Even though we love watching these fine four legged creators, we don’t like that they invade our garden every year. We are already planning our defense strategy for keeping them from feeding on our tender plants.
We have lived on our farm for six years now and know the exact path the deer take on our property every year. They are creatures of habit and will repeatedly follow the same paths until the feel they are in danger.
It has become a game…us against the deer! Some years we win and sometimes they win. The prize they like the most is an endless supply of sweet corn.
Here are a couple things we are doing to keep them out of our garden:
- We string a heavy-duty monofilament fishing line between two metal fence posts, about three feet from the ground all around the garden. We then add lightweight, noise-making objects such as aluminum pie tins. The deer will stop and back away from the distraction…and most times will start following a different path around the garden. They view the shinny noisy object as a threat and will avoid them.
- Since we cut our own hair here on the farm, we save the cuttings all winter long to sprinkle them around the garden once our seedling start to pop through the soil. Deer doesn’t care for the smell of human hair. I have heard that people will also add the hair to nylon stocking tied at both ends and lay them around their gardens as well. We never have that much hair saved, but I can bet it works great.
Keeping these wild animals from destroying all our hard work is an on-going issue for us. If you have any tips or ideas you can share on how you keep them from your garden, please share them with us!
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I have tried many things, but the human hair is what seems to work the best for us. I have even cleaned out hair brushes and put that hair on our newly planted apple trees.
Lori
Great idea – My mom lives in a deer friendly area – they will come up to their door and eat right out of their hands. She finally put up a wire wood framed fence, think it was 7 ft. it covers part of her yard to keep them out of her garden allowing her to still look out at all the mountains that surround. The deer still come to visit and her garden is safe. -Carole
Hi from another South Carolina homesteader. We’re over in Orangeburg County. So glad I found your blog! Thanks for the great info
Hey Kristi! Glad you found us…we are in Aiken County not too far from you!
Oh wow, we’re practically neighbors! I’m about 20 minutes from the county line. Small world!
Hi Kristi! I’m Amber Bradshaw from the coast in SC and I am a homestead blogger too! I would love to connect with someone else from SC. Look me up on Facebook.
Great to know what works for you. I can’t imagine having to share all that delicious corn with them! Thanks for stopping by The Maple Hill Hop this week!
Wow I have never heard of the human hair tip, what a great idea. We don’t have deer problems here but they do not far north of us. Maybe I can pass this on to some friends. Thanks for sharing at Good Morning Mondays. Blessings
I will be trying this for sure this year! They even get my plants around my house! I will be featuring it tomorrow at Tuesdays with a Twist, please come by and take a peek. Thanks and have a great day. 🙂
We have 6 foot fencing and then above that strings about every 8 inches up to 8 feet and haven’t had a problem with deer in the garden. They ate our apples last year in the yard at night but now we have a dog that sleeps outside and is our deer police. The apples should be safe this year… though the dog did eat my hydrangea…sometimes you just cant win them all 🙂
Interesting tips, we have lots of deer in our neighborhood. Thanks for linking up to Awesome Life Friday!
if deer don’t like the smell of human hair? Next time you are in town, I bet you could stop by any hair salon or barber and they would give you the cuttings rather than throw it away!
As gross as it sounds, human urine works well too. Pour it around, not on, the garden. It’s free and plentiful plus you don’t have to wait for it to grow like hair. This also works well for other critters too like racoons and rabbits.
I have heard they don’t like that smell. I guess I could send out my 10 year old grandson…he loves to do his business outside:)
I was thinking of hitting up my local beauty shop. I’m sure they’d save all their hair cuttings for you
Great idea!
Because they were primarily coming from the west side of our garden, I planted artichokes and rhubarb on that side. Fixed the problem until a year later when they learned to go around to the east side and chomp on my tomatoes. I’ve found that planting onions around the perimeter of my garden is pretty helpful.
I will have to give the onions a try. Thanks for sharing that tip!
Good ideas here!! We used the tape from old or blank videos (who uses those anymore)?! and strung it around 4 posts around the garden. Don’t tighten it too much, as when there’s even the slightest breeze, it vibrates and makes a ‘thrumming’ sound. The deer don’t like that and stay away.
What a great idea! I am going to give that one a try.
We play a radio all night in our garden. No problem with deer. We live near the woods and see them a lot.