We have a great dane...much the same size as a deer, who does the same thing.

The man down the road hangs up pie tins to clatter in the wind and sits a radio outside to play at night. He claims to change the station every so often to keep the deer guessing. Does it work? Probably not, but they stay in his yard and not mine (we have a 6 ft fence and a deep/wide creek bed protecting ours), so I don't question his methods. :)

3 raw eggs
3 tbls. of red hot sauce
3 tbls. of garlic juice or minced garlic
Add enough water to a blender to process and mix well. Add this to a gallon of water and spray on plants. You can make the spray last longer by adding Wilt Proof to it.

Here is a link that might be useful: More homemade

Deer and garden history: The year we planted way too many purple hull peas, the deer ate the first crop. They were like little mowing machines, marching down the row.

The next year, we had a dog, and, we strung up electric wire at 3 ft and 4 ft heights, and, flagged the wire with bright yellow flags so children (and forgetful adults) would not get hurt.
So, the deer came by anyway, got barked at, knocked half the fence down, evidently got a large spark, and did not return. Tracks all around, but no deer actually in the peas. Since then, common sense and bad backs has prevented us from planting 300 ft long rows of peas!

But I recommend a loud dog, a hot wire, and flags on the wire.

Forget the fencing -- just use sniper towers!

I heard to keep deer out of the pear trees we have, tie a mesh bag full of cut up Irish Spring soap. They said that the scent makes them go away. I don't personally know if this is true or not, but thought I would pass it along. I am going to use this method this year. Anyone know how to keep wild turkey away? They complete bit through a soaker hose that I had in the back yard (left evidence with his feather. Right by it!)

What about a double fence? 2 6 foot fences, 4 feet across should be high enough, and wide enough that they can't clear both in a single jump, but they are too close to allow them to jump one before the other.

Of course that can be expensive, and annoying for you as well. I go with the sniper solution! Maybe you could use some sort of intimidation or something, and just catch one, and hang it up in your garden to warn all future miscreant deer of the consequences of trespassing.

Personally, I can empathize with you. I don't have deer, but I do have birds, squirrels and rabbits that cause me trouble. I just deal with the losses, and hope for the future! Of course, I don't lose my entire garden to them. There aren't that many of them, and they don't eat that much.

We live with 50 acres RIGHT behind our house. The other day two deer came down to the bird feeders for dinner.

I used Liquid Fence for 3 years and it helped a lot, but this past year not so much.

My neighbor put in a garden and he put up a 6 ft. fence with barbed wire around the top foot and yellow pieces of flagging and I don't think he ever had a deer problem. So I'm trying that this year.

Andrea

Don't know if anyone is still reading this, but love that venison!!

I can't find the post now but someone else on this forum posted about making a fence with fishing line. When the deer come to the garden they don't see the fishing line but they run into it and it freaks them out because they don't know what is touching them. Don't know if that works or not....

I'm with DF on the homemade deer repellant. Last year I moved hostas down to the bottom of the hill that is my backyard, and they were lovely at the base of two flowering trees ... until they were deer salad. I thought my honey had gone crazy with the weed whacker. :(

This year I found some recipes online ... mostly what DF posted above, but I added some milk and use it at a higher concentration. I sprayed it every 3 days at the beginning of spring when the hostas started growing from an old windex bottle. I keep a gallon of it outside to get ripe in the sun. Now I'm down to spraying the hostas and my brand new garden this year (still down at the bottom of the yard) about once a week. I spray with Neem oil once a week, too. Don't know if that's helping or not, but we had deer in our backyard last week standing right next to the garden in the middle of the day (we were shocked to see them there from our window) and they didn't touch a thing.

Rotten eggs, sour milk, hot peppers, and garlic apparently are not appetising to deer tastebuds.

-Veronica