Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, adjacent to a 30,000 acre regional park, the deer much prefer our gardens to the wide open park lands. Happily, our property was enclosed in a brick wall by a former owner (no deterrent to raccoons, however, who are very destructive) and only occasionally has been breached by a spooked deer. The relatively small garden plantings outside the brick wall - all California native shrubs and perennials - are protected with a 3.5' decorative metal fence on one side of the walk, but open to marauding deer on the other side. At most the deer nibble the unprotected plants, nothing more. A much larger unprotected slope now planted with native shrubs also is left untouched by deer. The deer wander the streets and occasionally walk up the slope, but eat nothing. I wonder if planting natives as a barrier around decorative, non-native plants may be a partial solution to deer munching. Now, if someone can suggest a way to deter raccoons and wild turkeys, I’d be very interested! Sylvia in the Oakland Hills _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…