We had a 20 ft by 1ft by 1ft trench dug. then he filled it with top soil and put some fish compost on the top. For some reason the deer go out of their way to walk on the new soil! Maybe it is softer or maybe the aroma of the fish!!! any ideas on how to keep them off? they make 2 inch deep holes as the walk. Bulbs are not in yet. thanks all
1. Plant in loosened existing soil instead of replacing with a purchased product that is likely to be very high in organic material, prone to settling and shrinking 2. Purchase and install deer fencing
Daffodils grow in clay soils - great quantities of these (and tulips) have been produced commercially in Skagit Valley mud for decades. Deer fencing consisting of black plastic deer netting stapled to peeler poles is not particularly visible, except for the poles - which look rustic and natural. In fact deer will sometimes jump into the netting and then bounce backward off of it, to then bound away in the opposite direction. Clearly not having seen it, ever understood what was happening. I'm talking about fencing the garden, not just the bulbs. Otherwise - as with the new bulb planting - that the deer will probably continue to step in, as the bulbs are trying to come up and develop - every time you try to plant and grow anything there you are throwing all of your gardening money and time into a place where wild animals are determining horticultural outcomes rather than yourselves.
Well, it’ll be really easy to pop a bulb in each footprint hole they’ve made for you! Joking aside - tulips will look all promising til one morning you look out the windows at burgeoning springtime to find the happy deer have bitten the fat bud off every tulip We have success w tête à tête mini daffodils planted in a wild forest area with deer and coyotes and other wildlife I don’t know about other bulbs and deer. What else is going in this newly-created plant bed (ie what will it showcase once bulbs are finished in May)?
No hostas — they have pruned off my big gorgeous leaves I have on my patio ... they like 1. Empress Wu 2. Stained glass 3. Midwest magic 4. Some « guacamole « Quite the hosta buffet! They do not touch my various ferns (maidenhair // sword // deer (ironically )) They don’t touch my small size rhodos - but if you’re putting in bulbs each fall - you can’t dig aggressively around rhodo drip line (the diam of the plant ) And at this time of year I have a nice easy purple aster and they don’t touch it either
It is only since we put up a plastic mesh deer fence that I have been able to enjoy gardening in Nanoose Bay. The trouble with planting things that deer don't like is that they are often things I don't like either. Deer eat sword fern now in my area. Even rhodos, though they aren't on the menu most months of the years, can be destroyed in October during the deer rutting season. It is so disheartening to get up in the morning to look out on your garden and see what is left.
