How to Keep Deer Away from Your Yard and Garden Plants
Losing precious plants, trees and entire crops to demolition by deer and other creatures is distressing and discouraging. If that’s happened to you then you’re on a mission to do whatever possible to get rid of this costly problem. But do natural deer deterrents and repellents work, and if so which ones?
Chances are you’re here because you’ve already lost crops or landscape plants from deer. We totally know your pain, for it has happened to us multiple times with multiple different crops. If it hasn’t yet happened to you then congratulations for looking into prevention of this landscape and garden pest.
Plants and Crops We’ve Lost Due to Deer
- Elderberry bushes – bushes eaten to the ground
- Squash leaves and vines, (however, the Tetsukabuto squash managed to thrive anyway)
- Sunchokes – crops demolished to the ground and even the rhizomes
No One Solution
Some do, some don’t, and some work better than others, but which ones? There are lots of options and answers but not always agreement as to which deer deterrents are best. That’s because there is no one solution that works the same or equally well for all situations.
As with many things in the garden and in garden pest control, there’s rarely just one solution. It often requires a multi-faceted approach — aka IPM for Integrated Pest Management — where more than one thing combined is the best defense for the greatest protection.
Toward that goal, we’re doing a deep dive into a number of options here for how to keep deer out of your yard and garden.
BEST NATURAL DEER DETERRENTS
These first two tips below are considered by an extension service as the very best solutions for getting rid of deer problems. However, as you will see, not everyone can implement those, so we’re covering a range of options.
Hunters
On one of the extension services, their advice was that the very best deer deterrent is to kill them.
If you’re a hunter that can be a win-win. Dinner comes to you as you survey and protect your garden domain. In some states (not sure about all, so google it or check with your state wildlife commission), you’re allowed to kill deer and wildlife on your own property any time of year.
A member of our Planting for Retirement Facebook group lives in Minnesota and has a short three month window for gardening. So when rabbits started raiding their garden, their best solution has been to shoot them and harvest the meat. The rabbits fed on their great organic garden food and they in turn, dined on the fatted rabbits. That sounds like a natural solution for omnivores.
When Killing Deer Doesn’t Work
- VALUES: If you’re vegetarian or vegan
- RESTRICTIONS: If you live too close to other homes such that a rifle shot is against city ordinance or neighborhood CC&R’s (Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions)
- FIREARMS: You don’t own or wish to own and shoot firearms
A Deer Fence is the Very Best Defense
The ultimate best solution to keep deer out of the garden is a minimum 8′ high electric fence. Of courses fences cost more and take more to install. However, consider that once you have it in place, it should serve for years to come at no additional cost and no hassle or repeatedly having to reapply the short term solutions.
If you plan to garden for years to come and want to protect your precious garden produce, a fence is a solid investment. So serious growers and homesteaders will definitely want to consider budgeting for a fence as soon as you can if you’re in an area with a healthy deer population.
A Solar Electric Fence Works Great
We now have a solar electric garden fence kit protecting our garden. Well, we started with an electric fence kit then expanded from there by adding additional pieces.
Ours is a small fence covering a small area. We didn’t need to make it tall enough to prevent deer from jumping it because they don’t like jumping without a clear landing place and our garden space is arranged such that it doesn’t really have that.
One GardensAll community member shared what’s working for her:
“My dogs take care of the squirrels and groundhogs. To keep raccoons and deer out of the main vegetable garden, we purchased an electric fence many years ago (~15?). Back then, I believe it was just over $300. That included the main system, wire, clips, and posts for 50x60ft of garden. Best investment ever. It’s still going strong. No worries about 200ft of corn, 100ft of beans, and other veggies.
It won’t hurt wildlife or humans, but it does make you very uncomfortable.
~Trina Rodgers, gardener
Pros of a Fence to Deter Deer
- Once it’s in place it can serve for many years to come without any issues
- There are solar electric fences that simplify electrical hookups for electric fences
- These can keep out deer and other animals that raid or dig in gardens
EDITOR’S NOTE: We also installed a solar electric fence system and are in our second year (as of 2023), and so far it’s working great!
If you just have a smaller, contained garden area, that might be the way to go. Otherwise, not just any ole fence will do when it comes to deer. See “how high can deer jump?”
Cons of a Garden Fence to Repel Deer
- Bigger up front investment
- Not usually that attractive
- Deer fences need to be at least 8′ tall
- Electric fences need to either be solar, which is more costly, or connected to power
Edible Landscaping Nursery in Virginia, shared that they had to finally deploy an 8 foot fence and a string of electric fencing atop that because of course deer can jump. The end result has been quite effective, and while costly, especially for a nursery with lots of acreage, once it’s done your deer worries are over. (Then you can focus on the rabbits and moles)!
A fence is a bigger up front investment for a much bigger long term gain.
Natural Deer Deterrents for When You Don’t Hunt and Can’t Install a Fence
Garlic
Anecdotal lore touts garlic as an effect deer deterrent. The idea behind using garlic is that deer have a keen sense of smell and might be turned off by strong odors. However, deer are also highly adaptable creatures, and if the attraction of the plants in a garden is strong enough, they might ignore the smell of garlic.
Using garlic as a deer deterrent usually involves spreading garlic in some form around the area you’re trying to protect. Here are a few methods you can try:
1. Garlic Spray
Make a homemade garlic spray by blending two bulbs of garlic with a quart of water in a blender. Allow it to sit overnight, then strain it through a cheesecloth. Add enough water to make a gallon of garlic water, and then spray it on your plants. The smell of garlic can help deter deer.
2. Garlic Clips
Garlic clips are small, enclosed plastic devices filled with concentrated garlic oil. These can be clipped onto or hung from trees, shrubs, or fences. The garlic scent they emit can deter deer.
3. Garlic Powder
You can also sprinkle garlic powder around your garden, which can help keep deer away. However, this method requires reapplication after rain.
4. Plant Garlic Plants
Planting garlic in your garden can also deter deer. Deer do not like the smell of garlic and may avoid areas where it’s growing.
See also, types of garlic.
5. Chopped Raw Garlic
A GardensAll friend shares what works for her:
“Chopped raw garlic is the best deer repellent I’ve ever used. It’s effective, nontoxic, biodegradable, and works after rain.”
~Jennifer Burchill
It’s important to note that while garlic can help deter deer, it’s not a guaranteed solution. If deer are hungry enough, they may ignore the smell of garlic and eat your plants anyway. And also, the use of garlic will need to be reapplied periodically, especially after rain, and especially in the spray form.
As always, different methods work for different gardens and deer populations. You might need to experiment with several techniques before finding one that works best for your specific situation.
Predator Pee & Poo
Ages ago when I had a landscaping business in Asheville, NC, one of our Biltmore Forest customers asked us for a deer repellent or something for the deer destroying her prized hostas and other plants. This was thirty some years ago and there weren’t many legal and non-lethal solutions.
Back then there weren’t any neatly packaged products either like you can readily buy today.
Lacking apex predators (other than human hunters), the deer population had grown into a major nuisance. We pondered the solution and decided to experiment with a homemade repellent that would make the deer think a predator was lurking about. The Asheville Zoo accommodated us with a bucket of fresh mountain lion poop!
We placed the lion poop in little bags of cheesecloth and hung them around the lady’s yard. An unpleasant job, to say the least, but it worked! Still, it was a lot of stinking trouble!
Nowadays, there are so many options for keeping the deer (and other critters) away from our gardens and landscape. Not only that but you can actually buy mountain lion pee as well as other predator urine such as fox, coyote and wolf repellent on Amazon!!
Dogs and Humans Too
Whenever this topic comes up on the GardensAll Facebook page, there are always a number of comments about human urine working to deter deer and other garden pests. Some say the males in their family — either dogs or humans or both — make night time rounds cloaked by dark for privacy, to mark the perimeter of yard or garden plot.
But what about households without males in residence, or those homes in more congested neighborhoods where homes are too close together to want to risk making the evening rounds? In these instances, some have said their solution is to pee into a jar and then go out and sprinkle it around the perimeter.
But of all the many options, which deer repellent is most effective in deterring deer from your yard and garden plants?
