Even as a child growing up in Central NYS, I knew it as an area under considerable deer pressure.

edweather, we don't have harsh winters here and our deer aren't hungry. They love roses, at my former house just 6 minutes away the roses were the only plants in my garden that I needed to regularly spray to protect (deer repellent). They are particularly fond of blackberries too (vines, not the berries :)) so will typically have thorny things on their diet. Something else I always found odd, they would walk by 6 roses and eat Double Delight first, year after year.

I have daily deer at my new garden, and what they don't eat or walk on, they will lay on - not at all unusual to have them bedded down napping during the day for hours at a time. Plants I've lifted and brought here in pots waiting to be planted are protected with Bobbex spray, and I have a couple of the Scarecrow motion activated sprayers I'll put into use. I'm still coming to terms with how to deal with them as I renovate these gardens, but it's clearly going to take a multi-directional approach.

Interesting, I used to live in serious deer country, and I fed them their allotment of corn daily, along with the raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks, etc. I also had a garden that was not fenced and was barely ever touched even though it was only 50 feet from the feeding station. The critters were so well trained to feed in that one spot that they oddly never touched the garden. It was hilarious. Only had a groundhog problem once. No rabbits......too many coyotes.

We live in the central southern tier of New York and have issues with deer as well. Being that there are coyotes in our area, deer know to avoid them. We use a product that uses genuine coyote urine as it's main ingredient to keep deer away from our plants and landscaping. Deer Repellent Packs are easily hung where we want protection and provide 90 days of relief to keep deer away.