Posted by Tad Distin on May 22, 2010
Deer are one of the hardest creatures on the planet to keep out of gardens and flower beds. There are, however, a few different options available to help accomplish this task. Instead of blowing your budget on fancy manufactured methods, you may want to try some of the homemade deer repellent recipes found on the Internet.
This wide range of homemade repellent concoctions has been used in almost every area that is populated by both humans and deer. While the basic ingredients are the same, each has found its own unique way of fitting into the war against the deer in the area. In order to find the one that works best in your area, one or two attempts may be necessary.
Deer and people both want their food to taste and smell good while they are eating. Again, deer like people, will turn away from something that does not appeal to them. Most of these repellent recipes use things like garlic and chili powder in large quantities to assault the deer’s sense of smell and taste.
The idea behind the majority of these recipes is that they aid in keeping the deer away from the plants and do not harm the plants or the deer in the process. Most of these are made from ingredients that even if the deer should ingest it, it will not harm them any more than making them a little ill. The odors of some of the ingredients, however, have been proven to keep deer from ever trying to eat the plants in the first place.
The main reason for creating any type of repellent is to help avoid damage to the plants from the outset. These remedies also call for the use of some type of ingredient that will aid the max in staying on the plant. Most of them will use either eggs or cooking oil to accomplish this purpose along with maintaining the integrity of using all-natural ingredients and help it to stay on the plants for an extended period of time.
It is the opinion of many of the gardeners that have tried these recipes, that the stronger the odor, the better the repellent works. Therefore, do not be stingy when adding the chili powder or hot sauce to the rest of the mix. More than one of the creators of these recipes states that leaving the eggshells in the mix also aids in deterring the deer from eating the plants.
This becomes a great deterrent to the deer by utilizing the sharp edges that come naturally with broken eggshells. Once the base of the mixture has been made, it is then added to a couple gallons of water and sprinkled generously over the plants. A pump sprayer coupled with a good-sized batch of this mixture will make short work of coating any garden or flower bed.
Homemade deer repellent is by far one of the most cost-effective methods in protecting your garden from the local wildlife. The bulk of the ingredients for many of these recipes will already be available in the average home. The recipes themselves may be found by simply going on the Internet and conducting a search.
There are a number of home-made deer repellents you can prepare to keep the deer away from your plants. Visit www.thebestdeerrepellent.com to see what others are doing and many other options you have to protect your garden from deer.
Posted by admin on April 8, 2010
Original post from Urban Homesteading Today
If your current planting goals involve plants that require good water drainage, you may know how frustrating it is to have a yard that just won’t cooperate. Some plants can handle the excess water that comes about from being in an area that doesn’t drain properly. In fact, it might just cause them to bloom more lushly. However, other plants don’t cope as well, and it will cause them to die a gruesome, bloated death. You should always find out about the drainage required for every plant you buy, and make sure that it won’t conflict with any of the areas you are considering planting it in.
In order to test how much water your designated patch of soil will retain, dig a hole approximately ten inches deep. Fill it with water, and come back in a day when all the water had disappeared. Fill it back up again. If the 2nd hole full of water isn’t gone in 10 hours, your soil has a low saturation point. This means that when water soaks into it, it will stick around for a long time before dissipating. This is unacceptable for almost any plant, and you are going to have to do something to remedy it if you want your plants to survive.
The usual method for improving drainage is to create a raised bed garden. This involves creating a border for a small bed, and adding enough soil and compost to it to raise it above the rest of the yard by at least 5 inches. You’ll be amazed at how much your water drainage will be improved by this small modification. If you’re planning to start raised bed gardening, your prospective area is either on grass or on dirt. For each of these situations, you should build it slightly differently.
If you want to start a raised bed garden in a non grassy area, you won’t have much trouble. Just find some sort of border to retain the dirt you will be adding. Typically there is nothing that works quite as well as a few two by eights. After you’ve created the wall, you must put in the proper amount soil and steer manure. Depending on how long you plan to wait before planting, you will want to adjust the ratio to allow for any deteriorating that may occur.
If you’re trying to install a raised bed garden where sod already exists, you will have a slightly more difficult time. You will need to cut the sod around the perimeter of the garden, and flip it over. This may sound simple, but you will need something with a very sharp edge to slice the edges of the sod and get under it. Once you have turned it all upside down, it is best to add a layer of straw to discourage the grass from growing back up. After the layer of straw, simply add all the soil and steer manure that a normal garden would need.
Planting your plants in your new area shouldn’t pose much difficulty. It is essentially the same process as your usual planting session.
Once you have plants in your new bed, you’ll notice an almost immediate improvement. The added soil facilitates better root development. At the same time, evaporation is prevented and decomposition is discouraged. All of these things added together makes for an ideal environment for almost any plant to grow in. So don’t be intimidated by the thought of adjusting the very topography of your yard. It is a simple process as you may have realized, and the long term results are worth every bit of work.
If you’re planting food, you can’t go wrong with a raised vegetable garden. While the above is true, there is an easier way to do raised bed gardening, and it is adaptable to any size garden. The method is called square foot gardening
and works very well, with a lot less effort once your raised bed has been made.
Depending on your budget, you can purchase everything you need, even down to the grids
, or you can be creative. With diligence the building materials may even be scavenged. It’s up to you.
One advantage to square foot gardening is that you can water each square individually, which may help save some water. But if you don’t have the time or ability to water regularly, installing a drip watering system can be a life saver, for you and your plants. You can pick up drip irrigation supplies at your local big box store, but know that you are likely to make several trips because inevitably you will need more parts or different sized parts, it’s just they way it goes.
If you prefer to try to be more organized and have the funding, it might not hurt to choose one of the following garden watering systems:
Basic Drip Irrigation Kit for Raised Bed Gardening
Standard Raised Bed Drip Irrigation Gardening Kit
Deluxe Raised Bed Drip Irrigation Garden Kit
Premium Raised Bed Drip Irrigation Garden Kit
Ultimately you need to decide what works for you, just make sure that you do something, whatever it is that is within your ability and resources, to start making a better life for yourself on your journey to an urban homesteading lifestyle.
Posted by Kurt Dorey on April 5, 2010
Any gardener that lives in a rural area can tell you that it is not the weather or the bugs that cause the most damage, it is the deer. These furry creatures not only eat virtually every plant in the garden but have the unique ability to trample down the surrounding ones while in the process of having dinner. Many of these gardeners have taken to using a homemade deer repellent recipe of some type in order to combat this ever-increasing problem.
While there are a wide variety of these recipes available, the majority of them tend to utilize the same basic ingredients. The list of ingredients is likely to be found already in the home or a brief and inexpensive trip to the grocery store can secure all that is necessary. Almost every one of these recipes, while containing some different ingredients, all seem to use eggs as a base.
The eggs in the mixture act as an adhesive, to keep the mixture on the plants for a period of time. The eggs will also help the mixture withstand some light weather conditions and the occasional spray from a garden hose. The entire egg is not wasted as many of the recipes will call for use of the shells along with the contents.
Since deer react to taste and smell when it comes to a repellent, many people will add ingredients along the lines of cayenne pepper, onion or Tabasco sauce into their repellent mixture. When gearing the mixture towards assaulting the sensitive nose of a deer, garlic may also be added.This will give it an even more offensive odor.
There are others, however, who have found the use of common household soaps to be very effective in keeping deer from eating their plants and away from their garden. The majority of these people have found that by either common dish soap or a bar of deodorant soap to a few gallons of water and spraying the plants, that deer traffic is greatly reduced. The mixtures are created using soaps include the addition of cooking oil to aid in the aid in adhering to the plant leaves.
These combinations of ingredients are applied to the plants by using some type of spray equipment. This can come in the form of a recycled spray bottle from glass cleaner or other household product. For those with a large garden with too many plants to spray by hand, a pump type sprayer, the same type used for spraying insecticides and weed killer, is recommended.
The pump sprayer also cuts down on issues of tiredness or the cramping of a hand while covering a large area. When using the mixture that requires that the eggshells be left in, this may be applied by simply sprinkling it out of the bucket or pail. Both of these methods can be quite effective in ensuring that all of the plants get the proper coverage that they need.
A deer repellent recipe is only as good as its mixture and in this respect, it may take one or two tries before the proper amount of ingredients is found. Almost all of the mixtures found will be environmentally friendly and cause no undue issues with either the plants or the animals. By going online, all of these recipes may be found and compared.
There are many home-made recipes to repel deer. Please visit our site at www.thebestdeerrepellent.com to check some out… You might like the rotten egg recipe or the Texas Pete… People have created some very unusual recipes to keep the deer away from their plants. Some work and some… I don’t know… try and see..
Posted by Tad Distin on March 9, 2010
While there are many commercial grade repellents on the market, the casual gardener can save quite a bit of money by concocting his or her own version at home. All of these are relatively simple to make and will aid in the protection of any vegetable or flower garden. A deer repellent recipe consists of common household products coupled with food items that are normally readily available in the average home.
By utilizing these recipes, a gardener can keep deer and other small animals from eating any plant in a flower or vegetable garden. This all may be done without harm to the plants or the animals. While the mixtures that are made are noxious, they are by no means toxic to any plant or animal.
Some of the most common recipes include the use of kitchen spices such as cayenne pepper, chili powder, garlic, and Tabasco. Think back to the last time you ordered hot wings and they were entirely too spicy. Odds are good that you never ordered them from the same restaurant again and this same basic experience is what deer have after one bite.
There is one common ingredient in all the recipes that helps the mixture adhere to the plants. Many of the recipes call for the addition of either eggs or cooking oil in order to achieve this. These will keep the mixture on the leaves of the plants even through regular watering or a light rain.
These mixtures however, do not last forever and will need to be reapplied at regular intervals or after a heavy rain. Since the cost of these repellent mixtures is relatively negligible, is not costly to to make another batch needed for reapplication. Along with the food-based mixtures, other deer repellent methods utilize household products.
Dish soap is a favorite among gardeners and landscapers in keeping deer away from plants and flowers. A mixture of this soap and water may be sprayed on the plants without any fear of harming them. The use of soap on a plant has the same effect on the deer as the use of soap on a child when they said a naughty word, which many people will remember was very effective.
One other common household item that is very effective in repelling deer from gardens and trees is common deodorant soap. The soap emits an odor that deer find quite offensive and strategic placement of bars around the area will help deter them from ever entering the garden. This method is one of the preferred methods for the National Forestry Service, due to its effectiveness.
The appropriate deer repellent recipe can be found easily by going online. There are many different Web sites available that contain a wide variety of these recipes as well as the proper ingredient measurements . By doing some research, one can find all the information necessary to make the correct decision in which mixture to use.
If you are looking for a deer repellent recipe make sure you visit our site. One of the most effective and cheap ways to keep the deer away from your garden is to make and use some of the recipes people have been using for a very long time. Try the one with Dial soap or the rotten eggs.
