How can I stop deer eating my flowers without fencing?

[Hwanda]

How do i stop deer coming in a eating my flowers ? Cannot fence it off as its too long a gap. Is there a reilable spray or some kind of contraption that has proved successful?

Deer will try anything! Various suggestions I have heard of are: strong smelling soap hung around, male urine(!) and garden furniture which you move from time to time can deter them.

I think you just have to go with it and plant flowers that deer find unappetising. See: https://www.rhs.org.uk/prevention-protection/deer-resistant-plants

Ox eye daisies are an easy grow that they don't like in my garden.

Lion dung

no i deer

Shotgun

Shame that it’s too long to fence off as that’s the recommendation from the BDS suppose a ha-ha is equally out of the question?

You could email BDS explaining your predicament and see what they say? [email protected]

You can try putting 1-5- 2 metre bamboo sticks in the ground and then weave fishing line between them, making 3-4 horizontal rows of the line. You can also spray the flowers/plants with hairspray. I have had some success using these methods. But pretty sure they are very hard to deter.

We had this exact problem at our old place — a whole herd of roe deer treated our flower beds like a buffet for years. The thing that actually made a difference for us was a motion-activated sprinkler, the Gardena one that connects to a standard hose. Sounds daft but deer absolutely hate being sprayed unexpectedly, and after they get caught a couple of times they learn to avoid the area entirely. We just put it on a timer so it wasn't going off during the day when we were in the garden.

Also worth mentioning — I noticed you said it's a long gap you can't fence. If there's a particular route they're using to get in, you can try running a single strand of wire at about 75cm high with some reflective tape hanging off it. Deer are cautious about things they can't see through and it can put them off without needing a full fence. Worked on the veg patch for us.

As for plants, if you want things that actually survive, I'd go with nepeta (catmint), salvias, and foxgloves. The deer left all of those alone completely, whereas the roses and hostas got absolutely destroyed. Salvias in particular are brilliant — pollinators love them, they flower all summer, and deer seem to hate the smell.

I would be worried they would get caught up in wire I fishing line I have heard of people using old CDs so they flap about

A grizzly bear, on a strong tether (or else they tend to just wander off looking for pic-a-nic baskets).

We have a 6 foot high electric fence. Before that all we could grow were poisonous plants like euphorbias and hellebores.

Am I alone in quite liking having deer in my garden? I just live with the fact they will eat stuff and try to plant stuff they don’t eat.

Deer are quite nervous animals. Hang something that makes a noise -tin cans together, and what about white fleece on long canes so it floats about. Scarecrow? A radio playing? After a week or two they’ll get used to it and they’ll lose effect so move them about.

I also do like the deer in my garden. They don't come that often.