It’s a column topic I’ve addressed in the past.
But an ever-increasing crowded and hungry deer population has the subject of how to detract deer from devouring gardens and yard landscapes propelled front and center for discussion for our summer 2024.
Friday, July 12, marked my dad Chester’s milestone 95th birthday.
A remedy to keep deer at bay, now that we no longer have our once familiar yard-roaming farm collie for security detail, would make a perfect birthday gift.
So far in summer 2024, deer have leveled the once green and lush rows near the back kitchen doorstep in my mom Peggy’s bib lettuce “salad pickings” patch. They’ve also gobbled up blooming pansies, flourishing perennial foliage such as our hostas, and other flowing favorites like red salvias.
For the first time, we opted this spring to forgo planting summer annuals like petunias, salvias and “dusty miller” accent plants in our two large, round rock gardens at the end of my parents’ driveway to their home. Instead, we’ve planted low-growing, ground-cover perennial plants called nepeta or “cat-mint,” which sport a grayish-green, hearty, leafy, lush and aromatic plant that is deer and drought resistant and offers the bonus of bright purple blossoming flower spikes.
My shared “Oh deer!” lament of my parents and myself was included as a post on social media and prompted several readers to share their remedies. These are new ideas that far exceed a previously offered idea to use fragrant shavings of Irish Spring bar soap around flowerbeds, an only so-so remedy, as recommended by a reader, I published in a July 2019 column.
Carrie Napoleon, DeMotte: “I’ve used coyote urine around flowers to keep animals away.”
Patty Grieger, Wheatfield: “I put the geranium deadheads around my garden and a couple of artificial geese in the garden too, and it has helped keep the deer out. I also put ‘pool noodles’ (flotation devices) on stakes and put around the garden. They cause a vibration when the wind blows and keeps animals out too.”
Janice Shelby, Saltillo, Tennessee: “We finally had to put up electric fencing.”
Marilyn Stuckert, Crown Point: “It’s so frustrating. I tried using plastic forks with the prongs poking up around my flowers. Then, I tried lavender scented Epsom salt and paprika. But as of last week, the war is over and I waved a white flag to surrender!”
Thank you for these and other suggestions, many of which overlapped with the same efforts and shared angst about how to avert the appetite of hungry deer.
My favorite new “tip” for keeping the tip of deer muzzles out of gardens and yards came right down the road from farmer’s daughter friend Ann Scamerhorn and her parents Steve and Joann.
“Mom and Dad have this remedy recipe which they kept from an old clipping that came from master gardener Jerry Baker,” Ann explained.
“He also has some other tips included too.”
The clipping from Ann’s parents has the heading “Bye-Bye Bambi” and includes measures such as “surround your garden with an 8-foot tall fence that is topped with three strands of barbed wire.”
PBS-TV personality Baker, who died at age 85 in March 2017, also suggested scattering “dirty diapers nestled in between garden rows,” “clumps of human or dog hair,” “strategically place old smelly socks or stinky old shoes in flowerbeds,” as well as “ask your local zoo for some cougar feces to put in your garden.”
Compared to all the above, I most favor Baker’s recipe idea for what he calls “Deer Buster Eggnog,” provided by Ann and her parents and re-shared here for readers’ relief. And happy 95th birthday to my dad Chester!
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at pmpotempa@comhs.org or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.
Jerry Baker’s “Deer Buster Eggnog” (for use as deer repellent)
Makes 3 cups of solution
2 eggs
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons hot sauce
2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
2 cups water
Directions:
1. Add all ingredients to a blender and use puree setting.
2. Once mixture is combined, allow it to set out at room temperature for two days.
3. Pour mixture around plants (or place in a spray bottle for application) to apply to any plants or flowers in need of protection.
4. Reapply with fresh batch of solution after any heavy rain.
