The Deer Problem

So I reported on our deer in the garden problem a while ago. They sure do look cute but I lost my love for them when I moved to Virginia and they started jumping unexpectedly in front of my car at night. Then our poor baby beans were nipped to shreds. We discussed the deer problem over dinner the other night. My aunt had some interesting methods of deer repellent that she's tried in the past that I verified are also recommended on E-How.com.

1. Sprinkle human hair (or dog hair) around the garden perimeter - we wouldn't have a problem finding that!



2. Have a male urinate around the garden perimeter - I'm sure Matt would be willing



3. Hang bars of dial soap around the targeted plants (in our case the beans) - sounds easy

She didn't find that those methods worked. Her method of choice is #4:

4. Spray deer repellent - this works well but washes off when it rains and will need to be reapplied. It also smells terrible.

I found some other methods online that were recommended.

5. Scare the deer away by shooting them with a pellet gun, slingshot, or "chasing it with a stick and hitting it hard" - I'm not sure this will work for us...



6. Coyote Pee - where do you even buy that?



7. Powdered milk scattered around - sounds like this would wash away in the rain as well

8. Place empty cola bottles over sticks - the noise will scare them away?

9. Build a fence at least 8 feet tall - too late, our is already built and not that high

10. Feed them - hm...sounds risky

After considering all the options, my mom decided that she was going to build a fortification at the back of the garden where she believes the deer are jumping in. She added some height to the fence and tied gold ribbons around the string.



She also added some protection around the bed of zinnias and lettuce...



Fingers crossed that these extra steps work!