I love tulips but so do the deer and since my home is locating in the woods I have deer in my yard daily. We have tried everything to keep the deer away from the tulips but they are determined to eat them because they are rich in nutrients and the liquid in the stem is hydrating.
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| Deer in the garden, note the lilrope grass is left alone |
My husband thought it would be good to compromise with the deer so he filled a bucket of water for them and put out a mineral lick along with corn and sunflower seed mixture in our side yard where there are no tulips. The deer sure did like that but when they were done with their snack they came back into my backyard to look for tulips.
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| Hide tulips in daffodils |
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| Repel deer when you hide tulips amongst plants that deter. |
We thought about installing a deer fence around in the backyard because that would certainly stop the deer from coming into our yard but it would also block all animals from drinking from our pond. So we decided to hide the tulips from the deer by planting them in the middle of plants that deer do not like.
Deer do not eat daffodils we also read that planting your tulips in the center of lilrope grass is a good idea but would need a thick border of the grass to deter the deer. Other plants that deter deer are bee balm, peppermint, chives, cosmos, oleander, oregano, and rosemary
A friend said that any low-growing ornamental grass will work as it provides good coverage for the tulips. So this fall I hid the tulips by planting the bulbs in my garden. I planted bulbs in the middle of the daffodil garden and in the ornamental grass garden. I will let you know next spring if the hiding of tulips really works.
Note if you are not a fan of wildlife in your yard then buy a scarecrow motion-activated pressure water animal deterrent. The sting from the water burst makes all wildlife leave your yard. Learn more by reading my article here
