Yes, the gardening season is upon us and I imagine the deer are looking at most of our new plants and licking their lips. I often joke with friends that the deer around our house use cell phones to communicate with one another: "Bambi One, this is Bambi Two — daylilies at 12:00." Well, anyway, I fully realize the deer haven’t progressed to that point (yet), so I feel confident that our means of defense will hopefully keep 9 of 10 deer out of my gardens. Here’s a great source from the Ohio Dept of Natrual Resources on the deer-resistant plants for our state. It also lists a number of chemicals available but does not inform us of their efficacies. From personal experience in the deer repellent category, we’ve just switched from using Liquid Fence to another spray called Bobbex. Although Liquid Fence seemed to be effective at repelling deer for a week or two, I can tell you that the smell was so off-putting to me that I just couldn’t go outside for an entire day after we sprayed. Bobbex does not have as strong a smell as liquid fence, instead it has several oils in it to repel the deer: clove and mint oil. We’ll see how effective it is in the next weeks and I’ll keep you informed.

Here’s a photo of garden phlox — a deer favorite!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 8:13 am and is filed under Cynthia Druckenbrod. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.