Living in the Hudson Valley has taught me a lot about nature. I am surrounded by an array of birds, foxes, chipmunks, squirrels, ground hogs and deer! The call of the cat bird is intriguing. I sincerely thought it was a kitten crying until I discovered, through the internet, this small bird has such an unusual call. Bluejays and cardinals make for a showy display, while the bright yellow finches are like a burst of sunshine. From birds to deer. I list deer last as they are my least favorites.
Before moving to the Hudson Valley I thought of deer as lovely creatures. Today, I view them as pests. They bring ticks to the yard and forage on anything they please. Even the so-called deer resistant plants seem to be delectable to them, at least in my yard.
We recently planted bearded iris rhizomes. Iris are generally considered to be a plant the deer will avoid. This doesn’t seem to hold true to newly planted rhizomes. They would take them out of the ground, even though they had no desire, thankfully, to eat the rhizome.
After replanting them for the fourth time, I needed a plan to thwart the pesky deer. I looked on the internet and discovered others had the same problem. What I didn’t find was a solution. I tried spraying with a homemade deer repellant – it didn’t work. Off to Home Depot I went. I bought two items and solved my problem.
The first is a galvanized metal mesh.
The second is 14 gauge wire.
We cut the mesh into roughly 8″ by 18″ panels. When cutting the last squares we left them with an amount of wire protruding to be able to bend it back onto the first square to form a cylinder. Using pieces of wire, approximately 8 inches in length, we looped these around the sides, and over the top. We anchored them together using the narrower gauge packaging wire that came wrapped around the mesh. We then cut two 10 inch lengths that we bent in the shape of hairpins. These hairpins were used as stakes to anchor the cages into the ground
With two supplies, a pair of wire cutters, and a pair of pliers we stopped the deer. The iris rhizomes have remained in place and we hope to have glorious iris blossoms come spring!