​​​Protect your plants! Here are seven ways to keep deer away from your plants.

1. Fencing. The only completely reliable protection is a fence. Six feet might do, eight feet is safer. Home supply stores sell a tough black plastic mesh in rolls for this purpose which is nearly invisible when seen from a distance and which can be attached to trees or posts.

2. Temporary enclosures. Newly planted trees and shrubs may be protected by cages made out of wire fence cloth, which you can buy by the roll.

​3. A barrier of deer-resistant plants. Some people have had good success with first establishing a bed of plants that deer find distasteful, then planting other plants inside it. As the deer snuff along the ground, they turn away from plants they don't much like, such as Mountain Mint, Yarrow, Golden Ragwort, Boneset, Lyre-leaf Sage, Gray Goldenrod, and native grasses.

4. Repellants. It works best to use multiple strategies at once and to rotate products periodically.

5. Smelly sprays.  Usually based on "putrescent egg solids," sometimes mixed with other oils such as rosemary or lavender, and a spreader sticker.  Must be re-applied periodically, usually every 30 days.

6. Granules such as Deer Scram. These are applied to the ground monthly.

7. Capsaican tablets. These are put into the ground in spring. As the plant grows, the roots take up the capsaicin, which makes the leaves less palatable.

8. Pin small plant plugs down with garden staples.

9. Motion activated sprinklers - can be quite effective, if you have a hookup with good water pressure.

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10. Solar-powered electric fence set-up - an easy, inexpensive, effective, and under-utlized alternative. This YouTube video explains.

 Netting over the garden bed is relatively effective, but NOT recommended. Birds and other animals may get caught in it, with gruesome consequences.

Learn more about the effect of deer on the environment.