Welcome to the club...sorry you had to join. Deer netting has worked so far for the plants I want to keep. Otherwise, buy a digital camera and take as many pics as things grow and progress until bambi finds them. At least you'll have memories...

So sorry this happened to you, Susan. Hope you have the heart to keep going and find a solution to the deer problem.

Waking up and finding the plants gone is an awful feelng. My zinnias and hollyhocks were just sacrificed to the gardening gods.

Get even! Marinated on the grill they are fabulous!...I am sorry you had to go through that. I too have been there. It stinks. It is very hard to get over. This year I was so pissed when they ate a lot of my tulips and plants down to the ground in the spring.. April 10th was the last meal they had here. I made a homemade spray and used it on all my plants.. it has worked so far (knock wood). We have no fence, and a 'deer run' right through our yard, there are three of them that come through. We also have groundhogs and rabbits that come into the yard. I swear by this stuff. As I write this, I want to go out and spray it again now...just the thought of what they did to your garden makes me upset. If you like I can tell you what I use..I have no idea how or why it works, but it hasn't damaged any of my plants, a few of my leaves may have a few spots..but I dont think it is the spray..since it is just my phlox. I just won't use it on edibles. (eggs, garlic, red pepper and water) I told my neighbor that gardens about what I use, and she no longer has her garden touched either, and she has the groundhogs at her house daily too. (no deer, her yard is fenced..it is easier for them to get to mine)

I have some trumpet lilies that I have had for 8 years, I have never seen them flower, they always eat them in bud. This year..so far....they are about to open they have never gotten this close to flowering before..I think the spray may have something to do with it. I wish I had thought of it years ago. I used to have a beautiful rose (40 different Hybrid Teas and Floridbundas) and lavendar hedge leading around a small 'garden room' and lining a path to my patio. It was filled with roses and buds one morning when I went to work.. all day I dreamed about getting home to enjoy a beautiful June day out back... When I got home, I was sick to my stomach, they ate EVERY last rose and some of the bushes...I was devastated! To this day, I need to redo the hedge, but I haven't been able to yet. There are only 3 or 4 roses left..the lavendar is still fine..I added some daylilies in some of the spaces of the roses..they (the roses) just kept getting eaten and eventually died. I hate that they eat my plants..I never thought of a gun, but I was soooo maaad that I really wanted to wait for them and punch them in their snouts, I mean really, I did. I was that upset. My neighbor used to bow hunt, and he asked permission to bring back his 'catch' through our yard (it borders the wooded area). In exchange, he gave us some 'chops'. They were delicious! I usually don't like venison.. I guess they tasted so good because they ate all my lovely garden treasures.

I hope you do continue to garden, it's in our blood, you know. I hope you find a solution that allows you more freedom and some peace.

Thanks everyone. Joey, how do you spray your mixture without clogging up the sprayer? I tried your mixture once and had that problem.

Last night I sprayed my entire yard (many acres and $22 worth) with a product called Deer Solution, given to me by a landscaper who swears by it. It's made of food stuff, like cloves, salt, cinnamon, etc. My yard smelled like Adams at Christmas time. The deer left the garden alone. Not a bite taken. This stuff is supposed to last through rain, but it does say to reapply to new growth. Heck, that's everyday around here!

I also sprayed with very concentrated Hinder, which might have added to the fact that the deer wouldn't eat anything. I hope the rain holds off till they have found another route.

Meanwhile, I am no longer gardening outside my fenced-in area. All the deer food will be behind the fencing. I can't stand the heartbreak! We have no dogs or cats because of allergies. The deer know this, and drop their fawns here every year. Why not! Come to Susan's buffet! No more.

I use a very fine sieve to strain it through before I put it in the sprayer..In fact, I just got in from spraying now, since I watered my garden well this evening.

I have to admit, your Christmastime scent sounds much nicer!

You have to try Liquid Fence. I got it at Lor Jon's, they also have it at Adam's, and some other good shops. I live on the Wallkill River, in the village, and the deer are so brazen. There was a family of four. Four fauns and a momma, actually, and one faun disappeared in the fall. I saw my casa blanca lillies bloom, my sedum, my everything. It was a victorious year. This spring, ... three new baby fauns...have appeared in the village (there are some fertile critters in this neck of the woods)... still, everything is fine. I did see a groundhog yesterday. He was eating my grass. That was fine with me. I hadn't mowed in ages. The only problem I had was once when I forgot to spray (I only do it after long periods of heavy rain or once every two weeks if dry) I came out to find chewed asters and something that liked my coreopsis. I think a bunny, or groundhog. Lat week, I actually saw the momma deer chomping in my neighbor's yard, and she refused to move when I waed my arms and shouted. I walked to my shed to get the spray, sprayed it on a few flowers of mine, and saw that deer shoot out like it was being chased by a fox. Ha ha ha...I thought. But then again, I grew up eating venison.

I second the Liquid Fence, last year they ate my hostas, asiatic lilies, impatience, etc, etc..... Liquid Fence keeps them away from everything.

Well, it's good to be able to talk with understanding folks. The Deer Solution spray has kept the deer away from the property for 2 or 3 days now. It's really easy to use because it attaches right to the hose and mixes itself. Sprays a huge amount at a time so I can walk at a fast pace around the yard and be quickly done with it (unlike Hinder).

I suspect that keeping up the spraying, religiously, will work with any of these mixtures. Is it worth all the emotions and big bucks (ha ha) to deter these animals or should I just forget about landscaping? The woods are more powerful than I am. I love my fenced-in garden, but it's hot as hell in there in midday. Can't have it all, I guess. Thank goodness for other hobbies.

Oh I Love Liquid Fence!! In early spring the deer ate all of the baby buds off of nearly all my plants! A friend recomended Liquid Fence and I haven't had a problem with deer since. All the plants rebudded and everything looks great again.If only it worked on june bugs and japanese bettles I'd be all set.

After three years of trying to keep the garden sprayed, I finally gave up and got a deer fence. It goes around 3/4 acre and outside of that they are welcome to anything they can find. Yes, it was expensive, but not as expensive as all the plants they chowed down on before it went up. To say nothing of my labor and aggravation. I do regret that I can't include the creek in my gardening plans as fencing it in was impossible. I have some willows, ferns, yellow iris and marsh marigolds down there and they did eat the buds off the iris but left the rest alone. I'm going to plant petasites inside the fence but close enough so it can spread to the other side if those rats with hooves will abstain.

Susan,

I felt so bad for you I almost felt like crying. Your garden sounded so beautiful. I've had that happen to me. Although your garden sounded much nicer than mine. For years I tried to grow hollyhocks. A ground hog always ate them. I finally got my hollyhocks. In 2001 double pink ones. Then they lasted two years died. Now i have a big stand of butter yellow singles. Not really what i wanted. The plants were given to me by a friend. I wanted double pink ones against the railing. Though i've grown to love them. I've come to discover gardening is like motherhood. You nurse them only to get heartache!!! You gotta keep trying. Also take pictures use a camcorder to record your beauties. I'm really crazy bout my garden it gets better every year. Keep up Sue we're all rootin for you!!! By the way why can't you use the egg spray on edibles? Our pepper plants wre eaten. I still have my butter yellow hollyhocks:)

Hollyhocker, I was going to take a photo but forgot, and the next day the plants were eaten! Amazingly, the plants have recovered and put out new flowers along the same stalks, as if they knew they just had to make a supply of seeds no matter what!

The Deer Solution is working so far. Since it's food material (cinnamon, cloves, salt, eggs, guar gum, and a few other things like hot pepper,) I spray it along the edge of my fenced in garden too (which has my veggies along with flowers). The deer have now left me with gorgeous vines of sweet peas which they always ate. I thought s. peas were poisonous, but the deer ate them anyway along with (poisonous) potato and tomato vines that came too close to the fence.

Maybe now they will leave my massive stands of bee balm alone. They always get eaten to the ground. Since I started spraying the Deer Solution, the plants are coming back. I have a small patch of bee balm inside my fence, which I carefully cut back to keep under control. They spread in early spring, so they're easy to control then. I started them from seed, too, years ago. I had 3 colors of bee balm...red, pink, lavender. The deer ate them all, but I managed to save the red. It has HUGE flowers, 3-4" across.

Susan, I thought of you yesterday when I saw a mounted deer head at a yard sale! LOL I was wondering if you'd like it for your yard. Then, maybe the deer would think twice.

Your bee balm sounds lovely. I saw a large patch with the three colors, and now I'm determined to do it! I have some that I planted last year, but it hasn't bloomed yet so I don't know what color it is.

Susan. I share your pain. Forgot to spray my hostas with Liquid Fence for a long time and the deer got them this week. I went to spray them and they were gone!

Fortunately, the Liquid Fence is still working on my hydrangeas -- which bloomed for the first time, so exciting -- and the rose of sharon.

I was thinking of spraying the perimeter of the yard with it but I'm afraid the deer will get accustomed to it.

If I could bear the idea of a gun in the house I'd buy a pistol.