There are things you can do to defend your garden from these hungry, four-legged intruders.
Nibbled day lilies, stomped-out azaleas, a bitten-off plantain lily — gardeners know the signs of a visit from a deer. They can spell disaster for backyard plants. But there are things you can do to defend your garden from these hungry, four-legged intruders.
Here are the four best ways to keep deer out of your yard and away from your garden:
Deer-resistant plants
Deer tend to avoid plants with strong odors, fuzzy foliage, bitter tastes or prickly thorns. Deer-resistant plants include herbs, echinacea, lantana, rudbeckia, yarrow, juniper, boxwoods and yucca plants.
That being said, deer will eat nearly anything if they are hungry enough. If you want to keep these herbivores out of your garden, there are other measures you will need to take.
Deer-repelling products
Deer repellent may be necessary if you get frequent visits. The key to getting results is consistency. While you will only need to spray repellent on your non-deer-resistant plants, you will need to re-spray once per week, or as often as necessary to see results.
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Most repellents keep deer from eating your plants by providing odor and taste deterrents and are made up of putrefied eggs, dried blood, garlic and soaps.
Scare tactics
Scarecrows, wind chimes, motion-activated sprinklers — don't be afraid to employ the occasional scare tactic. Deer are often scared away by things they do not recognize, so anything with an unusual shape or that makes an unusual sound is perfect for warding them away.
Motion-activated sprinklers can harmlessly spray toward any motion they pick up, sending deer skittering away from your flowers.
Fencing
No one wants to fence up a garden. But if all else fails, a fence may be necessary to ward off deer. A garden deer fence needs to be tall, as deer can leap over 8-foot fences easily. If that sounds less than ideal, there are other methods.
Deer do not like to walk over uneven, large rocks. Creating a perimeter of rocks can guard your garden from deer just as well as most fences. Deer also do not like to jump over something if they cannot see to the other side, so opaque walls can be shorter than see-through deer fences. You can also create two separate perimeters of short fences to make the deer feel that leaping into your garden would leave them trapped.
How to protect your garden before and after severe storms
Here's what gardeners can do in face of storms
An uprooted tree caused severe damage to a Garden City, N.Y., home during Tropical Storm Isaias in August 2020.
As we celebrate blooming roses, ripening tomatoes and the pollinator frenzy in our backyards, we gardeners also should be aware of the downsides of summer: thunderstorms, tropical storms and hurricanes.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting an "above-normal 2022 Atlantic hurricane season," and even as tornado season winds down, some threat remains year-round in parts of the country.
So what's a gardener to do? After ensuring that people, homes and other structures are safe, our thoughts naturally turn to our beds and borders. We've poured our blood, sweat, tears and money into them, so protecting our investment — and the joy it brings — matters.
Before the storm
A bucket held in place with a brick over a small blooming phlox plant is a simple but effective method of protecting delicate flowers during summer storms.
When storms are predicted, close patio umbrellas and store garden furniture indoors, if possible. Examine trees for cracked or broken branches and remove them before they're torn by strong winds and sent flying. If those trees are large, hire a certified arborist to inspect them; the cost is nothing compared to the damage they could cause if they were to break or topple.
In warmer climes, palm trees are well-adapted to high-wind conditions, so there's no need to prune them, but remove coconuts and store them safely indoors.
If your soil is moist — either naturally or from recent rain — apply 3 inches of mulch over beds and borders. That will offer protection against the soaking effects of a deluge, which could uproot trees, especially shallow-rooted ones like white pine, birch, willow and tulip poplar, among others.
Stake any newly planted trees to support them, and bring hanging baskets and planters into the home, shed or garage. If that's not possible, line them up against the house or another protected spot.
Protect the flowers of small blooming plants by covering them with buckets or cloches topped with something heavy, like a brick, to hold them in place. Wrap larger plants with burlap secured with twine. Orchids, bromeliads, succulents, air plants and other tree-dwelling plants can be tied into place with fishing line.
Check that all vining plants are secured to their supports, and that the supports are firmly staked into the ground. If they don't feel secure, remove the supports and lay them – and the plants – on the ground until the threat passes.
Lay row cover fabric over tender, young seedlings and pin it into place with landscape pegs.
After the storm
This May 2022 photo shows a professional tree crew in Glen Head, N.Y., safely removing and disposing of tree branches, as should be done in the wake of damaging storms.
Once the storm has passed, clear away fallen fruit and vegetables, which could attract rodents if left to rot on the ground, and remove protection from around plants.
Inspect trees for damage. If you can safely remove hanging, broken branches while standing on the ground, do so. But avoid pruning anything higher than your head or climbing a ladder to prune. Those jobs are best left to a professional -- and that doesn't mean a guy who shows up at your door with a chainsaw, who is unlikely to know what he's doing and could be a scammer.
The International Society of Arborists maintains a list of certified arborists on its website at https://www.treesaregood.org/findanarborist; start your search there.
If a small tree has been toppled or uprooted, straighten and stake it as soon as possible, tamping the soil firmly as you replant it. Insert stakes into the ground around the trunk, attach twine, rope or cord to the stakes, and fasten them to the tree. Apply 3 inches of mulch or straw over the soil, keeping it 3 to 4 inches away from trunks, and water the tree regularly for the remainder of the growing season. This will help re-establish the root system.
Wind sway helps trees develop strong trunks and roots, so don't keep the tree staked for longer than six months to a year.
Salt spray can desiccate, or dehydrate, trees and shrubs near the coasts, and they might not show symptoms until the following year. Apply mulch around trees to retain soil moisture, and water deeply and repeatedly to flush out salts.
Refrain from pruning evergreens or removing dry tips until after new growth appears the following spring.
If high tides encroach upon your property, salt will likely form a crust on the soil's surface, leading to dehydration. Most plants won't survive such devastation, but the soil can be restored: Water deeply, then spread gypsum over the soil. It will react with the salt to form sodium sulfate, which will wash through the ground with repeated waterings. Continue watering deeply for the rest of the year.
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Jessica Damiano writes regularly about gardening for The Associated Press. A master gardener and educator, she writes The Weekly Dirt newsletter and creates an annual Gardening Calendar of daily gardening tips. Send her a note at jessica@jessicadamiano.com and find her at jessicadamiano.com and on Instagram @JesDamiano.
