I have to fence my main garden to keep the deer out, but I've been thinking of making a raised bed outside my main garden area for herbs, garlic and onions. My new asparagus bed is outside the fenced garden and the deer seem to leave asparagus alone so far....knock on wood. Anyhoo, I started thinking about other stuff I could put in my new raised bed that the deer would leave alone. I don't think they will eat potato tops, for instance, but I'm not sure about sweet potatoes. So, aside from onions, garlic, dill, maybe cilantro, has anyone got any suggestions for stuff that deer will shun?
I am no gardener although I am going to try again this year. In my experience for our area the only things are:
1. Poison oak
2. Crab grass
3. Scrub oaks
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Chuck they love sweet potatoes, I mean they are the first to go. It helps to sprinkle tide on them but make sure its without bleach. The problem we had last year was that it rained almost everyday . The night we missed them they ate them all. [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] Oh well it made space for a late season crop of beets [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]
Poorboy
I haven't got a fence up yet so the deer have been teaching me what I'm allowed to grow for the last few years. They seem to leave pumpkins, watermelon, cantalope, zuchinni and cucumbers alone. Don't eat the tops on potatoes, and seem to only nibble a bit on tomatoes and green peppers--not enough to hinder their growth. I hope to get a fence up this year so that next year I can grow what I want.
Looks like my sweet potatoes will go in the fenced garden. I've only planted them once before because only the wife and I eat them, but now the last son at home has decided he likes them, after having them smoked at a barbeque place, so I'll beplanting them again this year. Too bad they aren't rrelated to Irish potatoes, with their nasty tasting tops.
I figured the deer would eat almost everything you listed. I especially thought they'd eat the cucumbers. Last year, I had cucumbers growing on the fence around the garden, and I used some of that deer net material to protect them. The deer didn't get 'em, but maybe they weren't even interested!
One of the guys at work had tomatoes in containers on his patio. The ripe and almost ripe tomatoes kept disappearing and he was sure it was neighbor kids until he caught a deer eating them one morning. Now, that was during a particularly dry spell, so maybe the deer were after the water content.
I wonder if they eat radish tops. I sure would like to put something besides onions and their relatives in this bed if I'm gonna go to all the trouble to make it.
Yep, they did seem to leave my okra alone the year they had access to it. I guess the fuzzy leaves turn them off. I don't think I'll put the okra in the new raised bed, but I might very well put it in the projected new corn patch.
I just kind of assumed the deer would go for the corn, and my plan was to plant enough for all of us. If they leave it alone, I hope the local coon population isn't big enough to clean me out.
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