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The Ingredients |
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| Picked these up cheap at the Dollar Store |
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| After letting the mixture "ferment" a few days, ready to strain. |
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| Don't attempt to take any shortcuts on straining or your spray bottle will get clogged up real fast! |
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| Ready for the spray bottle |
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| Time to get spraying! |
Jester's Deer Buster Brew
- 4 eggs
- 4-5 cups of milk
- Tabasco/Hotsauce
- Horseradish
- Crushed Red Pepper
- Water
Mix all the ingredients in a gallon jug, fill remainder with water. SHAKE. Let sit for a few days, then strain into another jug. Use that jug to fill up spray bottles. Store remainder in the fridge and be sure to label it and warn your family or guests!!!!! You don't have to follow this exactly, the basic idea is to make something smelly and awful tasting the deer won't want to eat. The egg is for keeping it on the plants so that it can't be easily washed away when it rains. This is why you want a nice sunny day for spraying.
Some Extra Ideas for staying in control of your garden...
Have an outdoor cat to prowl the garden for controlling the population of chipmunks, mice and baby rabbits. Yeah, ok, that might sound cruel, but which do you want? Cuteness or flowers and veggies in your garden??
A house wren feeds 500 bugs and caterpillars to her babies in ONE afternoon! A Brown Thrasher consumes thousands of bugs a day. Place birdhouses of different sizes and styles near by. Spot some simple bird baths here and there in your garden as enticement to feathered helpers. Fill large terra cotta saucers, the ones made for placing under pots, with water, and set on logs turned on end.
Save fur from brushing and grooming your dog. Scatter it in the garden (people hair is good to). It deters nibblers and also adds nitrogen to the soil as it decomposes. No dog? Ask your local pet groomer to save fur for you or ask your hairdresser.
Cut a gallon milk jug in half lengthwise. Punch a hole in the bottom to let out rain. Set ripening melons in the contraptions. They help prevent rot and keep mice and shrews from nibbling on the melons.
Want corn but raccoons want it to? Inter plant corn with large leaved pumpkin and squash. Supposedly raccoons and squirrels do not like to walk on the leaves.
Aphids flock to yellow. Fill a yellow dishpan part way with water and set in the garden. Aphids will land on the water and be trapped. They drown and sink.
These are just random samplings of things you can do to help your garden. What's your favorite trick in your neck of the woods? Whose your biggest offender and how do you handle it? Inquiring minds want to know!
3 comments:
Great ideas, Jester. I am copying your recipe for your Deer Buster Brew, for some reason, it looks yummy...Ok, I must be hungry, lol.
The biggest problem we've had around here the last few years have been mice, rabbits and chipmunks. Yes, the chipmunks are cute, but boy do they make a mess of stone walls when they dig all the dirt out. We also have the possums, raccoons and skunks and I have to admit to using high-speed lead to fix some of these problems. So far, the deer haven't been too interested in stuff in the yard, but maybe it's the dogs (even though they are Shih Tzu's, they're still scary to deer.) I just gave my youngest kid a hair cut and sprinkled it out in the garden. The birds like to make nests out of it, too.
Thankfully we don't have beer. A few cotton tails that so far have stayed out of the garden, a couple of voles that the cat dragged home. Dumb luck, I'd say.
My biggest offender is the weeks without rain delivered by Mother Nature. My only remedy is to use city water and try not to cry/scream when the bill comes. Does the Deer Buster work on jerks who cut you off when driving? Maybe I could load up a Super Soaker and blast them!!
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