Deer Eating the Roses?

by Diana Greenwood Mead

Welcome to our gardening feature where Diana Greenwood Mead, our gardening expert answers your questions every week.

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This week Leon Wiggins from Florida has written to Diana with a heartfelt plea on how to stop some picturesque, but hungry deer from munching their way through his garden:
Dear Diana, What can I do to stop the deer from eating my roses, my day lilies, and even my tomato plants here in Ocala, Florida? The usual tricks like hanging soap, distributing human hair around, etc., don't work at all.

Hi Leon,
I do admit to a small laugh – but it was only fellow-feeling – some years ago we acquired two angelic looking white goats, the idea being that they would keep our big old orchard reasonably tidy and maybe in due course provide milk for the household.
Well, those goats ate everything but the grass and weeds they were supposed to – roses, spring bulbs, summer flowers, shrubs, even the yew hedges which are poisonous. In the end we gave them to good friends who had a farm, and breathed a sigh of relief tinged with sadness when they went,(they were very pretty).

Now you can't give away the deer – and they won't change their habits, so how to live with them?
One American gardener whose of beautiful garden I have seen pictures, has gone for the gorgeous decorative grasses and tough, handsome trees – olives, holm oaks, spiky hollies and the like, that not even deer can demolish, (although he did say that he had to build stockades round the trees while they were growing and lost a few), with sharp mown paths to give structure to his wild garden.
Lion dung from your local zoo or wild-life park is supposed to be effective, and could be worth trying.
Perhaps you could build cages or well fenced areas for the tomato plants, other vegetables, or flowers for the house. Don’t think "ugly", but think instead of a kind of enclosed garden area which matches the style of your house and surrounds your favorite treasures with a barrier of safety?

Deer love to roam, and almost the only thing that stops them is a small well fenced enclosure – maybe they feel they couldn't get out of it easily.
I do hope this has given you some ideas; let us know how you get on.

Happy Horticulture,
Diana.