Living With Deer

To the Editor:

My whole life, I’ve lived with a mom who loved to garden. Although I wasn’t particularly interested in it, I always enjoyed seeing all our plants in full bloom. However, living in Connecticut has its flaws. Where there are woods, there are plenty deer and other animals who eat everything from our garden. Tomatoes are chewed until only the empty stems were still there, and small colorful flowers disappeared over night. After learning the hard way that deer ate anything that we planted, my mom began to try ways to protect the plants.

The most important thing to know is the types of plants deer don’t like to eat. Unless the deer are hungry enough to eat almost anything, a good gardener who lives in an area with a high deer population knows to plant flowers, shrubs, and vegetables that deer will avoid. For example, daffodils, purple cone flowers, and Russian sage are good plants that deer won’t eat. Deer normally avoid plants that have a strong fragrance like lavender and monarda.

If you still want to grow plants and vegetables that deer and other animals enjoy to eat, it’s important to prevent ways from deer eating them. My mom tried putting soap flakes on and around the plants, and due to its taste it kept deer away. However, when it rained or any harsh weather occurred, they would dissolve or disappear. I recommend building tall fences around flowerbeds and for individual plants like tomatoes, a tall individual fence in a thin cylinder shape keeps deer out of reach easily.

It’s important to know simple and easy ways to prevent deer from terrorizing your garden, and using cages and repellents that keep deer away from plants is a much better solution than killing deer. Not only would deer culling not help prevent Lyme disease, but it’s also inhumane and unnecessary.

Lisa Barber

33 Zoar Road, Sandy Hook                                     December 10, 2008