Recipe for home made deer repellent?

[Ken]

John The deer here were jumping and 8 foot fence to get into the garden area. so added another 4 foot wire fence to keep them out. so a total of 11'1/2 height and some does were still getting inside. added another run of barb wire to
keep them out. now since out dog has died we have the rabbits coming under the wire. purple hull peas every animal will attempt to get to them.
Neighbor ran every 6 inches a hot wire so can grow his peas . they respect his fence so do rabbits and dogs protest.
ken

 

[PILOON]

I have some plants like Hosta that the deer like to eat. For those I take a couple bars of Irish Spring soap and shred them up with a cheese grater. I sprinkle the gratings in and on the plant and the deer won't go near them because of the smell. Usually good for about a month depending on how much rain we get.

We also use this method with success.
Hostas seem to be like desert to the deer.
We shred the irish spring and make little sacks from window screening and fold a piece of plastic to form a little roof like affair to keep rain from dissolving the soap flakes.

Generally this roofed baggy system lasts the whole season.

The other system that is proven to work is the human urine one but that costs a lot of beer, and I prefer scotch over beer.

Bonus:
Get rid of any wind chimes, deer are curious and chimes do attract them and when they get close to the sound they detect that sweet desert that you planted.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

We also use this method with success.
Hostas seem to be like desert to the deer.
We shred the irish spring and make little sacks from window screening and fold a piece of plastic to form a little roof like affair to keep rain from dissolving the soap flakes.

Generally this roofed baggy system lasts the whole season.

The other system that is proven to work is the human urine one but that costs a lot of beer, and I prefer scotch over beer.

Bonus:
Get rid of any wind chimes, deer are curious and chimes do attract them and when they get close to the sound they detect that sweet desert that you planted.

Cool! I'll remove the wind chimes (they are about 20 feet from the tomatoes); I just bought two cases of beer yesterday.

 

[oosik]

When we had a garden - I think we tried just about everything. The four foot high hog wire fence around the garden was a total joke. Took that down the second year - saved the T-posts and wire for other projects. Three times the wife planted plants(don't remember what) that supposedly repel deer. They just avoided and went around. The Irish Spring shavings in mesh bags made the garden smell odd - did little else. It sort of did offset the odor of the recycled beer spots strategically placed around the garden.

The aluminum pie pans hanging from the hog wire fence simply gave the deer nighttime guidance markers. They could now easily identify the location of the fence and know precisely when to jump.

The very best thing for keeping foraging wildlife out of the garden patch - a big outside dog. BUT - when we went this way - we had to withstand the 2:15am or whenever - barking.

The dog would bark - I would always get up - flashlight - shotgun - Mucks - jacket. I wanted to make certain the dog was not tangling with a porcupine.

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

The deer need a place to land when jumping a fence. My garden is long but only about 8 feet wide, so they can't jump in without hitting the other side when they land. When my garden was more square, I erected a short fence down the center for the beans to climb on. The deer didn't want to land on it so they never tried. My deer fence is pretty flimsy. I just pound in t-posts then duct-tape a garden stake to each t-post so it sticks up another 4 feet or so, giving me a total height of around 9'. Then I put up bird netting. I wrap a strip of bright orange surveyors tape around the very top (also for visibility). Not much of a barrier at the top, but for some reason they never tried it. I use velcro ties to attach everything.

Also hung a cheap solar light in there, also for visibility at night. (Never wanted to find an impaled deer in the my garden next morning.) Used those metal U-pins (meant for pinning down landscape fabric) to pin the netting to the ground, which kept out the smaller critters. I take the whole thing down for winter. Takes a couple of hours to put up, and about 30 minutes to take down.

One day I want a permanent wooden post and rail fence around the garden. Drill a hole in the top of each post so I can insert the garden stakes, then the bird netting wrap, or maybe I'll get fancy and use chicken wire.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

When we planted our first garden, it was pretty big...maybe 50X60; I put up a standard hog wire fence and thought it was great until I saw a German Shepard jump it flat footed. We only have a couple of 24X4 raised beds now, with no fence and it's about all I can take care of. I love the fresh tomatoes and purple hulls and onions, but when it gets to be too much of a hassle, I'll just get my fresh stuff from the Farmer's market.