Deer love newly grown broccoli, squirrels and chipmunks love strawberries, wild turkeys love raspberries, and gophers love the delicious pea roots that hang down into their neighborhood of town. If you are someone who doesn't mind sharing your bounty with an abundance of forest creatures then this shouldn't be a problem for you. But if you are someone who wants to keep your hard earned produce for yourself, and your family, then you are going to have to take a few measures to humanely protect your garden from the many creatures out there who feel that it is just as rightly theirs as yours.

Gophers, moles, shrews and other underground burrowers are actually perhaps the easiest creatures to discourage from your garden. A Gopher is actually a laid back little creature that just wants to live his quiet little life, and not have a lot of noise, or excitement in it. He likes to enjoy the nice hot summer sunshine, but he also likes to burrow down under for a good long nap, and he doesn't enjoy any annoyances while he is doing it! Gophers and other underground burrowers do not like vibration, and a few well placed whirly gigs throughout your garden area can create a nice series of vibrations occurring on windy days, this vibration is just enough of an annoyance to encourage your little visitor to move on to a calmer neighborhood. You can also purchase a sonic gopher repellent post or pole which is a battery operated device that when planted in the ground emits a series of vibrations or waves every few seconds. Or you can really go environmentally friendly and purchase a windmill, this method not only eliminates your underground critter problems, but also affords you a little extra wind powered electricity at the same time. Note: If you are growing grains or grain products, no worries then as gophers cannot exist on just a grassy diet, keep your broadleaf weeds at bay and you won't have to worry about a gopher problem.     

Where deer are concerned a high mesh metal fence will generally keep them out but if you want an open garden area then you might want to offend their sensitive little noses instead. It is a fact that deer do not like human hair and it can provide a barrier that they will not cross so you might want to visit your local barber to see if you can regularly pick up some of his local trimmings. Most barbers are only too willing to share this amusing and effective deer deterrent with those who need it. An egg sized ball of hair can then be placed in mesh bags and these set around the perimeters of your garden to effectively keep deer out. Note that the hair does need to be replaced about every four to six weeks to remain effective. You can also purchase scent powders or sprays that can be used for creating this invisible deer border around your garden area, these are available at most gardening centers, and must be reapplied on a regular basis or after each rain.

Although appropriate fencing or a good watch dog will work to keep most wilderness creatures out of your garden area, flying creatures can be a different matter all together. For crows, wild turkeys, squirrels, cats, dogs, rabbits and other hopping, running or flying critters one of the greatest new inventions is that of the Garden scarecrow. This wonderful little device is motion activated and shoots a very powerful burst of water at whatever creature wanders or flutters within it's range. Humane, and an excellent deterrent for a wide variety of creatures, it is well worth the small one time purchase price for this very handy and amusing form of pest control. Creatures get the message quickly and it doesn't take them long to figure out that this enemy is always on guard. They quickly move on to easier hunting grounds.

If you are looking to keep squirrels from invading your hanging baskets or bird feeders look into "twirl a squirrel" products. These are humane little devices that gently spin the squirrel off of his intended target. Squirrels are very intelligent and persistent little critters and these devices take those factors into account. There is just no way that they can find a way to outwit this device.

When creating, and maintaining your garden area, just know that what looks good to you is also going to look absolutely yummy to a number of other creatures too. It's in their nature to want to prepare for their future by gathering, and storing food for future use, just as this same principle is embedded in your thought processes. Keep your sense of humor about you, and work at humane ways to outwit or outsmart the competitors for your gardens bounty, it's the environmentally correct thing to do.

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Warning Fencing:

Unfortunately most wildlife do not understand or speak English so this is only effective for keeping people out of your garden...

     Caution       Caution        Crime Scene      Danger

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