Nice

You should have a blog called How to grow roses in deer country.

Please keep posting! Very instructive! Thanks!

Good idea. I have way too many to do that tho.

I had a lady come to my craft shop looking for Xmas-type jingle bells yesterday. She said she hangs them around the yard and the deer hate them! Assuming they must have to bump into something to make them jingle. I'm thinking of running wire or something along the perimeter where they get in and hanging a bunch of the bells along the wire. If they brush up against the wire and the bells jingle and it scares them off, that would be great!

I just saw three does this morning before I left for work, in the yard across the street. I went over to try and scare them off to keep them from coming back over to my side. Our dumb dog Kya didn't even notice them until I went out into the street to clap my hands and yell at them. I was really tempted to let her out and go chase them away, but I figured I wouldn't be able to get her back before I had to leave! Those damn deer just stood there looking at me as I was trying to scare them off. In fact one of the younger ones started to walk over to me as if she thought I was going to feed her or something. But then Kya finally realized she needed to bark more, and they finally decided to take off up the side road.

Damn forest rodents...

Looking good, Steve!

Sorry to ask, but what's to prevent the deer from knocking the cage over? Are they put off by just seeing the cage?

Your cage looks great and I hope it works.

Steve - how do you connect the cage to the ground? I ask because once my MIL had a large cage over a rose in her back yard, and woke up in the middle of the night to a horribly loud crashing noise that went on & on. Turns out a deer got the cage caught on its antlers, and ran all over the patio trying to get it off. It eventually succeeded, but the cage was trashed (rose was OK).

Jackie

I'm sorry. I know this not a humorous subject for you rose growers in deer country but the images being brought out here are making me laugh out loud. I can just picture the deer crashing around the backyard with a cage on its head. Beth, maybe some people are feeding the deer and that is why they are so tame.

Hope the bells work. What about electric fence? What about one of those sprayers that are activated by motion?

We also have deer but they are not fond of our noisy big dog. So far they have been just coming to the orchard. I sure hope they never start nibbling on my roses in the middle of the night.

Keep up the good fight guys.

Sue

Steve, your tenacity is amazing! I'm rooting for you!!

Someone needs to invent cheap speaker/motion-detector/solar driven units that could be placed all over ones property. The units would transmit to a receiver which in turn would cause the speaker that was the farthest away to start producing a pack-of-dogs barking sound. Then slowly advance to the next speaker unit that is in a direct line to the deer/object detected. Such as the dogs coming out of the barn to chase the deer. With the sound of a pack of dogs always behind the deer it shouldnâÂÂt be hard to run them off your property.
So, there ya go, run with it and make your millionsâ¦. just remember you heard it first here on GardenWebâ¦.. lol

Last year, I started with four cages. I found some plastic stakes that had a hole near the top. I used four stakes per cage and attached them with shower curtain hooks. It was a bother to keep unhooking the cages to access the bushes. I didn't notice any movement with the cages, unhooked, so I left them unhooked. The deer sick their tongues inside the cages and will eat anything they can reach. I need at least six inch clearance from plant to cage.
I have increased the size of some of the cages to get the clearance. They are all around four feet in diameter and four feet high. I have observed through deer damage that the deer can't eat anything higher than 3 1/2 feet.

About 25 years ago I rebuilt a wire fence between my property and a creek bed. The fence was 50 feet long, six feet high with 2/4 pressure treated wood in concrete. The wire fencing was attached with u shaped staples. The fence was not intended to keep deer out. One day a deer in my yard felt trapped and kicked the wire until an opening was created. I haven't bothered to repair it, since it would happen again. If a deer pushes against a cage, it flexed but doesn't move. It is more of a psychological than a physical barrier. A dog or a raccoon would need about three seconds to get under the cage. Fortunately my problem is with deer.

I have what is known as urban deer. A few small families that stay in the same area.
I rarely see a buck. Last year, there was a one that hung out around mating season and they are much more wary than the does.

I now have a cluster of 8 cages that offer more protection than a single cage. They go all the way to the right side of the photo. As you can see, they are not as obtrusive as a fence and no gate is required.