How have you been dealing with deer eating with your landscaping? As a child in the 60-70's I don't remember ever having to deal with deer, I remember going hunting as a child and never seeing anything that remotely looked like a deer. Over the years I have seen some fairly interesting ways folks have tried to keep "Bambi" at bay in the landscape. Recently, I saw empty shot gun shell (sgs) sprinkled around the base of some fairly new planted trees in the yard. When I asked the owner how the sgs worked, he said not so good, these city deer have never been shot at so I guess the smell of sgs does not trigger a bad experience and the deer are damaging my trees. I have found a few useful tricks from my experience and from others.

There are very few plants that are totally deer proof, but of course there are some that are less on the deer's radar than others. We will discuss those plants on a later date. What I want to talk about is the existing landscape that may be getting eaten now.

An outdoor dog across the street from my house seems to keep my neighbors Hosta in one piece from the deer. Research articles I have read seem to confirm this is true as well. Deer are afraid of dogs. Fences of course seem to do fairly well - higher the better but, even shorter fences have worked fairly well. Yes, deer can hurdle low fences, but the neighborhood deer I have encountered seem to be looking for the easiest meals and my observation has been they will normally walk around the fence in search of an easy meal. I read where others had successfully used a wire(s) strung above low fences to help prevent an easy jump over too.

One of sons had put out some corn in our backyard one day to feed our neighborhood deer, just for fun. The next couple of days he put fishing line around the area about grazing height. The corn stayed in place for several days until the deer figure out how to walk behind the fishing line.

Of course we have all heard that deer are creatures of habit and are very sensitive to smells. Knowing this it helps provide some soft and fairly simple ways to keep them away from our landscape plants. I have used several products on a rotating bases and found them to work extremely well if I do one thing. Yes, the one thing is very important. It is the difference in success and letting Bambi clean me out or destroy a new 'Red Maple' trees. Oh, speaking of trees, the I have used wire fences and metal post to protect tree trunks from rutting. Please do not use solid pieces of black drain pipe on tree trunks, you are asking for heat troubles to your trees.

I have used Irish Spring soap around the plants I want to protect and found it to work fairly well. I cut the soap into 3 or 4 pieces and toss them in or just under the mulch. After a couple of weeks I will use Milorganite fertilizer sprinkled generously on the shrub beds. This organic fertilizer is good source of nitrogen for plants and deer do not enjoy the odor it gives off. Yes, it can be smell somewhat by humans too, so don't put it out the day of the outdoor wedding in your backyard. The smell for us human types seems to go away fairly fast, but deer smell it for a while. After another 2 to 4 weeks passes I use another product of two that I have found very good on repelling deer away. One is called Invisible Fence and the other is Deer Away. These products have been great, but it will make you wonder what you are doing when you are spraying it out. It carries a smelly punch till it dries. Now the key is to remember one thing about these products. You have to be consistent in appling it to the landscape and you have to rotate between the products. If you only use Irish Spring soap, eventual deer will get use to the smell and move in. After a heavy rain or multi irrigation use, you have to re-apply materials again, otherwise expect the deer to return to your plants. I have use this method for several years and seen a herds of deer walk past hosta plants.

June 19, 2009 - I'm often asked which type of mulch I prefer in shrub beds. Pine straw and hardwood mulch are very popular mulches. The quick answer is, that I like both. Pine straw is fairly easy to distribute, less labor intense when doing large areas, has interlocking needles that help with weed control, and pine straw helps with minor erosion issues. Pine straw also has what I like to call, "fluff appeal". When pine straw is spread or “fluffed” out, it is more forgiving if you accidentally add too much to an area. Pine straw breaks down fairly quickly and allows me the opportunity to freshen up my beds two times a year without the fear of over doing it. Two to six inches is a good amount to add to a shrub bed. If your pine straw looks too "fluffy" it will settled in about two weeks time.

Hardwood mulch has a beautiful look, holds up longer than pine straw, and is easier to walk on in most places. I like to use hardwood mulch for nature trails, transitions from lawns to other areas in the yard, or around the water hose. Hardwood mulch works great near water features like swimming pools or fountains. It does not seem to move as much during windy days like pine straw. Hardwood mulch does not break down fast, but it does fade in the sun, like pine straw. Fresh hardwood much looks great and professional, but years of adding fresh hardwood mulch can be bad for the plants if not done correctly. Plants need to breath and too much hardwood mulch can limit that process. I sometimes remove old layers of hardwood mulch before adding new, to make sure the layers are not too thick for the plants to breath. This is a very labor intense but very beneficial task. If removing the old hardwood mulch is not practical for you, then it is possible to just add a very light or dusting layer of hardwood mulch on top of the older layer. This has worked well for me. This gives the fresh look without the heavy layer.

Cypress mulch and pine bark mulch is good mulch as well. I follow the same guideline for them as I do for hardwood mulch. Rock, lava rock, and or dyed wood chips don't fit the style of the landscaping I use, so I have not really used them. I really don’t prefer the look that they give a landscape.

Using mulch is a really simple way to add curb appeal to your investment, and can be beneficial to your plants, if done correctly. Mulch helps reduce evaporation in the soil, so irrigation can be reduced. Mulch also lowers the soil temperatures in the summer and raises them in the winter. Mulch helps prevent weeds, and works great for combating minor soil erosion. Adding mulch around your trees can keep mowers and other lawn equipment off the tree trunk base and reduce damage. If you have an area that is heavily traveled or an area that is possibly parked or driven on, a thick layer of mulch really helps prevent soil compaction in the area and especially around trees.