A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 My Abrovite and deer!

The deer just about cleaned out my 10 beautiful trees last winter. Does anyone know if they will come back? I know the ones with greenery left will, but what about the ones that they totally cleaned out?

These trees cost alot of money and I don't want to loose them!

Anyone?

More then likely the ones that have been chewed back to the nubs will not. Sorry I wish I had better news for you.

That is basically what I figured as well. I am going to let them be for now and see if any green appears on them. If not I will dig them up in the fall.

Wish I could find a way to keep the buggers out but it is nature. I can't imagine why they ate my trees cuz it was a mild winter and there are plenty of them in the cedar bog out back for them to eat instead of mine!

Will have to wait and see for now....

deer do not prefer aborvitaea or yew, etc. & will eat them when the population outgrows the available food. humans are ever expanding our territory & shrinking theirs.

the trees will not rebound in a timely manner. years if ever

Heidi - we have a 21 tree arbovitae hedge separating our property from next door. We've had it about 10 years now, and every year the deer eat it down to the quick as far up as they can reach. We have some very interesting "TOPIARY" arbovitae now! The tops are growing very well, but the bottom and mid-sections are just trunks. We have tried every stinky suggestion out there - it's still the first thing they go for in winter, and especially when they start putting out new tender growth in the spring unfortunately.

Here is a picture taken last year of the damage...

This was after the trunk part grew back a bit - hopefully yours will too. It doesn't really look as bad in this picture as it really is, and I was hoping by now that it would completely block out my neighbor's house and driveway. But it never catches up with the top, because every year they eat it down to the quick all over again!

Good Luck!

yours look better than mine at this point! I wish there was some way to keep them out.

What types of trees can I plant that will work as a windblock in winter (Needs to be an evergreen) and the deer won't eat them?

I have a 1 acre lot of land and we are wide open with a giant field in the back (about 15 acres of field) We are trying to grow stuff that will block the wind as we get alot of it in the winter. Let me see if I can take some pictures to post and show you all what I am trying to do... LOL

Rugby
"deer do not prefer aborvitaea or yew, etc. & will eat them when the population outgrows the available food. humans are ever expanding our territory & shrinking theirs"

There may be a big difference between the white tail deer that are in Maine, and here in Cheeseland and the types you have out there on the Left Coast, and their eating habits.

Aborvitaea and yew or taxis are some of the most popular plants for the deer to much on out here! Planting them is like ringing the dinner bell! I have actually tried to plant taxis to draw deer into an area, they didn't last long enough to even grow a inch
I have always wondered if there was a difference between the types of deer and what they eat. I guess that has been answered now.

I have a friend here in Virginia and she had this same problem with her abrovitae being eaten by deer. For the past ten years she had a dog and would let it out at night to releave itself and must have kept the deer at bay. Ever since her dog passed away the deer have started at those abrovitae trees and really did them in. There is definitely plenty of food around, so the deer must really like the trees.....

When I lived in WV, we had deer in my parents yard all the time. They never touched our yews or arbis. They always went for rhododendron & azaleas & roses.

Maybe they seem not to want ours because there was better food.

It might also have been that they were used to eating those shrubs in the wild as well. I know that WV is full of wild Rhodos, Azaleas and laurels. Now in regards to the rose bush...hard to say. I would think that they would be painful to munch on....

they like to strip the leaves. i knew some folks that put a fence around their roses, and the deer still ate what the could reach.

The abrovite are plentifull here, and even though there are plenty in the cedar bog behind my house they choose to eat my expensive trees instead of the ones in the woods. Mine must taste better or something!

I'm going to have to burlap or fence in or something this fall on the ones they haven't killed. Or else I'm going to call a game warden and see if I can shoot em!

Sometimes the battle doesn't end....