Keeping Deer from Eating Shrubs

[Mermaid]

Or you can pray.

[SGOS]

I appreciate the thoughts here, and though I haven't responded, all this stuff is going into the little lock box in my head for future use.  I actually had a problem with deer and arborvitae years ago.  I've had gardens and trees and flowers and rose bushes, but the only thing they ever ate were my arborvitae.  I love arborvitae and I thought I'd try them again where I now live.  So maybe I just need to plant something else.

Right now I'm waiting to see if the netting works.  Since they decimated the shrubs a month ago, they don't seem to be eating them, although there isn't much left there to eat.  Tracks indicate that they have been investigating them at night however.  It's like they put their food caches in the heads for future use too, and they just have to keep checking to see if there's anything new in their favorite spots.

I forgot, they also feed on my grass.  In fact, they do so several times a day, but they don't seem do any actual damage to the grass.  I don't want to chase them away, because I like having deer around.  I just wish they would be nice.  :-D

I used to have a dog at my other house who would chase them out of the yard.  It was a big deal for the dog.  He just didn't want them in the yard.  He'd bark and carry on until they stepped off the grass and into the trees, and then he'd come back to the porch, apparently satisfied that some sort of mammal order had been restored.  The deer would come back and hang out when he was sleeping.  Sometimes he would sleep right through the trespass.  They seemed to get along, and both dog and deer understood the arrangement.  Of course the dog would be in the house at night and the deer could do whatever they wanted, including eating the arborvitae, which only seems to happen in winter.

The air gun would not be a first choice.  It's not that I worry about hurting them.  I just don't want them to never come around.  If I had to choose, I guess I'd want the deer more than the shrubs, but I think there can be a solution that will allow both.  The list Strom found on the internet may be useful if the netting fails.  I'm not sure why I didn't consult the internet, which is often a big help on things like this.

[aitm]

My Momma...( listen to Forrest Gump voice) would always say.....if you don't want the deer to eat your flowers, give them something else to eat....Momma sure was smart thata way..