Outdoors with Don Q: Garden hungry deer unlucky after a few whiffs of Irish Spring

We live in a small, comfortable home built in the late 1940's in a quiet neighborhood on the older west side of Carson City. Through some 13-plus years of steady improvements, our home has seen a multitude of changes, both inside and outside.

The Inside Changes Include:
Replacing front room and bedroom furniture.
Replacing front room and bedroom television sets.
Replacing the water heater and the gas furnace.
Replacing carpeting in the entire house.
Replacing windows, window sills and painting the walls and ceilings.
Remodeling the bathroom.
Remodeling the kitchen and replacing the kitchen table, chairs, stove, microwave, sink and refrigerator.
The Outside Changes Include:
Installing an air conditioner.
Replacing the front and back doors.
Replacing the roof.
Replacing the front lawn and its sprinkler systems.
Re-stuccoing and changing the color of the entire exterior of the house.
Remodeling the front porch.
Removing window shutters.
Removing a total of seven trees from the front yard.

Last Year's Outside Change:
Creating and planting five brand-new flower beds in the front yard. Those flower beds are Elaine's pride and joy, and the reason for this article. She had devoted an enormous amount of time and work (and also a lot of money) into making them showcases of colorful beauty.

However:
There is a persistent problem with trying to enjoy those flower beds. That problem, simply stated, is those darn, hungry mule deer. Late last September, the many deer that roam, year-round, on the west side of town, discovered Elaine's flower beds.

During the Fall, in the Winter and into our current Spring, they devoured all of her flowers (Pansies, Salvia, Geraniums, Daisies, Columbine, Dianthus), plus her small vegetable garden (tomatoes, squash, onions, lettuce, etc.) and miniature rose bushes on the side of the house. She was not a happy camper nor was I.

Trying to discourage the deer:
We have tried many different things to discourage the deer from eating our flowers, vegetables and bushes, plus trying to keep them from tinkling and leave their "Calling Cards" on our brand-new front lawns.

Some of those different things have included:
1. Yelling at them. Not effective.
2. Spraying them with the garden hose. Not effective.
3. Running at them to chase them away. Not effective.
4. Leaving the porch light on all night. Not effective.
5. Buying and planting "Deer Resistant" flowers. Not effective.
6. Spraying "Deer Deterrent" on our flowers and bushes (which washes off when the flowers and bushes are watered or it rains). Not effective.
7. Placing netting around our tiny vegetable garden on the south side of the house. That garden contains lettuce, onions, squash and tomatoes.
The netting has been the most effective deterrent but it makes that garden look like a miniature prison yard and detracts from the ascetics of the yard.

The New Deer Deterrent:
However, we recently discovered a new way to try to keep those darn critters away, and it seems to be working so far. Elaine was told and also read on the Internet that deer do not like the smell of Irish Spring Soap.
That's true — Irish Spring Soap.
We decided what the heck, we have nothing to lose, so we bought a small cheese grater and a number of bars of Irish Spring Soap.
Elaine grated flacks from the soap bars and generously sprinkled those flakes on her freshly planted Pansies as an experiment. And, guess what? It seems to be working.
It's been three weeks so far, the Pansies have not been eaten and we have not seen any sign of the deer in our front yard. Yahoo! We are keeping our fingers crossed and will keep you posted on the results.

Finally:
Each week, Elaine grates more of the soap flakes on the flowers. So, if you know where we live and if someday, you drive by our home and see lots of bubbles rising from our flower beds, relax.
Don't worry, the bubbles are probably caused by rainfall or our automatic sprinkler system spraying water on the many flakes of the Irish Spring Soap. Heck, at least our flowers will be squeaky clean this year.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can't tell you if a human can detect the smell of the Irish Spring Soap on our flower beds. If he grins and says, "Oh yeah, at times the pungent aroma of the soap flakes is very intense," he is someone who has been there to see and smell our latest deer deterrent.

— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now. Don's wife, Elaine, is the Outdoor photographer. They live in Carson City. They can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com.