the same deer all the time; if you do, they will keep trying to get to the good stuff they’ve had before and will eventually become accustomed to the sound. One sound-maker is best left to remote areas, like a field with no houses close by; it emits a huge spark and a loud bang.

Some will turn on bright lights or flashing lights or will shine two red lights to look like a predator’s eyes. Again, these will need to be moved every couple of days so deer don’t get used to them.

While scare tactics may work, you have to ask yourself, is it okay to scare the pants off deer to keep them out of your yard? If you answer no, keep looking for a solution.

Caryopteris.

Lily-of-the-valley.

Lady’s mantle.

Canadian wild ginger.

Feverfew.

Bleeding Heart.

Geranium cransesbill.

Forget-me-nots.

Deer-resistant plants

There are several plants deer find distasteful, though there are few that none of them will eat. They tend to dislike plants that are hairy, spiny or heavily scented, yet there are gardeners whose prickly roses aren’t safe.

Plant more of the distasteful plants, particularly toward the perimeter of your garden, and you’ll have more luck. Carolyn Singer, who wrote the definitive guide on the subject called Deer in My Garden, has found that there are few plants that deer will always pass up. Here they are:

Aegopodium podagraria (goutweed)

Alchemilla mollis (lady's mantle)

Asarum caudatum (wild ginger)

Campanula poscharskyana (Serbian bellflower)

Campanula species (bellflower)

Caryopteris clandonensis (blue mist)

Cerastium tomentosum (snow-in-summer)

Convallaria majalis (lily-of-the-valley) (most of the time!)

Dicentra species (bleeding heart)

Geranium x cantabrigiense (hardy geranium)

Helleborus species (hellebore)

Lamiastrum galeobdolen (golden archangel)

Lamium maculatum Leucanthemum x superbum (Shasta daisies)

Myosotis (forget-me-not) Origanum vulgare ‘Aureum’ (golden oregano)

Phlox subulata (creeping phlox)

Potentilla canadensis (creeping cinquefoil)

Rosmarinus (rosemary)

Salvia officinalis (common sage)

Tanacetum parthenium (feverfew)

Thymus species (thyme) - green-leafed varieties only in partial shade

Veronica peduncularis ‘Georgia Blue’

Veronica 'Waterperry'

Viola (violets...but only those with small leaves!)