How to Keep Deer Out of the Garden

Deer Fence for Gardening

You can try many techniques to deter deer from munching on your plants, but the only true solution is fencing. This means an eight-foot fence or a garden wall. A four-four-foot fence is easy for deer to jump.

If you have the room, even better is double fence. This can mean a single fence and then a second fence a few feet outside this fence of simple strung wire. While deer can jump quite high, they can’t jump two fences in a row this easily. 

 We understand that a fence isn’t always an option because it’s expensive, takes up a lot of space, and isn’t always pleasing to the eye. 

More Tips for a Deer-Resistant Garden

While deer will eat anything if they are desperate enough, some plants simply aren’t palatable and will encourage deer to look elsewhere. 

• For example, some plants deter deer, including forsythia, lilac bush, marigolds, zinnias, daffodils, lavender, and snapdragons. See our complete chart of deer-resistant plants and plant on the perimeter of your garden bed or yard.
• Spray flowers and shrubs with a deer repellent that contains a mixture of dried bovine blood, sulfured eggs, and garlic. These repellents are available at most home and garden stores. They will not harm your plants and are usually effective in deterring deer.
• Combine one raw egg, ½ cup of milk, one tablespoon of dish detergent, and 1 gallon of water for another natural deer repellent. Lightly spray the mixture over the plants. Respray after rain. Or, mix two tablespoons of Tabasco sauce to a gallon of water and spray the foliage and fruit. If it rains, reapply.
• Use scare tactics. Try putting several metal posts 4- to 5 feet tall around the garden. Attach a metal pie tin with twine to the top of each pole. The least bit of wind makes the pine tins clack with a noise that the deer don’t like. 
• Put a transistor radio in your garden and keep it on all night. Switch the station when you think of it. The noise will keep deer away.
• Set up an inexpensive motion detector in your garden. When a deer triggers it, the noise will scare the deer back into the woods.
• Drape fabric netting over plants and (most) deer will stay clear.
• For a natural deer deterrent, scatter dog or human hair around your garden, hang human hair in pantyhose or mesh bags in trees, or find human hair clippings at a barber shop. 
  • To keep deer away from apple trees, hang nylon stockings filled with human hair from the limbs so that the clumps of hair are suspended about four feet from the ground. The hair and hose should be changed often.
• Scatter or hang bars of deodorant or cheap motel soap around the garden; leaving the wrappers on will last longer. Irish Spring is particularly recommended. 
• Mix rotten eggs in water (about a dozen per 5 gallons) and spray around the perimeter of the garden.
• Spread kitty litter around the edge of the garden.
• Soak old socks in Lysol, spread them around the garden’s perimeter, and hang them from a tree limb or stake.
• One reader, Rick, says, “Smelly old shoes can be used as a deterrent to deer. Just stick the shoes on top of tomato sticks and watch the deer walk a wide circle around them. My shoes usually last from mid-May until about mid-August. They keep the deer out of my garden for that long. This depends on how much rain and your shoes smell.”
• You can also drape your unwashed laundry around a low fence, or make a very pungent scarecrow of your unlaundered clothes.
• For a real odor offensive, use predator urine; wolf and coyote urine are sold commercially in most garden stores. (Note: Use a responsible source for predator urine to ensure that the animals are treated humanely and the brand complies with state and federal regulations.)
• Make it tough for deer to browse. Trim off lower branches of trees. No deer wants to waste time picking through your scare yard if there are lush bushes next door.
• Clean up your yard. Don’t leave acorns, rotted fruit, or leaves on your lawn; they are an open invitation to hungry deer.