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Wednesday, May 27, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Keep mule deer out of your garden
By Jim anderson
Correspondent
“I am NOT going to put
the raspberries out until we
get a fence up to keep the
deer out of the garden!” So
said my wife, Sue, as we dis-
cussed this summer’s garden
and greenhouse.
Mule deer — thanks in
part to those residents who
continue feeding them in their
yards — are a bane to anyone
trying to start or maintain a
vegetable garden. Ask any-
one in Sisters (in spite of the
city ordinance against feeding
deer) how much it costs to
battle deer bent upon eating
their garden and landscaping
into oblivion.
The amount of forage a
deer requires daily amounts
to a lot of carrots, lettuce,
spinach, raspberry plants or
landscaping.
How do we keep deer from
devouring our landscaping
and kitchen gardens? Well,
if you Google “Keeping deer
out of your garden,” you’ll
bring up a zillion products
that the manufacturers swear
by the Holy Word will work.
A sight I will never forget
is that of Amanda Egertson,
Deschutes Land Trust’s stew-
ardship director, battling deer
bent upon eating all the native
grasses she was trying to
restore in Metolius Preserve.
Time and time again, week
after week, Amanda planted
more grass and used this or
that repellent, and each failed.
She finally found one that
worked and the deer left her
grasses alone — but the smell
from the stuff would gag a
maggot.
Deer have an excellent
sense of smell, so those repel-
lents that contain predator
urine and/or rotten eggs prob-
ably will work—until it rains,
and it has to be applied again.
There are many websites
for that stuff, and depend-
ing on how and when they’re
applied, it may be worth
checking out.
A guard dog will work, but
you’ll have to put up with the
incessant barking. Getting up
in the middle of the night to
scare mule deer out of your
yard every time your wife
whispers, “The deer are back”
works, but you’ll lose a lot of
sleep, and you may bump into
a cougar doing so. I’d forget
that one.
Pat Callender up in BC
says, “We have a ‘Deer Proof’
recipe in Nanaimo, British
Columbia, where they (deer)
come wandering through our
yards and eat everything in
sight! It is as follows: one
egg yolk (only), one liter of
water, one tablespoon bak-
ing powder. Mix well and
spray on shrubs, trees, and
roses every two weeks. Keep
in tightly sealed container in
your fridge until all used up.”
Another person added, “I find
the eggs with tabasco sauce
works also. I’ll add garlic to
my next batch. One gallon
water, six eggs, and tabasco
to taste!”
But then another person
warned about unintended
results from the egg and gar-
lic goop, “The egg mixture
truly works on deer, and it
drives the buzzards crazy
looking for road kill. They
(buzzards) landed on my
fence and looked for hours
for their dinner.”
Another frustrated gar-
dener came up with a repel-
lent that’s free. “I get human
hair from the woman who
cuts my hair and put it around
my plants. It keeps the deer
away and it doesn’t smell bad.
It also seems to keep rabbits
photo by Jim anderson
porter liddell and Sue anderson putting up deer-proof fencing to protect
the anderson’s kitchen garden.
and raccoons away when I
put it in my veggie garden.”
Scare devices, such as
sound-activated sprinklers
are expensive and require a
lot of effort to install them,
but some people swear by
them as the best repellent for
keeping one’s garden safe
from mule deer. They’d also
work to prevent your neigh-
bor’s dog and cat from using
your backyard for a waste
depository.
From my point of view,
fencing is the best. But stay
away from that black plastic
netting that’s almost impos-
sible to see. We put that up
and the birds around our
place started running into it,
so we took it down immedi-
ately. Hog wire fencing with
white string attached to poles
at about six-inch spacing, up
to about six feet works very
well.
There’s a website I found
that provides a whole bunch
of different methods for keep-
ing deer out of your garden:
www.wikihow.com/Keep-
Deer-Out-of-Your-Yard. You
may like one or two of those
ideas.
Whatever you find that
works, please, by all means,
send The Nugget a letter to
the editor and share your
good news.
Sister s Farmer s Market
Fredays 2-5 p.m.
June 5–September 25
In Barclay Park
Oregon-grown
Produce & Plants
Weekly Entertaenment
SestersFarmersMarket.com
We’re not pushing
up daisies...
p roses
u
g
in
m
o
c
e
’r
e
W
right next door!
Check out our new
location at
411 E. Main Ave.
541-549-8198
(Across from The Nugget)
ThreeSistersFloral.com
Each Friday afternoon beginning June 5 at
Barclay Park in downtown Sisters, the tents sprout
up and the Sisters Farmers Market rolls into town.
A wide array of vendors offer up fresh produce,
locally produced lamb and eggs, fresh bread and
much more. You can put together a full meal from
appetizers to dessert — all with locally grown,
healthy and delicious foodstuffs.
When you shop at the Sisters Famers Market,
you not only get great food and related goods at
competitive prices, you are putting that money
directly back into the Sisters economy.
It is also a festival and it’s a fun place to be: a
place to relax and chat with friends and neighbors
and enjoy the music of local musicians. It’s like a
weekly festival for Sisters folks.
If you’d like to be a vendor, contact Lisa
Allenbach at 541- 719-8030.
Three Sister s Floral
Three Sisters Floral has moved right next door
to their long-time location. The new shop is located
at 411 E. Main Ave.
What hasn’t changed is Three Sisters Floral’s
commitment to beautifying your world. There’s
always something new to add color and richness to
your life — along with traditional favorites.
Act now to get your lush hanging baskets that
will bring color and beauty to your home or work-
place all summer long.
While Three Sisters Floral does beautiful flower
arrangements as a traditional flower shop — it is
also so much more. Surround yourself with living
beauty and make your spring and summer special.
Three Sisters Floral delivers to the Sisters area,
Black Butte Ranch, Camp Sherman and Suttle
Lake. They also make daily deliveries to Bend and
Redmond.