About The River

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Oh Dear! Deer in the Garden!!

Oh Dear, Deer in the Garden!
Yes, we have deer that visit the community garden. Yes, deer are beautiful animals. Yes, deer can destroy your garden in an evening! Beans, beet tops, pumpkins, squash, and this list goes on.

Here is what we use to help keep the deer away.
This is a stinky spray and I am happy to report it works.
It also can cause a problem... continue reading

Yes, we have deer in the garden. So far they have not eaten anything. We just find their tracks along the gardens edge.
 Our trick of keeping the deer out of our garden has been Marv's Deer Solution or as my husband calls it, Marv's Deer Juice. He also drew the fun deer on the jug. Our boys just laugh and laugh when they look at dad's art work. :-)
If you have deer trouble in your yard or garden, try the following recipe. It has worked well for us.
Marv's Deer Solution
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 TBSP dish detergent
1 TBSP cooking oil
Add everything (except dish soap) whip on high in blender. Let settle, add dish soap, put into a gallon jug, fill remaining with water. Let solution sit in the sun to get stinky.
Spray plants and watch the deer walk past.
You must spray again after a rain and the plants are dry.
 
 

 


My son Atticus is my gardening partner. He likes his produce. He does not like deer eating his produce. He likes to spray the stink spray on HEAVY. I do not blame him, after all the work that goes into gardening, you do not want your harvest eaten by a deer.
 
A lesson learned, if you spray the stink spray on too thick and the sun is out, a burn will appear on your produce. We had this happen to beans, peppers and pumpkins.
 
Atticus still likes to spray a lot of spray! He no longer sprays the plant. We spray the ground around the plant. 
Lesson  Learned!

Have a great weekend!
 

13 comments:

  1. Good to know about spraying the ground not the plant. We have so many deer in our neighborhood that go feasting at night. I do think they are beautiful but destructive to the garden. I will have to make up some of this brew!

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  2. I love that your son gardens with you!! Memories in the making...for both of you! :)

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  3. Aha! The ground around the plant. I must pass this recipe along to my son!

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  4. Wow, this is great! It is not a strong chemical that will kill nature or grass and the deer are not harmed. PERFECT!

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  5. That's good! Because of the deer, we have an eight foot fence around the garden, but the deer eat the roses, apple tree, apricot tree, Hostas, and all of my potted cutting.Thank you. I will keep the recipe.

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  6. Now you think about it - it makes sense to spray the ground. Good tip!

    You have a good weekend too.

    All the best Jan

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  7. Very timely post for me. We had a lot of deer here and now I know how to humanely keep them away from our plants!

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  8. I have this recipe bookmarked! We have been really lucky so far with deer, but I know they are close.

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  9. Thank you for the recipe - I'm guessing we may have visitors sooner or later! I love how your son is your gardening guy - too cute!

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  10. Carla, I can see why you would want to keep the deer from eating the produce in your garden, but to see deer in my back yard would be a dream come true. You see, I believe the deer is a very special animal, and the times that I've seen them at the park, I just stopped, looked, and was in awe for a long time. :)

    How nice that your son is your helper in the garden. I can't wait to see your pumpkins this Fall.

    ~Sheri

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    Replies
    1. I wonder if it would remove skunk spray from my hunting dogs. Wait maybe it smells worse...:)

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  11. Having a dog pee around the plants keeps the deer away. One of our neighbours puts sheep's wool on his fence to keep them off his lovely produce.

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  12. Good advice, Carla. I'm not a gardener, but I will pass it along! Have a great day.

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High Fives from Wisconsin!