My last house was also on a deer path. It sucks. I tried using deer netting but they found their way underneath and over the top, and looked ugly as well. Finally I installed 6' barbed wire fencing around the entire garden, leaving the front yard and pathway to the porch unfenced. Six feet is not supposed to be tall enough, but apparently our northwest deer are lazy. The deer still walked into the unfenced front yard and nibbled plants within four feet of the front door. Good luck.

Ask around locally how bad the deer are. There is a big difference between starving deer and deer that are politely interested in your goodies. Politely interested deer can be discouraged by a lot of anti-deer strategies. Starving deer require an 8 ft fence.

A high fence is the only way to permanently stop them. The deer repellents do work but have to be applied religiously after watering or rain. They're expensive and time consuming.

Mad gallica - you put it so well. I am lucky, and our deer are only politely interested (I always say they have had dinner, and are nibbling for desert). They only take new, tender shoots, and rose buds. Still annoying, of course. I plant small baby roses in cages until they are big enough so that the deer won't eat or uproot the entire bush. I spray any basil shoots I am interested in keeping, as they seem to go straight for those.

Jackie

There is a deer repellent out there that does not need constant reapplication. Deer Repellent Packs use a deer's keen sense of smell and instinctive fear of predators to keep them away from your flowers. These can be used stand alone, but work well when utilizing fencing and other deterrents. You can check them out at http://www.DeerRepellentPacks.com

I use Liquid Fence made from rotten eggs.My deer aren't afraid of predators. I was applying deer repellant made from mountain lion urine and the deer came over to check it out.

There is an entire website devoted to deer problems called deer-departed.com
Milorganite has been shown to repel deer. I picked up a big sack for $6.99 on sale at Blain's Farm and Fleet.
http://www.deer-departed.com/milorganite.html
There are also recommended roses
http://www.deer-departed.com/rarely-damaged-roses.html

Here is a link that might be useful: deer-departed

I am too so thankfull to Milorganite for finally that nasty deer left my property alone. And my roses grow like crazy after I feed them these miracle grey granules.

The only solution that actually worked for me was 8 foot fencing around the entire perimeter. And if anyone tells you "Oh, just plant Rugosas - deer don't eat those!", I assure you that is not the answer; deer like the new growth on Rugosas just as much as any other rose.

Milorganite didn't work for me and my deer will maliciously eat anything. Topping agapanthas and eating tomatoe plants.

If milorganite doesn't work, then only a gun will help you.

after trying for 6 yr with everything known to man...we built an 11' fence.

Liquid fence seems to be working. I've tried Milorganite, blood meal, mountain lion piss and other predator urines, my own concoction of chili peppers in oil, deer netting.
Deer netting also works, but the best rose growing area is my front yard and netting is unattractive. The chili oil worked but constantly spraying one hundred bushes is more than what I wanted to deal with. My solution, fewer roses better care.

We're having the worst March since 1888 and woods and gardens are covered in ice so the deer cannot find any food. Hunters feed them in the woods. We have deer coming in every evening (my husband saw one about 2 minutes ago) but I stopped them staying overnight by spreading blood meal on their lies. I found 4 or 5 lies in the garden, behind shrubs. Fencing is out of the question, the neighbours would complain. My only hope is our local fox but foxes can only take newborn kids and they won't be here for several months. We had a wolf some months ago but it was only passing through, unfortunately.

I do not live in the country but in a village with 6000 inhabitants. Perhaps it would be called a town in the US? We are surrounded by streets with heavy traffic and nearly ran over a buck and a doe only three nights ago. I am beyond worrying about the roses, I just don't want to have an accident with the car. We have herds of deer.

Deer are smart and have a good memory. That being said, I use a good pellit gun and shoot them in the back end where it is VERY tender. Also a motion detector lite that only picks up large movement at night allerts me they are around. A couple of nasty stings and they learn to stay away. They'll roam around at the bottom and top of the hill I live on the side of. They don't come anywhere near my house. Deer do jump high. I've watched them go airborn with their feet going a million mile per hour after a quick "pop". One deer going like that will take an entire herd with him (or her) as they head for the woods.

Around where I live, that would get you arrested.Maybe there is an exception for farmers, but otherwise it would be considered cruelty to animals. I've considered motion activated sprinklers, but from what I've heard, the deer adapt quickly.

You need to shoot them in the hunting season, not all year around.

I use to throw golf balls at them. Now my old arm has lost its zip.

Shooting them with a BB gun works best for me. My gun is weak and the BB's just bounce off their tough hide. But they don't like it and do stay away if I'm lucky enough to hit one.