Defending Your Garden Against Deer and Other Animals

We asked Project Grow gardeners to send us their suggestions on how to deal with four legged animal pests.  There were many suggestions so please follow the link to see all of them.

Ellsworth

We had trouble with a ground hog. I've been told that a man's urine would do it, but I went with cut people hair and it worked great. Since it smells like humans the critters stay away.

Greenview

We use 4' tall galvanized steel garden fencing, and bury it a bit when putting it in. It has made a huge difference! Seems to keep most of the smaller critters out, too. If I feel like the deer are encroaching, I'll run a line of twine along the top, a little taller than my fence. I've also read that deer are wary of double fences, so having some posts within my garden may also help.

I've used liquid fence before with fair results, but it has to be applied pretty often.

 Platt

Our garden plot was on Platt Road. We did have a large amount of critter damage in our plot. We put up fencing, which worked to some degree, however the deer were easily able to jump the fence. Then we strung some twine around the taller stakes and tied strips of white plastic grocery bags to the twine. I also bought some organic deer repellant spray later in season that really stunk-a combination of garlic and putrefied egg whites, and dowsed the perimeter of the garden several times. That seem to do the trick although by then the ability to catch up was gone. Therefore our yields were disappointing.

 I think next year I will start the effort earlier than I did last year. It was my first year with Project Grow and I did not pay close enough attention to early interventions at Platt Road. I think the stinky deer repellent also helped to keep out the bunnies which I was surprised managed to get past the fence, and prior to my focused efforts, had created a lovely little bunny den, full of cute little fuzzy bunnies.