The early morning phone call was thoroughly unexpected: “You’ll be happy to know,” the voice said, dripping with sarcasm, “the deer have eaten my yew down to stubs.”

Some of you will be shocked to learn that I – for no reason in particular – really, really, really dislike the ever-practical landscape plant known simply as “yew.” “What’s the matter with you?” you might ask. “How can you dislike their beautiful deep green lustrous needles, their arching branches, their brilliant red berries?”

Well, as I say, there’s really no explanation, it’s just the way things are. And this caller and I, well, we go way back. Way back to the day when I begged her to not plant the yew in the center of her garden. Back to the day when I tried in vain to explain that a yew is not a plant typically used as a focal point in a garden. Back to the day when I would have readily welcomed a deer to dine on her delightfully delicious display.

But that was long ago. Long before my wretched and perennial plight with deer began. So when the call came, it was quite to my surprise that I didn’t let out a whoop of delight.

I felt badly for the poor plant. I shared its pain. Or, perhaps, it shared mine.

We’re never free from deer, are we? Hence, my friend, we are never quite satisfied – in summer or in winter – that we have all possible repulsion weaponry in our arsenal where deer are concerned.

Winter in Maine is difficult, and our landscape plants take a beating during these months. The “deer line” can be seen among clusters of arborvitae or cedar trees and hydrangea shrubs. Take a careful look at a local cemetery – where these two plants generally grow in abundance – or at a hedgerow grown with either plant. You’ll notice a distinctly “trimmed” effect from the ground to about shoulder height on an average-size person. This is the line made by deer eating the foliage that is within their reach. This foraging is often done in autumn and winter, when the abundance of other browse declines.

Some of us have taken extreme measures to curb damage done by deer. Tap “deer control” into any search engine on the Internet and you’ll get a strange array of advice, some of which has nothing to do with control or repelling deer. “Wildlife Buffet: Deer Food Plots Made EZ” one link boasted. “FoodPlots.com: Habitat development for whitetail deer!” another hailed.

Are they insane? Habitat development? Apparently it never occurred to some people that deer habitat here is rather fully well developed, that we have to fight to hold our ground against the critters.

Anyway, fencing is perhaps the most effective long-term solution for repelling deer. John from East Holden recently wrote to share a fencing strategy, “which has been 100 percent effective,” he reports. His success is worth sharing, I believe, since folks from York to Madawaska share in the perennial ravaging of the garden by these four-legged pests.

“What works for me,” he writes “is two 4-foot-wide sections of fencing on cedar poles. Any deer capable of jumping more than 8 feet is a deer to be worshipped and fed whatever it wants. Old-time Mainers will laugh when I mention 8 feet and recount how their granddaddy’s 15-foot fence around the apple orchard would hardly slow down the deer of that day from an apple feast.

“Anyway, no deer has jumped my fence in almost 10 years. And, where my energy has run out, there are considerable sections of just 4 feet, which the whitetails have not gone over. The aesthetics of the fence bothered me at first. What I ended up doing, rather than cut uniform cedar posts, was to use the entire tree, so that the top, with its branches, looks graceful, gives birds perches, and acts as anchor points for streamers and prayer flags. For me, having more than just the post respects the beauty of the cedar and heightens appreciation of the tree that now holds up the fence. Obviously, but not to me at the time, the best moment to make any decorative attachments to the tops of the trees is before raising them up to their final positions.

“I used what I call chicken wire on the bottom 4 feet, hoping to keep out the smaller critters, and turkey wire (1×3 or 1×4) on the top 4. The wires act handily as trellises. Where I haven’t finished with the total 8 feet, I’ve strung string as a visual psych-out.

“If and when I replace or add to the fencing, I’d be inclined to start with 2 feet buried horizontally on the outside, then bend the next 2 feet up vertically as the start of the fence, then add the two 4-feet sections for a total of 10, for insurance. Or maybe, use 2-foot rolls wired to the bottom of two vertical sections. With more and more woodchucks and the current upswing of the hare population, I need all the help I can get at the bottom.

“The initial work involved is well worth the effort. I am at ease with the deer, where I used to be upset often. Now, if I could just figure out what to do with the slugs, so bad here that 700 were picked one sad day.”

If you’re experiencing deer damage this winter and erecting fencing is out of the question at the moment, consider a spray that repels the animals through a variety of unpleasant tastes and odors. “Deer Off” is organically based and lasts two to three months under normal conditions. “Tree Guard” is a chemically based product that promises the same protection. Concentrated solutions of coyote urine are also highly effective, but may actually attract coyotes to the area. Some home remedies include grating Ivory soap around the afflicted plants, tying mesh bags filled with human hair among the branches of shrubs and scattering mothballs or blood meal around the bases of plants. Plenty of home gardeners concoct hot pepper and garlic sprays to apply to the foliage of affected shrubs.

If none of these products or tactics works, well, we may be doomed. If worse comes to worse, we can always let the deer take what they want. Perhaps we can focus our energies on curbing, say, slug damage. We might do a whole lot better thwarting that species. They move a lot slower and don’t jump quite so high.

Diana George Chapin is the NEWS garden columnist. Send horticulture questions to Gardening Questions, 512 North Ridge Road, Montville 04941 or e-mail dianagc@midcoast.com. Selected questions will be answered in future columns. Include name, address and telephone number.