Keeping Deer Out of Your Garden Using Items from the Pantry

There's no worse feeling than the one you get upon discovering that a deer (or two) has visited your garden during the night, nibbling on tender green beans and robbing your plants of precious blooms. If not stopped, a single deer can destroy your entire garden in a weekend. Here are some tips on how to keep deer at bay using items that you may already have in your pantry.

Make Some Noise: The sound of aluminum pie pans banging together in the breeze is one I remember distinctly from my childhood. My grandmother used to poke holes in those cheapies (the disposable ones that come in packs of three or four) and tie them loosely to metal fence posts around her garden, with two on each post. The wind would send them clanging together, a noise and movement that does a good job of scaring deer away. Their shiny, silver color reflecting off the sun (or moonlight) also has a great startling effect. For a free alternative, try tying plastic grocery sacks (the white ones work best) to the fence posts. They have the same effect when the wind blows--maybe even better since they inflate.

Rotten Eggs: You can mix these with dish soap, garlic, and red pepper flakes and pour the concoction around your garden or individual plants. However, if you prefer not to have rotten egg smell in your blender, just set some eggs out in the sun for a few days, then break them directly on the ground around the perimeter of your garden. Then run. The odor is offensive to humans, too.

Moth Balls: Just scatter these on the ground around the garden, or put four or five in a mesh sack (potato or onion sacks work well), and hang them from a tree or metal fence post deer-high. The smell is not quite as putrid as rotten eggs, but deer will avoid it just the same. Heavy rain will eventually dissolve them, so they'll have to be replaced throughout the summer.

Get Spicy: If you read the ingredients on deer deterrent sprays that are currently on the market, you might be surprised to find that common kitchen spices, such as ground garlic, black pepper, and cinnamon are listed. The strong scent of these on your plants or around your garden will many times make deer move on to other, less smelly food sources. Sprinkle them directly on your plants, but be sure to reapply after a heavy rain.

Bar Soap: When it comes to bar soap and deer, the stronger-smelling the better (for you, that is). Deer hate the perfumed smell of soaps like Ivory, Irish Spring, and Coast. Hang the bars (travel size work well) in mesh bags around the garden, or grate the soap and sprinkle it around to make it go further.

In the end, there truly is no fool-proof way of keeping deer out of your garden. If they are hungry enough, they will come despite the smells or sounds meant to keep them away. I've heard it said to plan on 1/3 of your crop going to deer, rabbits, or raccoons, and that's probably true. But try one--or a combination--of the methods I suggest and maybe, just maybe, you'll get to keep all of your beans.