Deer Smart GardeningOutwitting Those Pesky yet Beautiful RuminantsAre deer ruining your garden, sleeping in the shrub bed, browsing off the tulip blooms?Think like a deer and get deer smart. Gardening can be fun again, without the frustration of seeing all that hard work getting destroyed by those beautiful innocent looking demons in fur coats. Unwelcome BambiIn some areas deer are becoming a real nuisance, as well as a menace due to their habituation to human towns.The risk occurs in the fall when the rut happens, and hormones run high with male deer fighting it out, and also in the spring as the does have their fawns. The amount of damage a protective mother deer can inflict on humans as well as pets when she feels her fawn is threatened can be extensive. Be wary, deer are not as cute as they first appear.
Some methods of deer smart gardening consist of using a deer’s mortal fear of predators against them. One particularly effective tactic is a loud barking dog. Unfortunately, this may not meet with the approval of neighbors, as deer are quite often nocturnal, ravaging your garden by cover of darkness. It is also forbidden in Canada for a dog to chase ‘the Queens Cattle’ as all ungulates are called, so use this strategy with care. There are several commercial products that will repel deer and other smaller creatures such as rabbits that love to eat your garden. Most consist of some kind of smelly material that will keep them away, at least for a while.
Other ways to keep deer out of your garden are to fence them out. Even the most athletic and hungry deer can’t jump higher than eight feet, and given a way around the fence will take the easiest route. Rather than one tall fence, two short fences with only a meter in between will keep them from jumping as they don’t like the risk of entrapment. Make sure the deer can see in so they know that there is no comfortable place to land. One type of fence that works well and is also economical is recycled used fish netting strung between posts or trees. Let the excess drape on the ground to the outside of the fence, as deer won’t step on anything that threatens to trap their feet. Baiting them with a salt lick will keep them away, but keep in mind that this is frowned upon by conservation officers as it has been used by hunters and poachers to attract deer. The final and most effective way to keep deer away is to make sure you grow only unpalatable (to a deer) plants. They don’t like strong smelling, hairy leaved, succulent or spiky plants, so choose those plants that are drought tolerant as their strategies to combat drought and animal browsing are similar. Also pick plants from the mint family, such as thyme, lavender and Stachys byzantina as these repel deer due to their strong scent. The drawback to using this method is that over time, the deer will test plants that normally they won’t eat either out of curiosity or hunger, and all that hard work goes out of the window. Luckily, xeric plants as a whole are not likely to attract hungry deer, which makes a gardener’s job easier. You can have your (garden) cake, and eat it too, and the deer can go hungry.
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Xeriscaping - Landscaping with Less Water
Gardening with a Light Hand on the Land
The focus is on landscaping with easy care drought tolerant plants like Sedum, Sempervivum and thyme and using natural materials to build rock retaining walls and it's easy to see why.
It used to be that once in a while these kinds of plants would come to the fore, and successfully maneuver dry summers, but now it's obvious that these are the most suited to what is becoming the norm.
Interested in learning how to build a patio? See this page for patio design ideas.
Seeing how beautiful these unique landscapes are and how well they perform in challenging conditions will encourage others to find unique plants to use in their own xeric garden.
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