A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Gardem Under Attack

The other morning i went to check on the garden to find that someome/thing had eaten
-6 romaine plants (8"+ tall)
- Brussel sprouts
- Pickling Cukes
- Squash
- Zucchini

I have a fence of sorts (bamboo steaks and deer fencing)

Are there any organic/natural remidies... or deterants to use to help keep the critters away? Also not sure who they were... i have seen deer and rabbits.

Please help... I can only hope that the plant remains that still exist will be strong enough to come back and produce some fruit.

I would appreciate any help!

Sounds like a hungry deer to me. How tall is the fencing?

teach your son how to hunt out of season Good luck, i'm assuming not much you can do about it. if they want in bad enuff. . . i'm sure they'll get to it

You can try using dried coyote urine- sold in some garden stores, if deer are a problem, probably will work for rabbits too. Also try hanging Irish spring or another smelly deorderant soap from stakes, or tree branches. I use this on my apple tree- the deer love to eat them (the trees not the soap), it does seem to slow it down.

Put an egg in a blender of water. apply with a watering can. deer and rabbits will be turned away by chicken embryo on their salad. You may want to reapply after a rain. Egg solids are the active ingredient in "deer away".

I know your pain veryyyyyyy well...
*I had a family of 5 baby puff~balls of Woodchucks hatch on my property this year, plus the big'ole momma and they've been into everything, even sweet tender pea tops..
and I have raised beds....
Grrrrrrr!!
I came around the corner this afternoon, and there was one out in the day light, munchin' away on some dandelions at the base of my beds..
I looked at him and he came over to my direction and *I actually wondered if he was rabbied, cause he was comin' so close*.... so then I threw a pail at him and told him to go find a new home and shopping center.. this one was closing.... he ran right past me... *I was in his direct path of his home, and I wasn't going to stop him*....
I have put up some fencing *rabbit* and that's kept them out of some of the places...

Weezie, I think you hit this one on the head. After some deep thinking... it became clear that it is unlikely that the predators are deer, given the height of the fencing, and topography of the land. While it could be rabbits, i did see a woodchuck (i think) in the yard this morning. My wife told me that she has seen a similar critter hanging around too.

so i looked them up on line and found that some solutions include placing balloons, pinwheels, and scarecrows in the area. also using epsom salts, which of course need to be reapplied after a rain (which means everyday for us here lately). it also talked about haning rags soaked in ammonia around the perimeter of the garden area.

The most effective prevention is wire fencing 3-4 feet high with 1 foot below ground!

Good luck to all...hopefully some of these work!