I know...and if they're hungry, nothing is off limits.

You probably need to do some hunting and thin them out ;)

Have you tried using Milorganite as a deterrent? I find it usually very effective. First sign of munching, I just throw a few handsful in that area.

We've had a similar experience here and the fall is crazy for deer. They start to herd up and eat everything. Last year they even head-butted through our (admittedly wimpy) fencing. This year we built a proper fence.

Milorganite is a great tip. Seems too easy to be true but definitely worth trying, thank you!

karin, I've read lots of yays and nays about effectiveness of Milorganite as a deer deterrent. I lived for 25 years with them and had good luck. But there they had an almost limitless food source. Because of typography fences were nonexistent. Now have them at new home but haven't observed damage except to some peppers. They ate my jalapenos! Once. Then I dosed with Milorganite.

I'd love it to work for everyone, but know it doesn't. It's such a great fertilizer, the only one I use. Will not burn plants. Doesn't have to be watered in. Low NPP.

This is the first year deer have eaten my okra and... wait for it... tomatoes. I've never seen that before. We had no rain from June 15 till the end of July and there was not much to eat outside the garden. I have not had deer in the perennial flower beds, probably because those are so close to the house.

If you have room, there is a deer fence style that works. Granted this takes a lot of room.

For a vegetable garden, place a fence around it that is about 5' tall. Then place a square of fencing around that one about 3' - 4' away and 4' tall. Leave the corners open. (A square within a square so to speak).

Deer can jump over the outer fence but have no running room to leap over the inner. They can escape at the corners.

I understand that there are deer resisting vines to grow on the fences but maybe someone else can tell us what they are.

well, moistbutwelldrained, the deer sleep against my house to keep warm and dry, so they have no fear of being close to the house. They also came to the front door pots one year and ate all the impatiens, that scared me as the doors are glass. I purchased this new stuff, called Deer Out Repellant. It is supposed to be guaranteed. We will see. I have had luck with Liquid Fence, but it does not last long.

LindaW, our situations sound similar. I heard footsteps on our back deck and got all alarmed thinking it was a prowler and it was the damn deer!

They have also come inside our greenhouse and helped themselves to fresh lettuce, and the fawns crawled through our low tunnel hoophouse and trashed everything in there, which was a huge pepper crop ready for harvest.

We are just loving our fence now! But that's just for veggies. The rest of the garden will have to fend for itself. We'll see if that can work in the long haul.

I use Liquid Fence and it's pretty good. A few days ago I tied some garlic cloves around some roses, we'll see if that works or not

You may have other critters eating plants that the deer normally avoid. My bee balm was being eaten and then I saw a woodchuck in the garden.

Deer definitely eat my young tomato plants if I grow them in the open.

Liquid fence has worked well for me as long as I am vigilant with spraying. This spring the deer started eating plants right after a rain though so I guess they wise up to all our strategies eventually!

I have had a problem with suburban deer eating hosta to the ground, tomatoes, phlox, blueberries, and all the branches off of my young dwarf apple trees for a few years. The neighbors always enjoyed seeing them in my yard!

This year I started alternating spraying Plantskydd and sprinkling asafetida powder, plus got some good fencing around the trees. I made sure to get some actually on the chain link fence that surrounds the yard. Have to reapply after rain. Although the deer are still in the neighborhood -- too many, really -- I've seen them in the yard of the house behind me -- I've seen no evidence that they've been in mine for a good 2 months now. I hope this combo keeps working!

raee, I want to know more about the asafetida powder. Know it's used in foods. How did you come to use it in the garden as a deterrent and how do you use it. Lots of people will love you to death for this info.

Thanks, Rosie

Not unusual if you are in an area where the drought is particularly bad and they are having trouble finding something to eat. If you don't want to hurt them, I would provide corn or other deer feed in a place far away from your landscape and gardens, or spray with Plantskydd, the smell of which will trigger the flight reflex, encouraging them to go elsewhere. And yes...a rifle can be a good deterrent if you are allowed to hunt in your area, though I'm suspecting that is not the case. We have encroached widely on the deer's habitat, which means they are learning to cohabit with us. Unfortunately, there is not always enough to feed them. You also might want to find out what your neighbors are using to deter them, which may be part of the reason they are dining at your house :) I hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plantskydd

I wonder if "Surround" works against deer. Anyone try it?

I plant defensively. I embed tasty plants amongst salvias, and thorny things, briars and cactus. I have a 6.5' fence around my vegetable garden. I do not use the pungent unguents because of the size of my garden. My husband has a gun. He is my favorite predator. I just saw a mountain lion paw print in the mud 50' from my house. The deer are scarce right now. I guess he is distributing free sent for me.

I have found that deer will change their taste. I think a new individual in the tribe found that my Sedum palmeri was quite the thing and has taught the rest of the herd about it. It had a 8 year run before it was an entrée on the menu. It is still there but I never see it hang over the edge of the rock wall and bloom in February. It stays clipped to the ground. I think I will move some to a large pot on the porch.

This past couple of weeks I have seen eaten for the first time our toad lilies and even clematis. There is no reason for this as everything is quite lush right now,,,no shortage of food as far as I can tell.

Maybe they are just bored of the same old thing, or it is a young one trying to reinvent the diet..

Wantonamara, I find the thorny things their favorites here - they love roses and blackberry.

They never bothered hydrangea at my former house just 6 minutes away. Here, they would occasionally take a bite or two of the three large mature hydrangeas, nothing too damaging. Last weekend I moved the two 5x5' plants on each side of the front entry, cottage look deciduous shrubs just didn't make sense to me there. I dragged them on a tarp about 75' and replanted them under and with camellias and cherries - the deer have been seriously feeding on them just like they'd never seen hydrangeas before. I put on shoes and went out in my robe this morning and had a serious talk with a doe and her fawn, shoulders into the already insulted, dug up and moved hydrangeas and she did finally go next door. I'll get some deer repellent on them today when I've never had to spray them.