You have my condolences. The deer an I seem to have an arrangement...they don't touch my really good stuff I grow close to the house,and I ignore the occasional nibble along the edges of the yard. Of course I have 2 dogs...so that may have something to do with it. ( of course the dogs would be more afraid of the deer then the deer of the dogs LOL but I ain't telling them that....)

From my experience, the path they travel must be changed. The only way I've done that successfully, is with winter fencing and spraying every 3-4 weeks in the other 3 seasons. I sprayed in December and believe the browsing damage was reduced, but we also had 36-40" of snow on the ground for weeks, so maybe that factor retarded the browsing. The most effective spray I have used is made by a woman-owned company named I Must Garden ~~ imustgarden.com ~~ Their deer repellent is not offensive to MY nose, but the deer dislike it. (disclaimer - I have no affiliation with this company - just found it on the net a few years ago.)

Jane

I've been looking at pictures of scat...droppings... and it is hard to tell the difference between rabbit and deer. Up close and personal are there definitive distinctions? Once it is really green I know rabbit pellets are very green and grassy. Deer not so much, I believe

My sympathies, Marie. We have plenty of deer, but there is also hunting pressure, lots of woods, and much else both native and planted for them to eat (there have 4 been hanging out this week in the alfalfa part of our big field) so that they don't often come into the gardens. When we are out of town for a week or more, there is sometimes minor deer damage, and one year we had a doe who must have birthed a fawn within 50 feet of DH's shop. She was hanging out in the gardens around the shop and seemed to like toad lilies and rhodies. When we were outside, she wouldn't leave - just grunted at us - which is why we decided that there must be a fawn somewhere nearby - but after 10 days she disappeared and didn't come back. I wasn't sad to see her go. At the time I mixed a deer deterrent with Wiltpruf so that I wouldn't have to respray vulnerable plants and it seemed to keep her from doing more damage.

My in-laws live across town on a slightly more densely populated road (though still not suburban) and have a holly hedge that was denuded winter before last. While the hollies recovered fairly well last summer, they didn't want a repeat, and it is a large enough hedge that it would have bankrupt me to spray the whole thing. Instead I hung bags of Irish Spring soap that my MIL had bought, and put in 6+' stakes in a zig-zag pattern and strung them with the heaviest weight transparent fishing line I could find (perhaps 50 lbs. test?) in something of a loose web 3' to 5' deep and 3 or 4 strands high, as high as I could reach. I had read that since they can't see it readily (especially in the dawn/dusk when they are most active) but run into it, they don't jump it since they are unsure of a clear landing. Other than the stakes, it wasn't hugely visible though it was shiny in the sun, so that might be a cheap alternative to try. There was absolutely no damage to the hedge this winter, and now that it is greening up elsewhere I took it down, but I think in your yard (based on photos) you could probably leave it up year round and just have a gate.

Rabbit pellets are a bit smaller and rounder than deer pellets which are a bit more bullet-shaped. Here's a page on animal scat that has a side-by side photo of both.

Yes, definitely a large pile of deer scat. It would have to be a deer sized rabbit for a digestive system large enough to handle the amount of raw food indicated by the pile, if you get my drift (pile)

I looked closely at a yew on the hillside and it has been browsed. I feel rather helpless, though I know help is available. Thanks, Barb. As I'm struggling to downsize my huge perennial bed I don't want any new challenges to think about!

Marie

We have deer (we see them on the trailcam fairly often). They never bother my yews, rhododendrons, hostas, etc. for some reason. We plant winter rye in the vegetable gardens as a cover crop and they browse that (when it's not covered in 6' of snow). Last year and this spring too they have eaten the English ivy leaves off the chimney as high as they can reach. Looks rather strange, but they don't eat the vines so the leaves grow back.

Susan

I had yews at my previous house, and the deer denuded it completely most winters, and then kept eating it back sporadically in the summer. I am not sure why the yews didn't die, but they always looked seriously ugly. It seems to be a favorite for the deer here, so I didn't put any in this garden.

Yews are favorite deer food. As I'm walking around I see all the yews have been clipped back, the tips are on the ground and deer hoof prints are evident.

I'll look up the spray you mentioned, corunum. I've read that plantskydd is fairly effective. Now I have to check that my neighbor isn't feeding them.

Hi I had great success in keeping them out of my pole beans last year by tying onion bags with Irish Spring soap in them- check on the web under deer irish spring amaxing what people say and I know it is crazy but it works

"Neighbor feeding them". I want to make a comment but I won't. Deer have ticks with Lyme disease and other illnesses.

We have so many deer where I live. I haven't heard the coyotes in at least a year so they have no predators and their habitat keeps being chopped down for houses. This is the fist time I can remember seeing so many rows of bottomless mature arborvitae in so many yards.

terri