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I need to plant a few colorful flowers in front of my house which would not be appealing to rabbits, squirrels, mice, rats, horses, cows, and deer. The area is in full, hot sun (NM)Or is there a pet-safe deterrent to spray around them?
Last edited by Townandcountrygal; 06-01-2014 at 05:50 PM..
Reason: needed to add info
Town,
Do you know one plant a squirrel won't eat?
Daylilies.
Honestly.
They eat everything else, except them.
They can take whatever heat they can get too.
As long as you are willing to mulch them and water them
when it gets REAl dry, buy them.
Strong as steel.
The squirrels may not eat them, but other critters will.
OP, I do not know of a single plant that "which would not be appealing to rabbits, squirrels, mice, rats, horses, cows, and deer" without using a spray.
I spray my plants about once a week... more often when it rains. That's the only thing that works - for me at least!
Marigolds are listed. You can get many different types of marigolds now, and they reseed really easily. I used to grow them along my garden borders, and don't recall them being eaten by anything. I would just pluck the dried flower heads, and throw them into a paper bag. Then, next year when you want to plant them, you just take out a dried flower head and just roll it around in your fingers to get the seeds to come out. There will be a lot of seeds at the bottom of the bag, too.
really a hungry deer will eat anything so buying Deer Resistant plants is a joke. I still have to spray often and it is a pain in the butt. Now there are some they don't particularly like . And in my side of the town deer might eat what they won't on your side of the same town.
Daylily And hosta are like deer smack. They love those especially.
OP you are looking for a plant which does not exist yet. What one critter might not eat another will.
In my area, the deer are really hungry and will eat almost anything except for some varieties of iris. The bunnies will nibble on the iris when it first comes up as there is absolutely nothing else green at that time, but they haven't killed it and it still blooms.
Some of my neighbors get nice oriental poppies, but mine get eaten. I blame those stoned looking rabbits.
Nothing wants to eat Russian sage and it is beautiful and the flowers last a very long time.
Other than that, noting. I don't know what squirrels will eat or destroy by digging, but I know what deer eat (everything), what rabbits eat (everything), what jackrabbits eat (grass mostly), and what the birds eat (everything in the vegetable garden and all my fruit before it gets ripe).
Last edited by oregonwoodsmoke; 06-04-2014 at 10:33 AM..
We have squirrels, bunnies, and deer, all of which have used our garden as their personal salad bar at one time or another.
DH and I iniquired at the local garden shops and they recommended a number of sprays to use. Don't pick up the one with dried blood and eggs. It smells like.....dried blood and eggs. Ugh. We have had great luck, however, with the capsaicin pepper-wax spray. I apply it just as the flowers sprout, making sure to get in and around the petals. Then I do the same when blossoms appear. It does have to be reapplied after a rain, though. They seem to get the message eventually, isn't harmful, and is a lot easier than planting special flowers or doing without those we love.
If you mix unsweetened grape koolaid powder into a sprayer and spray fruit trees, that is supposed to stop birds from eating the fruit. The chemical that makes the artificial grape flavor is a repellant. I don't know if it repels mammals like it does birds, but it is worth a try. A packet of grape koolaide doesn't cost much, so not a huge loss if it doesn't work.
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. It smells like.....dried blood and eggs. Ugh. We have had great luck, however, with the capsaicin pepper-wax spray. I apply it just as the flowers sprout, making sure to get in and around the petals. Then I do the same when blossoms appear. It does have to be reapplied after a rain, though. They seem to get the message eventually, isn't harmful, and is a lot easier than planting special flowers or doing without those we love.
