Maybe. Maybe not. Some repellents work and some don't. Some work for a while, but wear away over time and wash away with rain and irrigation. There are commercial ones you can buy like "Not Tonight, Deer" or you can google and find recipes to make your own. Be aware--they smell awful.

After a long and exhausting battle with the deer here, I can tell you that nothing works permanently except for a fence, and usually a tall fence at that.

We did keep them out of the garden, more or less, for several years with two 3' fences spaced 4' apart. The 4' area in between the two fences was planted with flowers, which they did lean over the fence and eat fairly often. Sometimes a deer or two would jump over both fences and the 'moat' of flowers. Eventually, we replaced the two 3' tall fences with a 7' tall fence. Since then, they have been in the garden only once, and that was because I forgot to close the gate.

When deer got in our garden, they tended to eat okra, hollyhocks, broccoli, hibiscus, malva, cucumber leaves, melon leaves, squash leaves, pumpkins leaves, and then pepper plants (leaves, stems and peppers) and tomato plants (leaves, stems and tomatoes) in that order. Sometimes they grazed other flowers but they never ate the corn, which surprised me. They never bothered onions or garlic, but sometimes nibbled beans and carrots.

The hungrier they are, the more they eat. If they are really hungry, they'll eat your garden down to the ground over a period of time. If they like what they are finding, they'll keep coming back.

They are many ways people try to keep the deer out of their gardens. Some of them work for a while, but nothing except a tall fence works 100% of the time (if the gate is closed).

We have a neighbor who has kept them out of his apple trees and garden for years by playing a radio 24/7 (he's in the country, no close neighbors). That worked until last year when we put up the tall fence. Denied our okra by the fence, the deer began visiting his garden regularly and ate his okra right down to the ground. (It was a drought year here and the deer were hungry.) They had to jump a 3' fence to get into his garden. They didn't bother the apples though....and the radio was sitting in an apple tree.

You have my sympathy. There are deer in our yard every day and sometimes they eat ornamental plants, but the only veggies they're eating any more are the ones that grow through the garden fence.

I second Dawn's recommendation. I've only lived rural now for 3 years, but always had friends "on the outskirts". Deer absolutely LOVE green vegetation. Flowers, veggies, etc. Except for daffodils, haven't found anything they won't eat. My husband is an avid deer-hunter. He's planted okra at his lease in NE Oklahoma to attract them on that 40 acres! They ate the leaves on our sweet potatoes that had grown outside of the netting last year...Which brings me to the netting. It can be found at Lowes or Tractor Supply near the bird netting. A 100 ft role that is 7 ft. high is around $13 and well worth the cost. Zip ties secure it to polls. After the season end, it can easily be rolled up on a poll and stored in the garage for next years' use. We've found it last for about 3 maybe 4 years. One draw back this year, we had a hummingbird get caught and die. My father-in-law has also had a couple of snakes get caught, but they die. And a dead snake is a good snake. (Ugh!) Might be too late for this year...or a head start on next year for you to try. We tried every chemical or "old remedy" and nothing works better than this netting, even on the pocketbook!

Paula

Thanks for the ideas. I've been stuck inside with pneumonia this week and haven't been able to do anything except cough and take medicine.

I've seen the motion-activated sprinklers but not ready to plop down the dollars for those yet. I've had a radio on outside for years. It keeps the racoons out of my garage and trash can but I guess the deer just don't care about that. I'm guessing the light being on may not bother them, either.

I've thought about a waist-high "tripwire" with a cowbell on it. That is simple and almost free...and it doesn't smell bad! What do ya'll think?

Skeetermagnet,

I think they'd either jump over it or crawl under it. We have a barbed wire fence that is five feet tall and they just fly over it in the most effortless manner.

I don't know what size deer you have there, but the ones here can scale 4' and 5' tall fences of all types without missing a beat. I mean, they sail right over them. Larger and taller deer can leap the 6' tall fences. So far, none of them has jumped the 7' fence though, although I think some of them could do it if they tried. If they ever succeed in doing that, we'll raise it to 9'.

Anything that makes a noise might deter them temporarily. So might anything that moves. Eventually, though they figure it out. They are fairly smart animals. Sometimes, they come up to the house and look in our windows to see if we're home before they plunder the flower beds. They also are not afraid of the dogs when the dogs are in the dog yard because they know the dogs can't get out of that yard.

Believe me, we tried everything under the sun to keep them out of our veggie garden, and nothing worked for long except a tall fence. The problem with everything else you do is that it may work with some deer, but not all deer, so you start relaxing and thinking you'd 'fooled' them and they are staying out of the garden, and then one morning you walk outside to find all your 4' to 5' tall plants are now 6" tall. You have to ask yourself if you're willing to take that chance.

For almost a decade we tried everything under the sun to keep them out of the garden except putting up a taller fence. Looking back at all the 'folk remedies' we tried and at all the time and expense and aggravation, not to mention plant damage and crop losses, I wish now we'd just spent the money first to put up a taller fence. Your experiences, of course, may vary.

Dawn

I think I understand why none of my neighbors near my Tahlequah place have flower beds. I had visions of big perennial borders around the house. I guess that's not realistic with deer that visit regularly.

Sally

Dawn,

I wasn't trying to keep it out, just trying to set up something noisy to scare it away. The deer here get big enough to clear any reasonable fence...and by reasonable I mean anything I can afford! ha

I know that the cukes will snap back with enough water and horse manure but what about the okra. Is it pretty much done?

Sally,

It is realistic with fencing or with deer netting. I have oodles of beds and oodles of deer, including a resident herd that lives in our woodland pretty much year-round. I do have to avoid certain plants they really love, though, because they'll do anything to get to those plants......hostas are one example.

They seldom bother the plants in mixed borders around the house or in the back yard which links the detached barn-style garage to the house. It is beds a little further from the house that are an issue because the deer visit them regularly.

Skeetermagnet,

Some noise may deter them, but if they get used to it, it won't. So, somehow you need some sort of noise that varies a lot. We tied surveyor's tape between poles and pulled it fairly tight, and when the wind blew, it made all sorts of humming sounds and that worked for a while.

If you okra has any leaves left, it should rebound. I've even had okra with no leaves rebound after being deer-grazed, but just not as often.

If you have a place to hang a T-shirt or two on a hanger from something like a tree limb, you might try that. Use a dirty T-shirt, preferably one worn while working outside and sweating. The 'human smell' and the movement of a shirt fluttering in the breeze might keep the deer away most of the time.

Dawn

Huh, there's a row of hostas all across the front of the front porch that came with the house. It's had absolutely no care from me other than weeding and mulching. Amazingly, they've survived without any supplemental watering, since we're not there all the time. Maybe the deer have left them alone because they're right up against the house. There's a small, maybe 4' chain link fence around the yard of the house, but certainly not tall enough to discourage deer. There's probably enough for them to eat on the rest of the property, I guess. Which brings me to another idea. I know that feeding deer is not a good idea, but what about planting stuff like okra at the perimeter just for the deer, to keep them out of the garden? Let them eat that instead of your garden. Of course, when they finished that, they'd probably just head for the garden to get more. Oh well.

Sally

Sally,

I'm glad the hostas have survived and think maybe the closeness to the house has helped them. Our hostas survived two years before the hungry deer found them. When they found them, they took out a bed of about 50 in two nights. Every hosta that tried to regrow was promptly eaten back to the ground. That was the end of the hostas, which were about 40 feet from the house.

I have found different deer eat different plants, and in drought years they eat things they normally don't bother.

I haven't had much luck planting other plants solely for the deer. Once they ate what I planted for them, they came closer to the house and the garden (which only had a 3' tall fence then instead of the 7' tall one it has now) to find more yummy stuff to eat.

Our 3' tall fence kept deer out for several years, but once one of them was bold enough to jump it and get into the garden, they all followed.

Dawn