Pam, welcome to Mo. I hope you will like it here. I can't tell you what the favorite foods of deer are, but if it were me, I would not recommend feeding them the cracked corn unless you want to encourage them to hang around. Then they may cause all sorts of damage. I live on 20 acres, the house is in the middle of 12 acres of timber. I don't have a problem with the deer bothering my stuff, mainly because my dogs run loose, and this helps keep them away from the house. Of course, this also helps to mess up my yearly deer hunting, but that is another story.
Again welcome to the Ozarks!
Tammy

The resident deer snack on my daylilies every year . This is the first year they have snipped the tops of iris !
I cage many of my plants to protect them , both shrubs and perennials .
I hope your move works out well . I am originally from Idaho . Have been here since 1977 .

Hi Pam - Looks like from the map below, all the deer are at Peggy's house eating HER flowers (in southern Arkansas). : ( Do you have a lot of trouble down there Peggy?
I thought it was odd that it shows deer are rare in NE Arkansas and the MO bootheel. I wonder why that is.
I don't think you should feed them. That might attract more and they should be able to find plenty of food on their own.
It seems like in some areas that are heavily populated by deer they'll eat almost anything. I see people in other forums recommend "deer proof" plants and there's always someone to say "they eat that too". We're still in the under 15 per square mile catagory here in SW MO so maybe you won't have a big problem. Hope not. They are increasing every year.
I think hellebores are supposed to be "deer proof" and they are good shade/drought plants too. I don't know about iris or daylilies.
Hope you like living in the Ozarks Pam.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1121180}}

Wow Christie....15 deer per acre???? I guess that means with 5 acres I'll have 75 deer....maybe more than I bargained for! Don't think I'll be wanting to feed them then. I thought maybe I'd see one or two from time to time. I have a feeling I'll be running them out of my gardens or you will see me posting asking what the latest and greatest repellants are.

Thanks all for the info. Looking forward to the move. Only 21 more days to go and so far it's looking good that a hurricane isn't going to run me out of Florida. Gotta go for now...more boxes to pack.

Pam

Don't panic Pam - I wrote per square MILE not acre. lol Sorry for the scare.
Did you have any deer where you lived before? That map isn't very clear but it looks like there are just as many down there along the coast as there are here.

Go to your local barber and ask for all of his human hair--the greasier the better. Then cut up an old pair of pantyhose and put a clump of hair and some shavings of Dial soap in a square of hose, tie it up and hang it from your plants. For wider coverage, you can just scatter hair and soap shavings over a bed. It's the only way I can grow strawberries.

Pam hope to be able to see you after you get here. Deer like anything they can get to when it is dry enough and it is dry here. This is the first year I have had to battle them. Put out some hay and they do like it better than the flowers now. Judy