Eileen East's garden is beautiful. Tucked into the mountainside of Jim Thorpe, the master gardener's yard boasts dozens of colorful varieties of flowers and vegetables.

But thanks to its proximity to the woods, East's garden is also home to an unwanted feature: Deer and plants with obvious critter damage."Even though there is plenty of food in the wild, my guest deer have fallen in love with certain things in my garden," she said, noting that deer that find plants they enjoy will often graze until the plant is nearly gone, and then return weeks later to nibble on the new growth."In my experience, a deer keeps coming back. Eventually, if it wants to, it can eat and destroy everything in your landscape," East said.Fawns tend to cause the most damage to the garden as a whole. Like all children, they learn through experimenting and will try new plants to discover what is safe to eat and what tastes best. Adult deer are more selective, but will consume larger quantities of plants that they enjoy."They like native plants. Native plants are like deer candy, in my opinion," she said. "The deer candy at my house have all been natives, like coneflowers, black-eyed Susan and native perennials."East has found this destruction of native flowers particular troubling because she carefully cultivates her garden to be pollinator-friendly. East's garden was one of the first in the area to become a certified pollinator garden by the Penn State Master Gardeners.Physical deterrentsEast's hillside garden is perfect for deer and wildlife, and it is difficult to keep curious critters out."I'm too wide open, and my garden is on a slope. It's very hard to do anything that's 100 percent," she said. "The only way you can defeat critters is to make it difficult. Eventually, you will defeat the wildlife and they will look elsewhere for food."Exclusion is the best way to stop critters. If they cannot eat the food, they give up and go elsewhere."Even though East has decades of experience working in the garden, she confessed that dealing with deer has been somewhat of a learning curve. She has lived at her home in Jim Thorpe nearly 20 years, but only faced a deer problem the past few years - a change she says may be partially due to losing their dog.When East first noticed deer damage, she began draping netting over plants but quickly got frustrated when the netting would stick to the plants and make harvesting difficult. Then she added low hoops, which worked well for some plants. She finally hit a design that she likes with raised beds and high, open hoops. The raised beds, roughly 3 feet high, allow her to garden without putting too much stress on her back or joints. High hoops mean that she can attach netting another 2-3 feet into the air, while leaving the tops open to allow pollinators to enter - but still high enough to keep curious deer out. The hoops are made of flexible conduit and can be removed to weed and harvest.East has also had more success with a stiffer netting, which is easier to work with when draping the netting or moving the hoops.East also tried simple wire cages in her main flower garden. When the deer began knocking over the cages, she staked them down, and eventually added close-together fencing (deer can jump over fences, but only if there is a large enough opening) and other deterrents, including water scarecrows, which are motion-activated sprinklers. While water scarecrows work best on a level surface, East compensated by scattering three throughout her steeply graded garden."Deer don't like to be touched. They have an almost violent reaction to being hit with this water," she said.Finally, experimenting with plant types and textures and allowing mother nature to be a deterrent may be best. East's deer have left alone her English daisies, day lilies and most shrubs. They also dislike any plants with a rough or fuzzy texture, thorns or an unpleasant taste.Why prevention mattersIt's obvious that deer can destroy a garden filled with their favorite treats and snacks. But there are other reasons that it is important to deter deer and avoid attracting them to your yard intentionally.The National Institutes of Health recently warned of a growing tick epidemic, spread in part by the growing number of deer. Deer ticks are the only type of ticks that can transmit Lyme disease, in addition to several other tick-borne diseases."When the deer stop living in the woods and start living in your landscape, it can cause countless problems," East said.She said it's difficult for most people to label deer as the enemy. They've been used as a symbol of power and a gentle spirit throughout classic and popular literature, from Bambi to the doe and stag featured in Harry Potter series."There is so much conflict between our love of deer and our hate of deer damage," said East. "They mean so much that people can't begin to see them as something as troubling as a groundhog."Home remediesEast said many of the most popular home remedies for deer and other wildlife, such as spraying Dawn soap on leaves or scattering hair, blood or urine, simply don't work - and for good reason."Dish soap doesn't stay on the plant long enough," she said. "And no wild animal can afford to be afraid of hair, blood or urine because it's found so often in their natural environment."One home remedy that she has had success with is hot sauce; wildlife experts agree that the best repellents include eggs and hot pepper.She said deer do not enjoy that burning sensation in their mouth, and they will tend to avoid plants that are consistently "hot." If you do purchase a product that claims to deter deer, be sure to look for ingredients that add heat.