How to Deter Deer from your Vegetable Garden

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We recently asked this question to our 33,000 members on Vegetable Gardening Facebook page. How do you deter deer from destroying the crops in your vegetable garden? Here is a listing of the ideas from members that tackle this issue every gardening season.

Aimee Hall deer netting...works great

Carolynn Smelley When you cut your hair, put the trimmings around the garden, they don't like it.

Organic Gardening Beginner With Ted Begnoche Predator urine used to work pretty well for me, but lately, human hair seems to work just as well. Just need to be consistent with whatever method you choose.

Kathy Hawkins Baldassare Fence

Dilli Gaff pee, dogs on patrol and in the furthest away garden where we have the most trouble, 9 foot fencing..

Erin Burke Edwards We tried all the 'tricks' and had to go to electric fencing.

Morgan Carroll Ross We put up a fence this year, but sadly that still wasn't enough. They jumped it. Definitely putting up something taller next year. I did take left over boiled egg water and put that around my lilies and they didn't bother them this year. Might try that around the garden as well. Only problem there is you have to stay on top of it and do it after it rains.

Robin Gravis Plant some lavender around. I used it around hibiscus and roses last year and they still leave them alone this year--and the lavender is gone. Other pungent herbs also work. Clip the lavender and lay a few sprigs in the plant beds and the deer graze elsewhere.

Christy LaPrairie We have lots of clover that grows in the unmowed parts of our backyard- they would rather eat that, plus our dogs help them keep their distance.

Leslie Vaughn Burckard ‎10' fence..as we have deer antelope and elk

Carole O'Reilly I dont have a problem with deer but I do have a problem with Kangaroos comming in at night so i set up some solar powered light around the garden & so far it has kept them away

Kristina Masci Target practice...hahaha..just kidding. I use deer away product and it works well..added bonus,keeps people away also..smells God awful

Julie Batch I've taught my dogs to keep the deer and fox just out of reach but not chase them , and also to keep the Herons off of our pond

Debbie Beeler ‎2 big dogs! The square foot garden are just past the invisible fence line so the dogs cant get to it .... but the deer dont know that! :)

Ciocia Karolina A large dog.

Ej Kerr i just plant a little more so i can have some too

Raphia Trenkle SULPHUR granuals! BLOODMEAL! Sprinkle lightly in the garden, under evergreens, and acid loving plants like Hydrangeas.. pepper plants and veggie plants love a taste too. It keeps rabbits and deer away. . and they are awesome for your garden. We live near water and nature parks so our area is full of all kinds of wildlife animals, fox, rabbits, wild turkeys, deer, squirrels and the sulphur and bloodmeal keeps them away. I can almost hear them scream "OH GROSS PU .. PU!!" :)

David Lester I hang bars of soap out in the garden , that works for me ....

Helen Bowens Rosemary! I also hung shiny foil ornaments and a dollar store silver garland around certain plants and they didn't touch them this year. I think the appearance of movement disturbs them.

Jacqueline Witz i bought a mannequin & dressed her in flowing clothes & shiny jewelry. i also moved her aroung periodically. an old man driving by came to my door to see if there was anything wrong with the lady in the garden......heeheehee also used the christmas tinsel. the deer went to my neighbor's garden right next to mine.

Linda Oman An eight foot fence. Not making the financial commitment to put up a fence always led to disappointment during the growing season. Start looking in discard piles for fence parts. We love the deer, but we eat them too!

Vicki Davis we share - but nothign in my garden except some beets and onions (maybe the garlic is still hanging in there?) the deer out here can nibble on what I have - we share well!

Kristine Vreugdenhil I plant the hot peppers on the border a week ahead of everything else and try to plant extra so there is enough for everyone!

Louise Holcomb Nivison we have cougars. deer scarce

Linda Younglove deer have been nibbling on our newly planted apple trees (and we live in the chicago suburbs!)--they definitely don't like bird netting, though. when we wrap them in the bird netting, they leave them alone. i read somewhere that they don't like the feel of netting against their nose.

Anna Thompson helpful thread, since we are nearly INFESTED with deer. so far the smelly 'deer-away' spray has helped....some....but we're going to have to go with fencing / netting and ALL of the 'tricks'....and maybe a dog.... to deal with it in years to come.

BuffaLoam A fence and deer netting.

A Seed To Success Shiny things, Things that make noise and things that move work well. Windmills & wind chimes. We also dry and grind every hot pepper we have and spread it around our garden spaces often.

About the Author

Mike Podlesny is the author of Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A Guide to Vegetable Gardening for the rest of us, the moderator for the largest vegetable gardening page on Facebook and creator of the Seeds Club.

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