I have tried spraying home made egg solution. Seems to work, too. The tulips I planted last fall are intact, and my hosts did not turn into deer salad. Another thing I have done is to sprinkle dried pepper powered at strategic spots so as to make it unappealing to deer. The new buds from lilies got pepper treatment. So far, so good.

I tried that, along with Hing powder (OMG does that stink). Unfortunately, that stuff washed off in the rain and here in MD, we just finished 19 days straight, then straggling days of rain. I would be doomed.

I am swearing by my Deer Stopper.

Human or dog hair. Cat urine (litter box). They all work. I use that around my garden and haven't had any deer, rabbit or groundhog problems since.

As I mentioned....

Just an update. Deer Stop continues to stop deer.
To augment that, I've gotten a year-round hunting license.

I'm impressed... I find that the things that seem to work for a lot of people, don't work if the deer pressure is high enough (also things that were deer-resistant, aren't anymore). But I'm in the MD burbs too. If they're not eating your hostas that's pretty amazing.

A friend says she hangs little sacs of "Milorganite" on her prized plants in the garden. The nasty smell of the fertilizer keeps the deer away.

Your deer pressure and what is successful will depend on how much other food the deer have and how many are in your area. When they get desperate enough deer will eat the plants treated with sprays. I've been gardening here for 16 years now the deer damage was minimal when we moved in. It has gotten so bad in the last few that we finally put deer fence up around the backyard and have been moving everything they eat into that area. I used every spray, hanging repellent, spent a heap of money on milorganite and spread it like crazy all the time. Late in the summer, the deer ate everything anyway. I have one bed out front that still has hosta in it as well as some yellow fairybells, the last 2 years they've eaten them to the ground each time a leaf has peeked out in the spring. This year I set up a water cannon and so far so good. If deer are hungry enough they eat things that people say they don't eat, yellow bushes, woodland poppies even lenten roses. I've still got plants to move to the back, it's a long process as the area we fenced was flat out woods and for the last 2 years we've been cleaning that out of bittersweet, dog rose and scrub trees to make it usable. My old fashioned hydrangea don't stand a chance they eat them to the ground every single year, the blue hollies planted right against the front porch are twigs and I don't think they will recover this time. I feel for the deer not having anywhere to go, but gardening with them around is expensive and frustrating!

Yes, we all know if they're hungry enough they'll eat everything and anything. That said, I live in a rural area where there's plenty of other stuff to munch on.

And, once again this spring, my Deer Stop seems to be working.

I'm experimenting this year with their Plot Saver product. Essentially, it's a woven tape dunked in Deer Stop that you put around your plots at 30" high. I might have to resoak the tape every month or so, but that's a small price to pay if it stops the deer. I got some 48" tall stakes from Amazon and will establish this shortly. I also plan to run some VHS tape at the top of the stakes, just to have something that changes with the light. Some claim this is all they need, but I'm not going to give up something that's worked for several years now.

In the meanwhile, my hosta, heucheara, Japanese Maples, and other tasty treats are coming along fine. Now slugs? They're another matter at the moment.

Oh I'm rural too, 5 acres and woods. No one around here has less than 4 acres and most are also wooded. I tried everything for years and finally told my husband that it was costing more to replace plants and use repellents then it would to deer fence the backyard.

I'm in VA in a rural area and use Liquid Fence for the past couple of years with high success. It stinks like the devil's butthole when you first apply it, but when it dries you can't smell it.

We've even had deer walk up to the planters on our front porch to eat! One advantage about living in a rural area versus the 'burbs is that we always hear gunfire somewhere off in the distance (or even close), so I think the deer mostly stay away from people's property. You can't shoot deer in the suburbs, so they are more skittish out here (IMO).

I started with single-wire baited electric fences last year, and I'm amazed how well they're working. In this picture, the rudbeckia fulgida were planted in 2011, and the deer had always eaten them before there was anything to see. Only trace was some small leaves near the ground. With the fence protecting them starting in March of this year, I have some real plants. This is in Maryland suburb of Washington D.C.