We have a 6 foot privacy fence around our backyard and they don’t bother to come in it. They do eat everything in the front yard, though.
Love 'em / Hate 'em 
We’ve had deer on our front stoop eating whatever plant we had there at the time. But they’re so cute!???
1 Like
We can’t have fences because our yard is bordering a good chunk of NGPA. Only split rail can be installed which is ugly (as most fences are) and not very functional to keep wildlife out.
Yikes–deer on the deck!! So far, (I think) the animals eating plants on our deck have been moles and voles.
I love a split rail fence. I used to want one with dog wire/hog wire on the inside, but that was before we had our fence-jumping dog. Had to go to the 6 foot tall privacy fence for her.
@BunsenBurner are you allowed to fence in a garden? Nobody would ever be able to grow anything here without a fence. We fence in gardens, fence around little trees and special bushes. Basically we fence anything we don’t want the deer to eat because if we don’t they will.
We can put temporary fences (like mesh or chicken wire) but no permanent posts or higher fencing. Of course, our deer are not deterred by chickenwire! To them, it seems to indicate the spot where the “good stuff” is. 
4 Likes
We eat deer as do most of our neighbors. That’s a pretty good deterrent keeping them closer to the woods than our garden, even if we never shoot at them from the house. They associate people with guns or bows/arrows.
They will eat things from our fields so my farming guy used to plant things they’d like better than the plants he wanted to keep. That was somewhat successful, but not perfect. It worked well with voles.
1 Like
I’d consider chicken wire fencing, except the more experienced gardeners in neighborhood warn that to keep out the rabbits it needs to extend far underground too. That seems a pain. So for now I’m settling for crops that WE like and that rabbits don’t seem to like (mostly tomatoes and zuc and yellow squash) and kale for me. Plus some lettuce in pots set up on risers.
1 Like
I read that deer and rabbits don’t like peonies. I used to have problem with grasshoppers, they eat all my young leaves. Somehow they leave my yard alone after I started planting peonies. Rabbits used to munch on my front roses too, the baby ones, not the big bushes.
1 Like
Yesterday friends mentioned that marigolds have work as a deterrent in their veggie gardens. I may plant some because they are pretty and remind me of my first plant ever grown (in a foam cup as Brownie project).
3 Likes
I grow them around my tomatoes to deter tomato hornworms.
1 Like
Marigold is a popular planted deterrent in many gardens at my community garden. They are not my favorite flower so I don’t plant them, I plant zinnias in my garden? What do zinnias do to help the garden? - I have no idea but they make me super happy! 
They do bring lots of butterflies to the garden.
1 Like
One of our local “grows” orgs posted these gardening “spring cleaning/prep” tips.
We are in the midwest so gardening season is up and coming - not here yet!
☐ Add a layer of compost to garden beds. Weed the beds before adding compost.
☐ Sanitize pots and containers by mixing 1 part household bleach with 9 parts water. Soak the pots in the solution for ten minutes, then rinse well. Be sure to wear eye protection, gloves and old clothes.
☐ Wash or replace your garden gloves and kneeling pads.
☐ Sharpen your hand pruners, and replace the blade if it is more than 8 years old.
☐ Oil your wheelbarrow’s moving parts, check tire pressure, and sand and oil handles.
☐ Sort through your seed packets - use older seeds first and compost expired seeds.
☐ Review your garden planting map from last year and plan to rotate crops - especially vegetables in the nightshade and cucurbit plant families.
☐ Repair or replace raised beds and redefine in-ground plots with edging or stones.
3 Likes
Really curious why they say to replace a blade if more than 8 years old. We have blades that are decades old, but H keeps them sharpened and they work fine. I’ve had to replace some newer ones because other things broke on them (plastic parts), but older ones we got at an auction when we first moved here over 20 years ago still work well.
1 Like
Lol, may just be that the newer ones don’t have much more than an 8 year lifespan! Not like the old ones!
It’s just a gardening guide, not a gardening bible. Take a tip if it works for you, leave them if they don’t!
2 Likes
Thanks. I wasn’t sure with the specific amount of 8 years if there was something “bad” in older blades that ended up being replaced 8 years ago via some law or another (similar to lead in pipes or whatever). I couldn’t think of what that might be, so figured I’d ask since I was too busy at the time to google and try to find info. 
I’ll be sure to clear the beds and add some mulch just as soon as the 3" of snow melts and the subsequent mud season ends…
growing tomatillos this year!
2 Likes
I plant zinnias to help bring in more pollinators. I also like that I can cut some to take inside and brighten the house. It’s certainly a bonus to watch the butterflies that love them too.
4 Likes
Yes I’m cutting zinnias through October!!
2 Likes
For those who are planting seedlings inside, is there a type of potting soil / whatever that you like?
I need to buy some more. And I see there are also options for flower pots and for raised bed mix and also garden soil (for veggies/herbs). Ideally I’d like one bag to cover all my needs for seedlings, outdoor flower pots and large outdoor lettuce pots and perhaps some for the holes I dig for tomoto plants. But I’d consider multiple bags if I understood more about it.
1 Like