Thursday, June 25, 2009
Prepare for a winter's seige of deer
John Arbogast
Landscape consultant John Arbogast answers your questions every Thursday. Send questions about your lawn, garden, plants, or insects to:
Dear John
5102 Greenfield St. SW
Roanoke, Va. 24018
Or send an e-mail. Answers will be given only in this column. Please don't send pictures or samples.
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Q: My question is about protecting my cedar hedge this coming winter. Last winter, the deer devastated it. I have covered it with bird netting for years and it has proved satisfactory, but this past winter, they apparently ate right through (or were able to get under) the plastic netting. I thought that I might try to put up an electric fence, but it may not be legal in the city where I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I checked with our mayor, who suggested that I might try to cover it with plastic sheeting. If this would work, it would save me much grief in the spring as the bird netting gets entwined in the hedge and is difficult to remove. Sheeting would also be easier to apply each fall. Would this be harmful for the cedar? I do not have the time to continually spray agents on the hedge. We really have problems with deer in my city where they have no predators and they have become unafraid of humans.
A: Preventing deer damage where many of them live is next to impossible. It is especially difficult in winter when deer are desperate for moist things to eat, such as buds, twigs, bark -- and your evergreen hedge.
During the late spring and summer, deer have plenty of dining options in flowers, berries, fruits and vegetable gardens.
Deer feeding has been discouraged successfully by deer repellents. Try making the time. It may be your only hope.
I have not heard about the plastic sheeting that was suggested by your mayor. Using any plastic as a cover for even a few weeks would not be helpful. Heat can build up under plastic when the sun is shining, even in winter, and roast the plant.
Deer can jump as high as 8 feet. Fruit growers in Virginia have had good luck by building angled, 5-foot fences a few feet away from their trees that take advantage of deer’s poor eyesight and their fear of getting tangled up. You can think about this for protecting your hedge.
Fence poles are usually slanted outward at about 30-40 degrees from vertical in the direction from which deer would be coming. The fencing is composed of several horizontal strands of wire attached to poles See this Web site about a Michigan fruit grower as an example.
If such a fence is not practical for you, know that deer dislike walking on chicken wire. In the fall, try rolling out a 4-foot width of chicken wire flat on the ground all around your hedge.
Of course, where you live, you get plenty of snow, so you'd have to think of a practical way of keeping the wire clear.
