My Garden: A Local Eatery For Deer

It was 10 on a quiet Sunday morning and I stood on my front porch looking out across my flower beds. Suddenly it appeared as if a projectile had been launched from the hydrangea bushes on the left side of the porch. But the projectile turned out to have four legs and landed on the driveway. Oh dear, another deer having brunch in my garden. How inconsiderate of me to have disturbed her. I compounded my lack of sensitivity to the deer's needs and feelings by waving my arms and calling out in a cross voice. This caused the deer to walk, not run, across the back yard and into the side street. By the time I reached the roadside, and certainly before my heart stopped racing from the fright she gave me, she was calmly munching on the hydrangeas in my neighbor's garden.

Sadly there are more deer than flowers in my garden now. I had no daylily blooms at all this past summer due to the buds being eaten except for those on the common orange ditch lily plants which the deer disdain.

My days have become a series of deer sighting episodes all strung together. Kind passers-by ring my doorbell with solicitous statements such as, "Did you know there are 14 deer eating your front garden?," after which I fly out of the door like a banshee and chase them off before falling once more into an ever deepening depression.

Deer Repellant?

I use DEER OFF, DEER VIC, DEER FORTRESSES, LIQUID FENCE, MORGANITE; my own concoctions containing beaten raw eggs, netting, noise, lights, hair, a car parked up close to budding plants to make them difficult to reach and on and on…Nothing works for long, and I feel helpless and bereft of flowers despite being right in town on the intersection of two very busy streets. This is NOT about co-existence, it is about gardens that are completely over run by animals that create serious health and traffic hazards. Has anyone found a solution for repelling deer from their gardens over which they have worked endless hours to beautify?