Yeah, those pesky "hooved rats" love to eat tulips! If you want some deer-proof bulbs, next fall you could plant daffodils, and the deer won't touch those.

Not sure what they like in the herb/veggie department, though. I hope some others will chime in on that.

Steve

I'm sorry about your tulips.

I've seen quite a few deer around lately looking for new spring growth I assume. Day before yesterday there were five of them (two little does) staring at us nonchalantly while grazing from a big weed patch where water accumulates on our property. My dog keeps them away except at night we keep her in so they have full rein.

This year I'll have a gate so we'll see if they jump over the five foot fence. I know they can jump five feet easily but I have raised beds, pots and such up against the fence which they might not want to try to clear over. We'll see.

They didn't touch my herbs last year nor my peppers, pumpkins, squash or eggplants. But tomato plants, chard, lettuce, and spinach had nibbles but not destroyed.

They LOVED the strawberry plants and ate them down to nothing and then came back regularly to get the new growth. They were so rude about it too, trampling in and on top of the raised beds smashing the nasturtiums and other flowers planted around the perimeter of the strawberry patch. I've got bird netting over the strawberries this year and a frost blanket weighted down with rocks on my spinach right now.

I planted a new butterfly garden with xeriscape and plants that were on the "deer-proof" list from High Country Gardens and they haven't touched any of that but I see their hoove prints so I know they've been checking it out.

It's an adventure! Good luck!

Charlene

Hi Highalt,

When I lived down in Parker, I was lucky and didnÂt have to deal with deerÂit was an unwooded area. Did have foxes, skunks, and rattlesnakes, though! (My dog always found the skunks! When we were first building down there, there were HUGE herds of antelope roaming around. One time I had to stop on Arapahoe road (2 lanes at the time!) to let them finish crossing. It was such fun to watch them bounding aroundÂalmost as if they didnÂt weigh anything at all!

Anyway, Steve beat me to it, but I was going to recommend daffodils/narcissus too. TheyÂre one of the best deer resistant spring bulbs there is. On my list IÂm also showing Snowflakes (Leucojum), and on a couple other lists I found Squill/Bluebells (Scilla), and Fritillaria, so you might try those too for spring flowers. I LOVE Fritillaria imperialisÂhave to splurge this fall and get at least one of them.

What IÂm really posting for is because with spring again, lots of people in the RMG area are going to be having problems with deer and wondering what itÂs safe to plant, so I have a couple deer resistant plant links IÂm going to post. But, hereÂs the disclaimer that comes with any deer resistant list!

NO PLANT IS DEER PROOF! Plants left alone by most deer may be chosen by a few with differing tastes. In some cases young plants may be eaten while mature plants of the same species will be left untouched. Plants deer ignore in spring may be eaten later in summer as easy food sources dwindle. A sufficiently hungry deer will find almost any plant palatable.

So check out the lists and have at it! And remember, the lists are only recommendations! Trying a variety of the listed plants in your own yard is the only effective way to determine which will be the most useful in your area.

The first link is to a site susanka posted on another thread recently. ItÂs one of the most comprehensive IÂve seen.

http://www.pinery.org/gardendeer.htm

And the other two are just ones I found that looked pretty good that I had saved!

http://www.deerxlandscape.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_main.html?p_catid=9

http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/az1237.pdf

Hope these help those of you that have critters eating your things!

Good luck,
Skybird

Thanks for the links Skybird. Most of what is in my perennial beds are on those lists.

Charlene, thanks for the heads up on the strawberries. I am trying to germinate some strawberry seeds in my kitchen windowsill. I WAS going to put the pots on the front porch, next to where the tulips are... or rather were, LOL! Now I'm thinking the pots will go on the patio in the backyard, behind the 6' privacy fence. Until the lots around us have houses on them, I don't think they will come in the backyard. It's too easy to go around at this point ... I could be wrong though.

My lettuce and spinach have already sprouted, along with several herbs, so I'm hoping to get started on the veggie patch this weekend, if the weather cooperates. I'm also planning to grow peppers and those 'Jack B. Little' pumpkins, though I haven't sown those yet, and I have seeds for a 2" Strawberry popcorn and Charentais canteloupe, though I'm not sure if I have enough space for those or not. I just hope the deer leave some veggies for us!

We are 1/4 mile from a creek and this has been a very bad year for deer. I estimate we usually feed about 3T of our hay to the deer but I'm sure it was much more this winter.

About 10 years ago my elderly neighbor was dismayed to find the deer had eaten her tulips just outside her side porch. I had been using a product called "Hinder" with good success on my apple trees and offered to spray her tulips with it. The deer didn't bother her tulips again. We sprayed a couple more times that spring.

I'm seeing very large numbers of deer crossing through our property about midnight each night, and droppings by the house where we've never seen them before. I'm definitely going to mail order some Hinder again and hope it works as well as it did when out apple trees were small. We sprayed often and early in the season to change their habits and it seemed to work. I just retired this year and have been busy planning to plant many new garden areas, both vegetables and flowers. I may have to garden with a rifle at my side! LOL (Just kidding, but it's tempting! I'd rather feed the hay and product to my livestock than the deer.)

They must be out like crazy right now with all the budding of trees, plants. Had 4 in my front yard yesterday, one right by the window and we looked at each other for quite awhile. Someone even drove into my drive to take pics.

While they were here I watched what they were eating. Mostly the cherry tree blossoms, but the one by my window was eating the old winter yarrow twigs. This is supposed to be a deer proof plant.

And Deer Candy....dumb me planted two red maples in the front last spring and had to move them into the backyard. The day they were planted in front I had a dozen deer at them....deer lollypops.

I love watching these guys, but it is getting dangerous for them and drivers. There are herds all over with no clue regarding traffic.

I finally put up a deer fence, everywhere except the swamp below my pond. They will wade through the cat-tail swamp, crawl under a barbed-wire fence in the middle of it, then crawl under the huge pile of branches and other garden waste I throw there, up the bank, and then up to chew on the tulips. Amazing things.

An effective, cheap spray that works is: whisk up an egg or two, along with a teaspoon of chicken bouillon, in a qt of water. Strain into a gallon sprayer, fill with water, and spray the tulip foliage, the cherry blossoms, and the new sprouts on the fruit trees. This will keep them away. Needs to be reapplied every week or so, but its cheap. If you don't strain it, it clogs the sprayer.

We live in deer country and we have tried EVERYTHING!
They've eaten everything, even the little ponderosas and junipers we planted for a windbreak.

Now the DOW recommends a fence of hogwire 8'tall with 2 strands of barbed wire at the top - pretty eh? We built one on the north side of the house for the vegetable garden. Or a solid fence at least 6' tall that they can't see through. They won't jump where they can't see. We built one of those on the west side.

What worked like a charm for us were heat and motion sensors that we wired to rainbirds. We programmed them to turn on for 4 seconds and then turn off. It works because as the deer come into range it turns on and they stop. When it turns off they start to head towards their lunch again but when it turns on again they take off. Perfect! This was the only thing that worked. I spent sooo much money on repellents and plants.... Aaaaaargh!

There is something commercial that I have seen in catalogs that looks like a colorful bird that I think works the same way.

I used to chase the deer out of my backyard -- I would burst out the back door and run at top speed with them to the back fence as they would jump over (it was a little livestock fence). But then I read in the paper (after the tiger attack on Sigfried and Roy) that the most dangerous animal in zoos is deer! They said more zoo staff were killed by bucks than any other animal. I was surprised. But they said bucks will turn around a gore a human if they feel threatened.

So, not being able to see in the dark whether any were bucks, I decided I'd just keep it on the safe side and throw snowballs at them from my back deck! Then, the following year, I decided to just try to live in peace with them and ignore them. It's like that old saying: "I feel much better since I gave up hope!" :-)

Well, lucky me, with more houses being built around our neighborhood, they have stopped coming in my backyard (the worst part was their eating the pretty laurel shrubs back there).

They still venture into my front yard once in a while, but it hasn't been bad. I have more tulips out front this year, though, and I'll be watching to see what happens when the flowers open.

Steve

I have lots of deer and I have a big yard so spraying weekly isn't practical. The deer proof plant lists aren't worthless but they aren't fool proof either. I think deer taste buds change block by block and year to year. But after 10 years, I have learned a few tricks.

First, when I buy a new plant, I buy a few pots and check out the deer factor by placing them around the yard. I check after a few days to see if the deer have touched them. If so, I don't buy anymore. If not, I will buy more plants and put them in the garden.

Second, if I know the deer love the plant but have to have the plant anyway, I collect dog poop and place it around the plant. A little dog poop can cut down dramatically on the deer munching. Note: Don't put the dog poop in the veggie garden.

Finally, I don't have much problem with the deer in the veggie garden. I stopped growing peas since they loved them but other then an occasional bite of tomatoe, they seem to think the flowers are much tastier. Of course, I also had to stop growing pumpkins because the bears loved them. And they never ate a whole pumpkin - they just took a bite out of each one. But we can leave bear stories for another message string.

Nancy

I would agree with Skybird. No plant is deer-proof. They munch on whatever they feel like munching on. Last year they even ate my lily of the valley and yarrow.

Like Stevation, I have tried to make peace with this fact and reason that deer (and bunnies) have to eat, too.

I do put deer netting over my gourmet stuff (columbine and cranesbill) in early spring so things actually have a shot at growing before they are chomped.

I used PlantSkydd out of desperation last year (and documented my experience here) which is highly effective if you have the stomach for it.

The worst destruction, however, was when the cattle that range freely in the summer strolled through. They pulled plants roots and all out of the ground and stepped on others. I had to re-build my whole garden after that.

In a previous house we lived a couple of ranches away from a private zoo. We collected mountain lion dung and put it all around our apple orchard, veggies, flowers, etc; didn't even make the deer slow down, far as we could tell. So I'm not too sure dog poop will work in all cases.

I donÂt know if anyoneÂs interested in going to this much trouble or not, but hereÂs something that really DOES work!

My brother, in Illinois, lives on 25 acres with woods on part of it and corn planted on much of the rest of it, and itÂs a deer magnet. He has a HUGE veggie garden every year that would be absolutely inundated with deer (and rabbits) if it werenÂt for his "fence."

He puts in metal fence posts around the perimeter of the veggie area and strings two single strands of wire around them (on insulators). One is about 4 to 5" above the ground for the rabbits, and the other is 4½ to 5' above the ground for the deer. ItÂs hooked up to low voltage electricity, just like electric fences are used to fence in cattle in the midwest. The deer come up to it to check it out, and after touching it a couple times with their noses, they donÂt come back! To the best of my knowledge , heÂs never had a deer in the veggies after he got the fence installed and turned on in spring. And the low wire does the same thing for the rabbits. I think he leaves the posts in all year, but he takes the wire down in fall to make it easier to till and prepare for the following year. But itÂs still easy for humans to get in and out, because all you have to do is step over the low wire and duck under the high wire.

Clearly this isnÂt a practical idea for a whole yard, but for a veggie garden, or maybe even an orchard type area, it really works!

Headin back outside to get some stuff done before our "winter" weather moves into the Denver area!

Skybird

Dog droppings don't appear to work on Utah deer. We have a herd of at least 30 deer that come through about midnight each night. Our dogs aren't out all night, but their droppings are, sad to say, abundant. The dogs chase them off whenever they are let out at night. F&W was out a few weeks ago at my request. He said what works for his garden is to use a hot wire setup, but to use tape, not wire, and to rub it liberally with peanut butter when you set it up. He said they can't resist tasting it - once. He also suggested using 16' long horse panels cut in half - the ones with the large openings - & set vertically to make an 8' high fence to protect our haystacks from deer and elk. He said the panels with the smaller openings were being torn down and they couldn't figure out why until they saw fawns & elk calves sticking their heads through the panels with smaller openings and tearing down the panels trying to get back out. Extreme and not aesthetically pleasing to the eye for a garden, but you never know . . .

Good news! The deer didn't get ALL of my tulips. Thought I'd share a picture of the ones that survived.

Deer devoured my tomatoes, anaheim chili peppers, lima beans last year. Didn't touch the lettuce lol. They also love my petunias, flax, potentilla, butterfly bush, chives.

I had pretty good success planting a living fence around the garden last year using plants deer dont like to eat or walk thru. I used gourds on trellis, pumpkins, zuccinni, squash and giant sunflowers. Only problem was they figured out there was a "gate" after our monster hailstorm trashed the garden - pumpkins and squash didn't recover as quickly as everything else. Once the discovered the "gate" couldnt keep them out.

This year I am also planting tons of garlic in my flowerbeds to deter them from eating so much of the flowers. We'll see how it works.

Now that we have chatted about deer...a thread on bears should probably be started. An article in the paper (CS Gazette) yesterday shared that our black bear are waking up and that this year they are more wide awake than the norm. With 2 dogs, the deer and bear are kept out of my yard. Well, sort of, bear like to hop the fence in the middle of night and dogs get their chance to bark at me to go get the problem taken care of.

Deer ate my garlic. Early in the spring, when it was the only thing green.

Deer ate my sorrel to the ground, the night after I remarked that I needed to harvest it for a batch of soup. They also ate the first rhubarb leaves, but have left the rhubarb alone since then (I hope it gave a few of them BAD indegestion).

One of the herd that came through last weekend had healed scars down it's right flank, three paralell lines. Coyotes wouldn't have tried to take down a large, healthy doe, and the claw marks were really too far apart for most coyotes, so I have to assume this one survived a cougar attack. Of course, that still doesn't mean I have to let her feast on my garden!

Catherine, northern New Mexico mountains (7 inches of snow today!)

Good thing I took that picture when I did, since they came back for another snack on my beautiful tulips!

Highalt, if you want to try some ideas from folks struggling with deer in other parts of the country thereÂs a thread in the Plants for Difficult Places forum (didn't even know such a forum existed).

Oh, and the answer to the question, which plants are reliably deer-resistant - - none. But, these folks have varying experiences with different plants and there are some links that may be of some help.

When I lived with deer, my solution was a feisty little stockdog. She couldn't catch them because her legs were too short but she sure tried.

DigitS

Here is a link that might be useful: plants - reliably deer-resistant

try some firearms with motion detection and heat sensors preferably automatic weapons and explosives. that should keep the deer at bay for a little while.

DEER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 30+ pepper plants completely gone, roots and all! Now I'm making 8 ft. fencing posts from bamboo growing in the backyard + bird netting to see if that helps. Also I have a godawful smell mixture that I created from mixing several ingredients I read about on this forum to repel deer. I don't want that awful stuff directly on the plants, so I will probably spray it on the bird netting. Bird netting is the right type to get, right? I should be buying it within the next few days. Walmart was sold out. DEER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I feel your pain.

I got some real 'knee slapper' deer stories too. Ah, .... were to start... Spend an entire day planting Soil Conservancy Scots Pines, 200 of 'em, carefully watered in, and this in April in typical April Colorado weather, meaning it was sleet and wind, went to bed exhausted, then the next day... every one of them eaten off to a nub.

Or, fruit trees and antler rubs. Killed maybe 15 trees here with that one.

Put up a fence. The difference it makes is astounding. I still get them, but no where near the problems of before.

This year the deer have been destroying my tomatoes. They eat every green tomato they can find. I have managed to get only 6 ripe tomatoes and it is mid August. I have now started bringing in green ones to ripen in the house before the deer get them all. I have a rabbit fence that keeps those critters out, but this year the deer are jumping it. I had a thought today. Thinking about putting a salt block a few yards from the garden. Hopefully, they will be content with the salt and get so thirsty, they will have to go search for water. Has anyone tried a salt block?

Ted in Central Indiana

Ted, my wife likes to salt her tomatoes.

Just sayin'

If your plot isn't too big, and you have something to hook it onto, you might try stringing up some huge mess of 80 lb fishing line all around it, at all heights. Temporary, but they don't like the feel of that.