CLEVELAND, Ohio -- My friend Debra wants a gun. OK, not really. However, every summer, when the local deer start circling her lush tomato garden, calculating how they’re going to break in this year, she starts feeling more than a little bellicose. But then her family talks her down. There’s still no hunting season in Beachwood, they remind her, and besides, she’s a vegetarian. What would she do with all that venison?
Debra’s dilemma is not unique. In fact, deer, and other four-legged free loaders are the number one concern among local gardeners, according to Annie Dorsey, director of marketing at Petitti Garden Centers. And this year, she says, there there’s a pandemics-worth of first-timer gardeners looking for ways to keep the hungry outdoor herbivores away from their harvest of home-grown vegetables.
One way or another, the battle can almost always be won…. without resorting to ballistics.
Below, you’ll find an array of strategies and perspectives to help you gain the upper edge in the existential contest for the fruits of your labor.
But if worse comes to worst, you can do what Debra did. Taking a gap year, she hung an upside-down tomato plant right outside her kitchen window and had an abundant season’s worth of stress-free cherry tomatoes.
The following inspirations will hopefully have her back in the big garden soon.
First, Some Historical Perspective
Ohio has had a complex history with Odocoileus Virginianus, or the white-tailed deer. According to Harvey B. Webster, chief wildlife officer and museum ambassador at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the state originally teemed with deer. But there was a time, right around the turn of the 20th century, when the Buckeye State was virtually deerless. Wholesale deforestation of almost the entire state to supply the lumber industry had rendered the area uninhabitable for the deer population. And the family farms that followed continued the trend, so they vanished for decades.
Re-introduced by conservationists in the 1920s, their numbers increased in the ’30s, when many family farms were bankrupted, abandoned and then reverted to forest during the Great Depression. By 1956, there were deer again in all 88 counties, with the concentration being in, you guessed it, eastern Ohio. But for many decades, there was no real deer/human interface. In fact, in the 1970s, the Perkins Wildlife Center at the museum had several white tails living there to allow “city folk” to see what real deer looked like. But as the suburbs sprawled into deer habitat, there became more connectivity.
The lack of predators, both natural and human (hunting season, a controlled but robust culler of herds, is almost non-existent in Cuyahoga and adjoining counties), and the attractiveness of fun, fancy, and easy eats in suburban backyards have led to today’s situation. Who wouldn’t rather eat sweet juicy hostas when boring dry acorns are the usual and customary fare? So, it looks like we’re all here to stay, at least for awhile, let’s explore some best practice strategies to see if we really can get along…as best as possible.
NIMBY….or not
Community response can be effective in deer control.
As mentioned before, areas that have active hunters tend to have fewer problems, and even in Cuyahoga County, some communities have deer abatement programs, using carefully controlled rifle and bow-hunting initiatives. Usually in response to an uptick in deer/car collisions, it also has a positive effect for those with neighboring gardens.
Speaking of neighbors, Geoff Westerfield, of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife, recommends an even more local neighborhood response, similar to a homeowners association. If you’re trying to get rid of deer, and your neighbor is putting out a daily buffet of corn, lettuce and other treats, there are going to be issues. Perhaps establishing a schedule where they only feed the deer in the winter when other rations are really low, and your tomatoes have long been turned into sauce, can be mutually acceptable.
Group deer fences may be an option for contiguous properties. Westerfield also recommends that your community consider a bird-feeder moratorium. Although birds love the free lunch, the seed is also a favorite treat for deer and marauding squirrels and groundhogs. Plus, more birds can be fed than you usually consider. A cluster of cardinals at a feeder provide easy pickings for passing hawks.
For more individualized information from the division, call and speak to one of their knowledgeable and well-spoken wildlife specialists (see resources below).
Garden Guards
An active dog with a good loud bark is a great way to keep the deer at bay. Even after your pup’s in bed, the urine left behind remains as a deterrent to curious marauders (it’s almost as effective, and much easier to attain, and apply, as another popular leave-behind, coyote urine, available at home stores and garden centers).
If getting an animal to get rid of another seems, well, counter-productive, there are plants you can put around garden that can deter deer from venturing in. Rough or fuzzy textured plants, like ornamental grasses, lambs ear, and iris, or highly scented plants, like yarrow, lavender, rosemary and chives, if planted in abundance, can provide a natural defense for your vegetables.
A Bigger Stink
Deer have an extraordinary sense of smell, having up to 297 million olfactory receptors compared to our mere 5 million. This works to our advantage when applying deer repellent, some of which, having rotten egg as a main ingredient, are really stinky. Applying early in the season, before you have vegetables, and often, especially after it rains, can be very effective. Deer have scent memory. A good dose of really evil-smelling repellent in the spring may keep deer away most of the growing season…especially with a refresher every now and then.
Another option is pepper spray. One nibble, and deer will look for something a little milder elsewhere. You can buy these at garden stores or make them yourself. See the bonus recipes below. There are other, less noxious, solutions, that also work. One blog mentions that blood meal--dried animal blood -- can be effective, especially if mixed with lion’s manure, available, the writer helpfully points out, at local zoos.
More practical sources for other blood meal combinations are available at local garden centers like Petitti’s and Gale’s. Another approach is hanging various strong-smelling items around gardens. Bars of Irish Spring will keep anyone away, bags of human hair have worked, and Bremec Garden Center has a bagged repellent that they say is exceptionally effective.
The Best Defense May Be…. A Fence
If all else fails, a sturdy enclosure could be the ultimate solution. Restaurateur and former chef/owner of Bistro 185, Ruth Levine, has a large garden at the edge of a deeply wooded area. Nothing seemed to work to keep out the deer. She became so distraught at the persistent wholesale destruction of everything she planted that her husband finally built her an impermeable vegetable fortress of vinyl- coated metal poles and fencing and fiberglass woven panels, 18 ft. by 10 ft. by 9 ft. high, enclosing tidy raised beds.
She can see the deer peering in occasionally, but nothing gets into her raised beds of high-grade tomatoes and other very happy vegetables. Roger Ettig, Holden Arboretum’s curator of living collections and land assets, has a similar, if somewhat less formidable, enclosure for his garden. He started with metal poles and a trench one foot deep, to keep out groundhogs, and then attached metal fencing to a height of about four feet. with an extra chicken wire wrap to keep baby groundhogs and bunnies from coming through. He augmented the structure with 8-foot bamboo poles and lightweight black fabric mesh that seems to disappear once the garden grows in. Having tried almost everything else, he says, you only have to do it once, if you do it right.
Resources
Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife
The ODNRDW has a Landowner Habitat Management Program that will address your specific questions about deer and other wildlife issues.
Call 330-644-2293 for information and very good advice.
Petitti’s Garden Centers
Petitti’s has a wealth of written information and guides on their website, plus a very helpful series of videos on deer-resistant gardening.
Old Farmer’s Almanac
A very useful website with broad information about deer and assorted garden pests, and specific issues including protecting your garden and landscaping in the winter months.
Bonus Recipes: DIY Deer Repellents
The following concoctions can be very effective if used properly. The oft-repeated mantra, spray early and often, is the key to success here. Putrid eggs seem to be the essential ingredient in many recipes. However, it is also the most repellent component for applicators as well as for the recipients. So, we’ve included another with alternative essential ingredients.
This is the classic rotten egg solution. Wear your most durable face mask during application. Chances are you have more than a few of those these days.
Cayenne Pepper Spray Repellent
An all-purpose pepper spray that will work for everything from deer flies to deer.
August 13, 2020 at 10:34PM
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How to keep deer – and rabbits, groundhogs and other hungry critters – out of your vegetable garden - cleveland.com
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