Use Irish Spring to keep out garden pests.
By DIY Maven
Perennials are springing up everywhere. And the herbivores are loving it. The hostas pictured above are always the first course. Around here, the biggest culprit of garden dining are deer. Don’t believe me? I took the following picture of our back yard two years ago. Apparently, we are living in the Grand Central Station for the Bambi crowd.
Garden stores sell various deer and rabbit deterrents, but most are topical treatments that have to be applied after each rain or even heavy dew and, generally, they’re expensive. Since many are based on smells (a popular one is coyote urine), it’s not surprising a non-appetizing, odoriferous, rainproof thing such as Irish Spring keeps the critters at bay.
Just cut a bar into cubes, wrap the cubes in scraps of cloth, and staple them onto stakes.
Drive the stakes in among the tantalizing vegetation. I also cut smaller bits to scatter along the ground.
Yes, the yard smells ‘refreshing’ and no, the soap doesn’t suds up during a rain. Last year, I did the stake trick at the beginning of the year, but replenished my scattered pieces once a month or so. Together, they seemed to do the trick; the deer left my plants alone.
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Self-proclaimed Maven of DIY, I'm up for anything from gonzo rehab to dressing a room. Although...
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DEER: Drat! Foiled again! We'd have gotten away with it too it it wasn't for that pesky DIY Maven....
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