BOB'S FINDINGS ON WHAT DEER LIKE TO EAT IN HIS GARDEN
BACK TO DEER PROOF PLANTS Bypass to the links below
Well folks, I've now had a few seasons to figure out the deer situation here on the mountaintop.
Roses Are For Critters to EAT in my garden!
The only plant that deer AND voles (gophers) just can't resist anytime of the year are the roses. Even in spring when there is lots of forage the deer chew the roses to bits. I am this season pulling them out of the front of the house and making a bed for them that will fence them in with deer proof netting. I also tried chicken wire lining a trench to repel the voles that chew on the roots and found that it worked pretty well. There were some tunnels over time but the deer caused far more damage. Another problem is that the mini-rototiller gets hung up on the wire so it can't be used around the roses where it would help.
Well folks, here's the latest as of July 2000, come December the roses are going! I've had it with the voles chewing the roots and something else came in and chewed off the leaves to the point that they are no longer blooming. The plants just look ragged. I'm going to give them all away to my co-workers who live in town.
This year, September 2000, Ihad put in a lot of plants that I thought were deer proof and frankly, the deer up here are starving and wiped out most of the garden including most of the deer "resistant" plants. They definitely will not touch rosemary, lavender, zinnias, and verbena bonariensis, leonotis, and sunflowers. The verbena has been a great discovery and joy. Not only does it produce a profusion of bright purple flowers 5 to 6 feet tall on thin stiff stems that wave in the wind; they don't fall over! They haven't had any problems with low water areas and the deer simply ignore them. The best discovery in this year of starving deer invading the garden in herds at night and even in the day. I grew about 50 or more from a seed packet and they bloomed in about 5 months and are still going. I found the same plants in gallon cans for $5.95 each! I grew each of mine for a couple pennies each!
The rest of the garden is fine!
The rest of the garden has fared better but not perfectly. The deer for the most part ignored the garden in the months when forage was abundant, roses excepted. The garden only came under attack at the far end of the season when the grasslands in the mountains was chewed to the ground by the cattle grazing. We are surrounded by thousands of acres of beautiful mountains studded with gorgeous oak trees. The grass in summer becomes gold-tawny in color and is beautiful in a way that is different than the emerald spring. To the north we see the lights of San Jose, to the south the lights of Morgan Hill.
I found that miniature roses got far less damage than the big roses-even the climbing mini that's six feet tall. I don't know why. The deer began chewing on the dahlia leaves at the end last summer but still left the flowers alone. The fuchsias have been nibbled but not too badly. Same with the impatiens. The "Sunray" coreopsis has suffered similar damage-especially the young "volunteer" plants that spring up around the garden. The Hollyhocks have had most of their leaves chewed off but this also occurred at the end of summer when there was no fresh forage left. A "Johnson's Blue" geranium got chewed badly but came right back. The echinacia, rudbeckia, calla, canna, and pelargoniums (the common plant people here call geraniums) all came through without damage. The columbines have lost some leaves but the foxgloves have no damage. I planted Centranthus ruber mix (Jupiter's Beard) from Thompson & Morgan this year. T & M are the only company with the white, pink, and red in a mix. I've waited a long time for someone to offer it. It is absolutely deer proof! Nope: Guess What? The deer ate it too! And it blooms for a long season. In addition, it is one of the rare plants that thrives in dry shade. It does better with water but I've seen it wild in the Santa Barbara mountains with deer everywhere. Last year the anemonies were denuded, this year so far not. Zinnias are completely deer and rodent proof and bloom like crazy! Marigolds not so, slug, rabbits, and so forth found them tasty. The deer keep eating the blooms off the Gladiolus but they leave the plants alone and the voles dig around them but never harm them.
No Poisons, Please!
So that leads me to the next issue. I don't use poisons around the house except mouse pellets in the garage. Yellow Jacket traps, diatomaceous earth, and similar products keep most of the vermin under control. These don't use poisonous chemicals. Sluggo is new this year. It's supposed to be very effective for slugs and snails and then breaks down into fertilizer! This year the applications of fish emulsion on all the plants just didn't keep the deer away. Similarly, a couple of the deer repellents ended up failing because they didn't last on the plants. The deer came back each time in a week or so. It became the "flavor of the week" as far as they were concerned. Got a problem with Earwigs? Try this: wet some newspaper, roll it and put it in the areas where they are a problem. In the morning unroll the newspaper and shake them into a bucket of soapy water!
Bob's latest finds in deer-resistant plants!
Some new plants this year that have been delightful.
Leonotis leonuris can grow over 6 feet tall which it already is from seed sown this year! It looks like some of the flowering mints but on steroids. It has similar squarish stems and leaves with a slight fragrance of mint. No damage at all.
Verbena bonariensis has tiny bright purple flowers that are up 5 to 6 feet in the air and wave in the slightest breeze. My wife and I at completely taken with these old fashioned favorites. It grew easily from seed.
Nicotiana alata, "Heaven Scent" are flowering tobaccos that are a smash hit! They smell like sweet peas and nothing eats them. Even the leaves have no damage from the thrips. We open the windows at night and the fragrance goes through the entire house. The seeds are tiny and take two months to get to transplantable size. However they are frost tolerant at an early stage so move them to the garden early. You'll get about 2,000 seeds for a buck or two! I've got about two or three hundred out front and gave away a couple flats to friends too. It still is looking fresh and vigorous in early July. Well guess what? The deer began to starve and first they ate off the flowers and then the leaves. It's September 2000 and time to cut them down and till them under.
Sweet Sultan, Amberboa moschata (Centaurea imperialis is the old name), a member of the Bachelor Button family called Centaurea is in a large fat row. It's primary color is in the purple-lavender range with a few white and rare yellow flowers. No deer or other damage. But it's starting to look ragged already and the fragrance of honey isn't all that strong. By August it was finished and began to dry out in spite of regular watering. But the deer never ate it.
Centranthus ruber also known as "Jupiter's Beard". See the write up above. It's just now getting ready to bloom.
Lantana. I have planted a bunch of these in different colors along with various geraniums. No damage and they are blooming well. These are butterfly magnets! September 2000 and the plants got mostly stripped of leaves by the deer. Incredible!
Products to try!
So this year I'm trying some new things again. A search of the Internet found the following items I'll try this year. You can try them with or without me but if you e-mail me we could compare effectiveness. So on with the very few links on this subject:
Virtually Invisible Deer Fencing. They say they are patenting a new product that will work in some other way and that they will put it on their website once the patent is obtained.
Deer-Off. It is supposed to last 3 months.
Plantskydd Animal Repellent. This is a well tested commercial product used on wild acerage planted with seedling trees. It sounds like a good bet. It is supposed to last up to 6 months and it can't be washed off. It slowly photodegrades while bonded to the leaves.
Deer Control In Home Gardens. This is an article from West Virginia State that may apply to you. Worthwhile reading.