I have a garden here in the suburbs of Maine. Live near a slightly wooded area- last year we had unexpected deer that ate our sunflowers, lettuce and some of my peach tree.
Other than a fence- (that would be our last resort) what would be another viable option to prevent them?
Thank you in advance
Jordan, deer are very challenging to deal with if you can’t fence in the area. There have been many discussions here, see e.g.
or all the threads here:
http://growingfruit.org/search?q=deer
I use a combination of motion detector sprinklers and repellent sprays, plus protecting very sensitive plants with barriers. I still lose a lot of stuff.
We messed around with “alternative” approaches for ~5 years and our conclusion was that nothing even comes close to making a difference. And we don’t even have heavy deer pressure! We eventually fenced everything and regretted wasting so many years stressing over our trees getting damaged or killed every year.
Any kind of circular cage works for individual trees. Small chicken wire cages could probably work for individual heads of lettuce. Deer repellent spray could probably work for sunflowers without affecting taste but not for lettuce.
This is best for individual trees:
An 8’ plastic mesh deer fence hung on 3 tensioned monofilament wires (top, middle, bottom) is not really that hard to put up. The downside is mainly aesthetic. The posts are usually just driven in the ground about 18" so they shift over time and look cheap, and the weeds are nuisance near the base.
Thank you everyone.
Hi Jordan, if you look thru this forum you will see plenty of deer rants from me. I have tried everything it seems. I grow fruit trees, and berry plants, and have many veggie plots, and deer have been relentless.
The thing I’ve done to protect my trees is put a 4ft circular welded wire fence around each of them. So far so good. But now some of my trees are over two years old, and are out-growing their cages. So I will be expanding those out, I actually just bought another 100ft long roll of 4ft fence last week.
For my veggie plots, a two perimeter fishing line fence seemed to work two years ago, but didn’t keep them out of our tomato plot last year. It worked in our corn/bean plot and cucumber plot, though. But, I think I came up with a solution for the 'maters, I tried a 4ft tall black weed barrier sheet and had no more incursions. We’ll be trying that again this year.
Hope this helps, and good luck to you, they are infuriating beasts, for sure…
I’m presuming you want to avoid a fence because of the looks and cost. If so, consider an underground dog fence and an outdoor dog. Deer in the suburbs quickly learn the limitations of a dog be it on a run with a lead ore an invisible fence. As long as what you want to protect is inside the fence and the dog has a house inside the fence and is kept outdoors, you will export the problem to your neighbors.
Thank you for the suggestion. I’ll probably do the same thing for my trees. As for the garden, I was thinking of putting a 5 foot fence up with some sort of netting.
And then putting my tomato plants on the inside of the fence with bamboo stakes to use as a double feature; I read deer won’t risk jumping if 2 things are in way (this being fence and then bamboo stakes), and the stakes will also hold up the tomato plants.
Have you tried the egg and baking soda spray? Did it work?
Another question for all of you- if there was one type of berry plant that didn’t attract deer voles or groundhog what have you had success in growing fairly easily?
I’ve used bags of milorganite spread around the perimeter of our garden every month or so to keep deer out. It’s worked for 5 years so far (knock on wood)
That’s an interesting idea. I’ll have to look into it.
Has anyone tried growing garlic on the outside perimeter to kind of urge the deer away in that respect?
They hate lavender, but can you grow it in Maine?
Lavender grows well here in Western Montana, zone 4-5.
Grows well, but you have to plant more every year, right? Or do you have a hardy strain?
Seems to do fine on its own- selfseeds and is a hardy perennial so far. Maybe we don’t have the real thing?
Or? Maybe I need to quit buying at the garden center displays and get some seed or cutting from some known to be hardy?
Last weekend I was visiting down at the South Carolina line…and saw some 15 year old lavender plants that creep over a stone wall…in bloom with honeybees and bumblebees on them. It was 68 degrees there that day. We can’t grow that variety in Kentucky…I wish we could.
OOPS…my mistake. Getting old. I am talking about ROSEMARY and you are talking about LAVENDER.
Sorry!
Ah, rosemary. Occassionally rosemary will survive the winter. I think mine from last year may still be alive so I’ve left it for now, but it’s on a short leash!
Rosemary is more of a warmer climate herb, zones 7-10. Only one varietal of perennial rosemary for 6 or less and that’s Arp Rosemary much more cold hardy.
I’ve tried liquid fence, it is putrified eggs, and it didn’t seem to work.
The only thing that seems to do the trick is some kind of physical deterrent, whether it’s the fishing line, electrical line, or the weed barrier.
The 5ft fence you suggested may work. But the stakes probably won’t do any good, as a deterrent anyway. I have always staked my tomatoes with 4ft tobacco sticks, and all that does is hold up the plants so the deer have better access to them 
.
I don’t know of any particular berry plant they are averse to, if they’re hungry they’ll eat just about any fruit plant or tree. I have all kinds of new berry plants from last year, and other than some strawberries, none of them will be producing this year. But, I have had a bit of damage to some of them anyways, but it may have been rabbit browsing instead of deer.
I’m planting over a dozen rasp and blackberry plants next month, so I will have to come up with some kind of barrier.