Re: Hostas


> I am new to the group and need advice,please.Today deer ate my hostas to
> the ground-left only stubs.Will they come back if I protect them?
> 

Well, probably, but why would you want to protect something that's 
eating your plants?  Oh, you meant protect the * hostas.*  <g>   They 
should come back if you can protect them from the deer, which is not 
easy.  Tall fences work.   Diligent dogs do, too.

Repellents don't work for everybody.  One person will report 
that human hair keeps deer away, another will swear by Irish Spring 
soap, another by dried blood or garlic, etc.,  but I know people 
who've tried those with no success.  One even observed a deer eating 
Irish Spring!   It is said that changing repellents every week or two 
(alternate hair, soap, blood, garlic, for example) works much better 
because the deer don't get wise to the trick.  

Peter Loewer wrote in one of his books that he gets up very early on 
a random basis and walks through his gardens so that the deer never 
know when he might be there.  I used to have my husband go out and 
fire a gun (not at the deer, mind you) but concluded I could get the 
same results by talking loudly to them,  so save your ammo.

One type of repellent I haven't tried yet, because we put in a tall 
privacy fence which keeps the deer out, is predator urines.   You can 
buy coyote urine, fox urine, etc.   I'm pretty sure there's a web 
site for a supplier so try a search.  Good luck.  They're pretty 
animals but they become ugly when they're eating gardens.

Kate Lykins
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