Deer-Resistant Landscaping: Proven Advice and Strategies for Outwitting Deer and 20 Other Pesky Mammals

The title of this book understates what it provides. It is about much more than deer -- rats, voles, woodchucks, and many other animals are covered. Usually when I research a problem varmint, I find either natural history (animal habit info) or pest control information. I rarely find the two integrated together as they are in this book. I own an Audubon Society book on mammals, which is good to understand how they live in the wild, but not so good when figuring out my control options. Usually I bypass deer control books (nothing new under the sun) but this book - containing so much more info - caught my eye. Neil Soderstrom provides facts and insights for understanding the history and habits of the animal one is dealing with, and provides control and management options for real-world situations. I think highly enough of this book that I gave it as a gift to a wildlife control professional I know. It is a thorough effort and well worth owning. It is not a superficial treatment that you can pick up in a quick scan while standing in a book store -- much more effort and substance has gone into this book. I heard Soderstrom speak and clearly he was completely immersed in understanding his subject matter. I do recommend this book.

Spring brought unwelcome vistas of straggly yews around the foundation of our house for several years. Each time I replaced a badly damaged yew, the deer only ate the replacement with renewed relish. Nibbling yews can kill cattle and sheep, but not white-tailed deer who chomp on them with immunity and impunity. What to do? Why not replace the wretched-looking yews with native species that have had centuries to develop tastes and odors that deer loathe. This book provided a gallery of unpalatable but lovely choices that had been researched by gardeners throughout the United States. After careful reading, I consulted a local horticulturist who specializes in propagating native species and am now anticipating planting a deer-proof yard.

Never having dealt with deer or gophers before we moved to a new place with signs of both, I felt like this book did a great job of explaining about the critter and its ways and habits, then gave an overview of techniques for dealing with them. I suspect there's not enough depth and detail if you are in a serious ongoing war - and these are hard problems, I didn't come away with much optimism that it was going to be easy! but I think this is a great reference to have when you need to get started, realistic about the seriousness, and it covers a good number of possible pest animals.

Deer-Resistant Landscaping is the best and most systematic and complete treatment of a topic that plagues more and more gardeners every year, an essential guide for those of us who neither want nor can afford to surround our properties with 12-foot fences (with an apology to the author, but no 4-foot mesh fence has ever protected my vegetables). Not everything recommended may work for every gardener, but all the strategies are worth considering and most are worth trying. And as a bonus, the author provides help with dealing with other problematic wildlife, such as voles and woodchucks, both of which are a bane to New England gardeners like me. Gardeners in other regions will rejoice that their foes, such as ground squirrels, are well covered. Soderstrom's advice is clear and specific, his many photographs are excellent and instructive, and his plant lists are detailed enough to be truly helpful. For gardeners whose flowers, vegetables, fruits, shrubs, vines, and trees are being nibbled away both above and below ground, this is a must-have volume, as useful as a spade or hoe.

In _Deer-Resistant Landscaping_, Neil Soderstrom has written much more than a how-to book about "Proven Advice and Strategies for Outwitting Deer and 20 Other Pesky Mammals," as his subtitle would suggest. He has provided a readable narrative spiced with over 400 of his photographs plus a great many more taken by his friends Lennie and Ushi Rue and others. The result is a feast for the eyes as well as a source of information for those seeking to protect their yards and gardens. Personal and other anecdotes enliven the antidotes against mammals ranging from armadillos and peccaries to voles and woodchucks. Chapter 23, really an appendix, not only profiles but also portrays 197 of the more than 1,000 deer-resistant plants discussed in the book, all in beautiful, living color. A multitude of maps shows which parts of the United States are home to the various varmints discussed in the narrative. Anyone the least bit disturbed by (or simply interested in) the animals discussed in this book will find it a great bargain at $23.95 US as well as a valuable source of information. (In the interest of self-disclosure, I should point out that I have called Neil a friend for more than 35 years and had a minuscule role in helping him with his research on pocket gophers, which he overgenerously recognized on pp. xi, 95, and 100, even going so far as to include a photograph of me and my wife on p. xii.)