Our local radio garden guru has written a book about deer resistant plants. But hostas are certainly not one of them. To discourage the deer, he suggests organic, non harmful repellents.

"The best defense against these large rats with horns is to plant around their taste buds. Purchase Deer Resistant Planting for a guide. (Listed with books on this website) You can purchase a convenient repellent called "Deer Scram". You can also spray a weekly solution of fish emulsion on new growth."

Worth a try? Short of a shotgun.

-Babka

What exactly is the problem? Is she trying to plant deer "resistant" plants in her backyard and is looking for suggestions on what is less likely to get eaten? Or does she have plants in her backyard (or wants to get plants) that deer love to eat, and she's trying to discourage them from eating their favorite snacks? Or is she trying to keep deer from walking through her property altogether?

If she's looking for deer-resistant plants, you can easily Google that to find some recommended lists. As you'll find out, most of them will mention that deer will eat just about anything when they're really hungry, so anything we plant is fair game in the deer buffet. However, the ones that they tend to eat last are of course better "bets" than the ones they go for first. Therefore, she could try flowering herbs whose scent deer aren't too fond of, such as salvia/sage, bee balm and others in the mint family, red hot poker plants, Russian sage, and maybe even butterfly bushes and others that are frequented by bees. Several native plants are usually ignored too, such as coreopsis/tickseed, gaillardia/blanket flower, ferns, and toxic ones such as daffodils/narcissus. Areas that are frequented by deer are also usually frequented by rabbits, and just because deer dislike a plant doesn't necessarily mean that rabbits do too. Unfortunately, the bunnies can do just as much damage, and trying to find plants that are both deer *and* rabbit "resistant" makes for an even shorter list.

If she's looking to deter deer from eating deer-favorites such as hosta, then the battle is of course harder since you're pretty much inviting them to your yard by having these bribes in them. If she's able to, she can try a short chicken fence around the planted area to see if that'll discourage the deer at all. My hostas are in the frontyard and I have such a short chicken fence around the main flowerbed, which definitely has kept rabbits out and appears to have discouraged the deer too, possibly because the neighbor's hostas are more easily accessible to them. If the hosta were in the backyard though, I'm not sure this fence would do much. That said, if the problem is annoying enough and she's able to put a taller fence up, that would be the best "bet." Dogs that are frequently let out might help train the deer to stay away from the yard too. Otherwise, the stuff you have to sprinkle or spray on the plants may or may not work, and I've neither had the money nor the time to waste in experimenting with any of them. One product that sounds interesting to me is Repellex (systemic granules) but obviously haven't had a big enough need to try it personally. I have read about all kinds of smelly concoctions that people spray on a weekly basis, but am neither interested in the smell nor in the application frequency of any of them (blood, urine, fish/egg, hot peppers, Irish Spring soap, moth balls, etc. that mostly wash off from rain/watering).

If she wants to keep the deer out of her backyard altogether, she can try some of the same things stated above. But keep in mind that we moved into the deer's property, not the other way around. The fact that we've killed off its natural predator, and don't keep the deer populations lower through hunting either, definitely doesn't help things. More alarming to me personally is that these large herds are eating some native plants in the park/wooded areas down to the ground and almost to extinction. I'd love to see more pressure put on legal hunting, especially since the meat can feed a lot of people. Not to mention that reducing the population would reduce our risk for lyme disease from deer ticks, and maybe prevent accidents from deer crossing the roads (including out on the highways!). Unfortunately, people still seem fascinated enough with deer that they don't want to see "Bambi" killed, even when the lack of "killing" causes so many other problems. I used to be against it back when I thought that pregnant does might get killed through hunting, but found out that hunting season is during that part of the year when they aren't having babies, plus it appears that hunters are told to leave the biggest bucks alone, so it doesn't seem as "mean" to me anymore. A deer contraception "snack" that's distributed throughout the area would help in areas that don't do much hunting, but not sure anyone would want to spend much money on deer birth control. In any event, I'd obviously like to see more done to keep these populations down, but sadly haven't (yet) done anything more about it than writing this "rant" to my fellow gardeners.

Pretty birds, I think that the deer are using her backyard as a bathroom. I don't think the daughter is much of a gardener. Her mother (my friend) used the language "using the backyard". That implies to me that they are relieving themselves back there. No one in THAT family (or any family that I know) is a hunter, so any lethal solution is ruled out.

Ah, gotcha. Well that seems easier to me than having "attractants" planted in the yard to invite them in. In that case, she can definitely try some of the minty plants I listed above and/or using the fertilizer lecorps4fun mentioned. I wasn't familiar with it and had to Google it, finding both good and bad reviews on using it as deer repellent. My opinion is that it probably wouldn't be very effective if it was used to deter deer from eating hostas in most of our gardens, but if used on the grass and any bushes they aren't interested in eating anyway then it just might be very good at keeping deer out of the area, if she's willing to keep reapplying it. Not sure if there are any "sonic" options that look like solar lights and would work. Also not sure if placing dog fur and/or poop around the perimeter of her property might help, but since some people have both indoor dogs that go out to pee/poop and still have deer pooping in their yards too then my guess would be no.

I have a friend who keeps them out of her peony garden by stringing fishing line at about 4' between fence posts. Apparently they are not fond of the fishing line. Your friend could try it. It's a fairly inexpensive experiment if it works, great.

Also, I'm not sure that the term "relieving themselves in her backyard" is very accurate. I would say the more accurate description is probably "her backyard was installed on their bathroom".

My friend said that deer are trotting down the middle streets of this suburb, coming into yards, etc., heedless of people, cars, etc. This is not a raw new suburb but a very old one, well established. Therefore, the deer must be leaving another place to try their luck in this suburb. Weird.

Esther, it is because those "raw new" suburbs are being built on what was rural land or forest that the deer are returning to older suburbs. Infill development further destroys their greenways.

As to keeping them away, I read recently that aromatic plants will deter them somewhat, so next year I plan to plant mint in pots on the deck where we have sun and move the pots among the hosta in the evenings. I hope it works!

http://www.gardenweb.com/gardenweb/query/deer/topic=hosta

Esther, you may have to deal with deer yet! Yonkers is becoming overrun and I'm sure they are headed down to the Bronx as well. Two of the a$$holes stripped my baby cherry tree of leaves early in the season and again just two days ago. Anyway, is a fence an option for your friend?

Fencing, fencing, fencing. Peeler poles with deer netting stapled to them don't cost that much and eliminate the problem completely, as long as the netting is kept in place. And only the poles are particularly visible. Which shouldn't matter.

Biondanonima, I don't know the physical setup of the yard, haven't been there. Only going by the description of the mother of the houseowner, who is my friend. I have passed along all the wonderful suggestions posted so far.

We have lots of deer in our suburb but we keep them out by spraying deer repellent. We alternate different sprays so that they don't get used to one and begin to eat our hostas and daylillies. I don't know where the idea that the fertilizer Milorganite discourages them, it doesn't. Deer are completely oblivious to the stuff. We have 100 or so hostas and 200 daylilies and we use Milorganite for a fertilizer. We spray at least once a week often twice a week when the daylilies are getting buds and the hostas are coming up. We continue to spray into late fall to protect other plants in our yard.