Let’s be real, there’s really no such thing as deer resistant flowers or plants. If a deer is hungry or curious enough, they will eat it. Living in the Colorado mountains where deer are plenty, I was on a mission to buy all claimed “deer resistant” flowers to plant in my garden last summer and found out the hard way that they were in fact not. They munched several plants down to the ground like it was a free salad bar, including my Chicken and Hens, Geranium, Echinacea and even some Marigolds, which were all considered to be deer resistant because of the texture and smells that aren’t particularly favorable. It turns out, the deer didn’t seem to mind at all.
I tried making a variety of hot pepper sprays, sprinkling some red pepper flakes around the garden, and placing clumps of hair and debris from the vacuum around to give off scents of human and dog – all recommendations I was given which failed to keep them out. Between the deer munching away at my garden and the damaging hail storms we had last summer, I’m shocked that everything came back this year… all but my Echinacea (RIP).
This year I was determined to fight back, and I finally found something that works. Cue the Liquid Fence! It smells horrific, but luckily humans can only smell it when it’s first sprayed and ripe. It’s a combination of rotten eggs, garlic, onion and other pungent smells that have festered into this magical deer deterrent that actually works. Fingers crossed I don’t jinx myself… but it’s been 3 months, there are daily visitors passing through our yard and my garden is thriving. Just try not to spray it on yourself, you will regret it and make yourself a deterrent from others.
You HAVE to be diligent and consistent about reapplying for it to work. Water dilutes the oils in the spray, so reapplying after a rain is a must if you want to continue to keep the deer away. If you water from the top with a hose, try to avoid spraying where you applied the Liquid Fence, or make sure to reapply every few days. If the leaves stay dry, I would think once every 1-2 weeks would be fine. The bottle says it only needs to be applied once a month, and this may work for you depending on where you live and how many critters frequent your garden. We get groups of deer and elk through our yard all the time, so this is what worked for me!
The other obvious way to keep wildlife out is a physical barrier. If you are going away on vacation and want peace of mind, this is something I would highly recommend you put in place to protect your garden. The spray is a good option if you are home and can stay on top of it, but if you are going to be out of town for multiple days and there is possible rain in the forecast, a temporary barrier isn’t such a bad idea. Or if you don’t want to mess with the spray option at all, you could look into a more permanent fencing solution that would meet your needs.
I just put up a deer fence last week before leaving for a 5-day trip knowing there might be some rain storms in the forecast while I was gone and I didn’t want to take any chances. I used 5 ft stainless steel garden stakes and mesh deer netting that went around the whole perimeter of my garden area. It was inexpensive, easy to install and was delivered right to my door in 2 days with Amazon Prime. The enclosed area measured roughly 19′ x 14′. I set it up by myself in under an hour. It is holding up great and my garden has been untouched!
I plan to leave the fencing up for the remainder of the summer while I still have upcoming trips, and will take it down in the fall and go back to my spray method for the rest of the season and store the fencing in the shed until next spring/summer. I’m not sure that the mesh netting would hold up well over the duration of the long winter and snow. And, I prefer the look without the fence anyway. For me, this is a great temporary solution to keep the deer out while I’m not able to be home to keep up with the spraying maintenance. And so far, this new system is working great!
Materials I Used:
- Liquid Fence
- Garden Stakes
- Deer Netting (I cut to size)
- For raised beds you can also use these hoops instead of the stakes
I hope you found this useful and good luck on your efforts to keep your garden alive and well!
Xoxo,
