Archive for June, 2010

We often greet the saga of wildlife population recovery with applause. Many homeowners have viewed the deer population explosion with mixed emotions. The increased deer population has severely increased the damage to ornamental plants, gardens and commercial crops over the past twenty years. It has directly resulted from the rising deer population, the move of people from cities to rural and suburban homes, landowners deciding not to allow hunting on their property, and restrictions on the use of firearms in suburban areas to mention a few.

This has caused deer to become more comfortable with people and allowing them to boldly graze your shrubs and flowers and some vegetables in your garden. Of course the first method of eliminating the grazing on your valuable shrubs, is the erection of a fence where it is deemed practical without a great deal of hassle from required zoning ordinances. The fence should be of a solid nature and be in the neighborhood of seven to eight feet high. It can also be assembled from a strong wire fence. There is on the market a very inexpensive polypropylene mesh fence. The neat feature of this design is to leave it up permanently or roll it up at the end of the season.

A smaller wire fence can be adopted using a top so your plants or crops are fully enclosed. This style of fencing would be most economical for crops such as asparagus, perennial flowers or broccoli. This is a very practical solution for the smaller garden. There is a real advantage to the mesh fence because of less visibility which may ease the perceived eye sore glance from your neighbors.

A close attention to details of your fence will also ease the use of fencing in your garden. This can be accomplished with proper placing of posts, an easy wide gate to enter your garden and some landscaping along the edge of your fence to add to the beautification of the area. If you do take advantage of the installed top enclosure, best on smaller plots, build a portable section on the fourth side so it can easily be removed by building it in framed sections. There is the alternative of an electrical fence but I am not a real enthusiast of this structure because of the presence of children or pets.

This is not your bag the constructing and building of a fence? Deer repellents are on the market that function as either a taste or odor repellent or both. This type of product is mostly a spray that is applied to shrubs or non-bearing fruit trees. These repellents work at their best if applied on a regular schedule of every four weeks.

There is available on the market an odor based product which can be applied to edible crops. This can be used on your edible plants up until a week before harvest. A gallon of this product mixed with water can cover up to an acre of plants and only costs about forty dollars. It is best to check out your local garden shop to ascertain availability and additional information on application. There is a “hot” taste repellent on the market which can be applied to ornamentals, nut and fruit trees, vines, bushes and bales of hay. This repellent can be applied with a backpack sprayer or trigger sprayer until all parts of the plants are covered. A caution here is this should NEVER be applied to fruit bearing products when there are fruits hanging on the branches. A vegetable crop can be protected prior to visible appearance of an edible product.

These will ideas will give you something to ponder in an effort to eliminate or reduce the relentless attack on your landscape by the deer invasion. I would do some additional research for yourself making it easier to evaluate your own situation in control of deer in the garden.