Deer Repellents
Answered by: Inge Poot
Question from: Myriam Fernandez
Posted on: April 4, 2000

Could you please let me know if you have any information on what species in your 2000 catalogue might survive in an area heavily populated by deer (i.e. plants that deer don’t like!!).

I have not heard of a plant that deer specifically don’t like. No doubt that there are herbs that deer won’t browse on, but we do not know if anyone has compiled such a list.

It has been recommended to surround a vegetable garden with a one meter (one yard) wide band of nasturtiums to deter rabbits. I presume it works for deer too, even though you might have to increase the width of the band to one and a half meters to compensate for the greater size of deer.

The book "Organic Plant Protection" from Rodale Press suggests that the beleagered gardener go to the nearest zoo and pick up a truckload of manure from such scary animals as bear, lion, tiger, cougar and hang small cloth bags of this dung scattered all over the garden. This will repel the deer.

Another gardener tried human hair collected from the local barber shop and sprinkled it around the edge of his garden and that did the trick too.

If you can fence the garden it will only work if you make the fence at least two meters (6 feet) tall or have a double fence, the inner one, one and a half meters (4 feet) tall and an outer one, one meter (3 feet) further out and consisting of a single strand of wire placed 75 centimeters (2.5 feet) above the ground. Apparently the deer cannot leap over both barriers and just go elsewhere.

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