OH Deer.....

Living in the UP has been wonderful....after all, I am from Montana and excluding the mountains, it is a whole lot like my other home...  After working so hard and rejoicing that my gardens are finally starting to grow....and they are starting to look like something other than piles of dirt....collecting heritage, exotic seeds that no one has seen in 50 years...planning Potager gardens that are not only functional, but beautiful...babying seeds in February and setting them out in the spring sunshine...flats and flats of them....and then hauling them all back in..digging, shoveling...layering..SOMETHING...SOMETHING...has the audacity to put their lips on my plants!  They went thru my whole garden and nipped off the buds and the tops of EVERYTHING!

I lay awake at night hoping to catch them in the act and when I finally went to sleep? I dreamed of venison steaks and stew meat and deer slippers....In the day, for 3 solid days  I poured over every inch of information regarding animal and deer repellent...I went to the dreaded Wal Mart and looked at their products and to the Ace Hardware to peruse theirs...

WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would pay $26.99 for a quart of Liquid Fence? or $8.97 for a 1 1/2 cup of granules that would not even do a quarter of my yard? It would have cost me almost $100.00 every time it rained to repel the varmints....that was one option...

The other option was netting and fencing...THAT option would have cost me triple the liquid option....not to mention that it is UUUUGLAAAY!

Looking around at people's garden's, which I am apt to drive around and do...bothered me...all those beautiful trees and flowers....vegetable gardens... were covered to a height of 8 feet with ORANGE deer fencing...from people trying to guard their hard work and have something to enjoy in the summer months...to me, bright orange fencing is counter productive in a flower garden...

I found another way....I went back to Wal Mart....I read the back of every bottle I could find of every animal repellent I could find...

They ate every bit of lettuce(bald spot to the left)

Do you KNOW WHAT THAT STUFF IS MADE OF?  Rotten eggs...the thieves! Eggs are cheap...so is the castor oil and white pepper that make up the balance of the ingredients in Liquid Fence...basically what you are paying for is that white plastic bottle with the pretty picture of the cotton pickin deer!

For a total of a $12.00 investment...I made my own...

It has been extremely effective and I have not had a deer in my garden in 3 weeks! I also sprayed the neighbor's garden and she has no problems!  Here is what I do:

I bought a one gallon garden sprayer from Wal Mart for $10.00, that made up the bulk of my $12.00 investment....

I had eggs...and ground Chili Pepper..I didn't have white pepper....so I bought Castor Oil in a one quart bottle for $1.09 and a $1.00 bottle of  minced Garlic  from the Dollar Store...

The first time, I did not wait for the eggs to spoil...I mixed it together and sprayed it on my plants...it worked then, too...I was having deer ravage my garden on a nightly basis...

Here is my recipe:   4 whole eggs

                         
ALL the juice from a small jar of the minced garlic(fill it back up with plain tap water so you  have garlic water for the next time you  mix the spray)

2 Heaping Table Spoons of Chili Pepper, White Pepper or any Pepper

 2 Tablespoons of Castor oil or Mineral oil would work(even veggie oil, it helps it stick to the plants)
 Shake the daylights out of it! You can even stick it in the blender first.... Add water to the top and shake again...I had to take off the sprayer tip because it got clogged...

Paste Tomatoes...

As I mentioned, I didn't let mine sit the first time I used it...it was still effective...but when you let it sit? WOW...it smells to high heaven! Don't ever open your container in the house...it takes about 45 minutes for the smell to dissipate!   Ask me how I know that? I will never do it again!  I just add water to whatever is left over from my spraying...it does smell bad but the smell dissipates after it dries and only the deer can smell the residue... Every 2nd spraying, I add more of the ingredients to what is left over so I never run out...I am the only one, besides the neighbor I sprayed, that has flowers left...and tomatoes! Even with the bright orange fencing, the deer just lean over it...

Now I dream of canning....although, those tomatoes would make great spaghetti...with a little deer burger...