Gardening Tip, Or Warning: Buckwheat Flour Repels Animals, Or Else Attracts Them

Gardening can be a pretty confusing proposition to a novice. There are as many different opinions about it as there are about health or dominoes.

Recently we heard that buckwheat flour is abhorrent to deer and rabbits and will keep them out of the garden. We heard that if deer even smell buckwheat flour on a hot summer day, something to the combination fills them with despair.

With a level of excitement we have sometimes experienced at the racetrack, we asked a knowledgeable friend, an actual farmer, about the tip. He said he didn't know, but he did know that when he has grown buckwheat as a cover crop on his farm, the deer take to it like a table of buffet.

Hope springs eternal, though, so we're giving it a shot, and will report our results. If they are positive, look for the price of buckwheat flour at GreenStar to balloon.

Steve Burke
for Ithaca Blog