I am looking for ideas for a living physical and chemical barriers for use in a large unprotected garden. Preferably any that detere deer from going over or through it.
The area is right next to a native sage/pinion/juniper habitat. bringing in native bushes, cacti would be desirable to blend this barrier into the background, but i would like to incorporate cultivated sunflowers and running bamboos to physically block sight of the garden (and slow wind, provide shade).
any ideas?
6 comments:
An 8 ft. fence will stop deer and is expensive. Lower barriers combined with deterrents such as electric fencing, aluminum tape, netting that they run into but cannot see, etc. will help.
Chemical deterrents work best if you follow the instructions and if you are not completely overrun. Liquid Fence still works well here, but the temperature needs to be above freezing to apply it.
I know of at least one landscape company that builds natural fencing woven out of branches and they combine that with deer fencing and it works well.
There are several books on deer and gardening.
Forgot to mention green alternatives for a living fence:
this is not deer/fool proof:
Tall Western Sage
Curl Leaf Mountain Mahogany
Fernbush
Rabbitbrush
Apache Plume
Gambel Oak
Three-Leaf Sumac
Lilacs
Rocky Mountain Juniper
Utah Juniper
White Fir
Blue Spruce
Pinyon Pine
Ponderosa Pine
Western Hackberry
there are more,...
whats are thoughts of cacti, i heard dear are careful of where they put their feet. would strategic placing of yuccas, prickly pears, agaves in areas where deer might jump into help?
what about aromatic plants that deer utterly abhor?
i know deer wont eat alliums, daffodils and rhubarb.
You can also deter deer by making the border with plants wider than they can jump. They also do not like confined areas. If there were two wires that they could not scale in combination, they would not necessarily jump in between them. Perhaps shrubs could also fill this gap to further deter. Pyracantha could make an interesting living fence.
does anyone have experience with bamboo?
this one looks like good prospects:
Phyllostachys nuda
http://www.lewisbamboo.com/cold-hardy-bamboo.html
http://www.bamboogarden.com/Fargesia%20murielae.htm
http://www.bamboogarden.com/Fargesia%20nitida.htm
http://www.bamboogarden.com/Fargesia%20sp.%20Jiuzhaigou.htm
Those are about the only ones that you might consider. Denver Botanic has been growing them for quite awhile. I'm not sure very many people have experience with them around the Four Corners.
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