How I Learned to Live With the Destructive Deer in My Garden

[question everything]

I DON’T have anything against deer—except when they treat my garden like it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet in Las Vegas. Sadly, one big fat smelly deer thinks my yard is the “Bacchanal” spread at Caesars Palace. She starts with an appetizer of rose buds. Then she hits the heirloom gladiolus and scarfs down the young fruit on the espaliered apple tree. Worst, she makes a palate cleanser of my husband’s precious lemon tree.

Which caused a recent crisis—and forced me to examine my relationship to nature. The other evening at twilight I heard my husband muttering about “the last straw” before going into the closet for an oversize slingshot designed to fling tennis balls for dogs to retrieve. By the time I caught up to him, he was on the front porch poised like William Tell. Only he wasn’t aiming for the apple—he was aiming for the deer. “Wait!” I shouted, jumping in front of him. “Stop—look!” Standing behind the mother deer were two white-spotted fawns. They could have starred in a “Bambi” remake with their enormous, innocent, limpid eyes. At that moment I would have gladly ripped my husband’s stupid lemons from the highest branches and fed them to the darling, sweet babies by hand. “Take whatever you need, honey,” I whispered to the mother.

(snip)

For advice I called Christian Douglas, a landscape designer near me in San Rafael, Calif., who specializes in mixing edibles and native plants. Instead, he suggested, I should install deer-resistant plants like salvia and rosemary and lavender, thyme and catmint. “Anything aromatic, they tend not to like,” he said. “What about my roses?” “Fences. Walls. Physical barriers. A solid fence because if they can’t see what’s on the other side they typically won’t jump over it,” he said.

“And that always works?” “Yes. Well. Usually.” “Usually?” I asked.

(snip)

I was still deciding whether to fortify my own garden when I saw one of the little fawns had an injured leg and was skipping awkwardly on three legs behind its mother. Oh no! I phoned one of the world’s pre-eminent deer veterinarians, Dr. John Fletcher, who lives in Scotland. “Don’t worry, if it’s a fracture, deer have an amazing ability to recover,” said Dr. Fletcher, author of “Gardens of Earthly Delight: The History of Deer Parks” “I’ve seen a compound fracture with the bone sticking through the skin heal in six months. Besides, there isn’t a thing you can do but keep your fingers crossed.” I planted another rose bush, right next to where the fawns sleep.

https://archive.is/o63xh#selection-156.0-156.1

[dem4decades]

1. We stopped gardening because of groundhogs, the deer can eat.

We spray the flowers we care about, but we too have a doe with 2 spotted fawns come visit, my wife would rather see than garden anyway.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. What a glorious article! Thank you, my dear question everything. ♥ nt

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Deer don't like tansy or barberry either

They devour euonymous (burning bush), white pine and most others except Colorado spruce.

[usonian]

4. I decided not to garden rather than wage war. And deer eat everything.

I have photos of them munching irises, which they are supposed to hate.

Practice in the foothills is a seven foot high fence, or two fences, spaced to prevent them leaping.

Of course, you also need a solid floor, because gophers will eat everything from underneath, a solid wall to keep rabbits out, and a mesh covering to keep birds and squirrels out.

In short, a greenhouse.

I successfully grew lots of roses, lilacs, wisteria trees, flowers, veggies and so on, in the suburbs but not in the country.

And in one test, 1/3 of deer tested have covid.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/covid-rampant-deer-research-shows-rcna10181

[Rebl2]

5. Deer don't like

daffodils and have never bothered my peonies. They could easily eat the marigolds I planted, so they apparently don’t like those either. I have lavender they don’t bother. They will eat lily buds, but we fenced them in-a very small area-they don’t bother to try to eat them now.

I love to see the fawns during the summer and unfortunately one I have watched this summer was hit by a car this last weekend-mad me very sad. There are still two that come with their mother. The other doe is the one who lost her fawn. We also have some really big bucks that come around and can’t believe how large their antlers are already. There are a couple smaller bucks that travel with the big ones. No way you would ever want to approach any of these bucks! Late last summer I had to step out on our deck and yell at a couple bucks that were fighting. They were about to get their antlers locked together fighting and sure didn’t want that to happen. They ran off of course.