Crazy? Quite Possibly...

I'm pretty sure that I have the neighbors talking, or perhaps more likely, laughing. Last year, the deer came right up to our house to a garden that I made in the center of our circular driveway. The garden is mostly herbs and I have read that they dislike the smell of herbs and stay away. Well, they didn't. They left the herbs alone but just as my trellis full of morning glories was about to blossom, they ate off each and every leaf from the vines! I also have three hybrid tea roses in this garden and sure enough, just as the buds were about to open into beautiful blossoms, the deer would eat the flower right off! I was livid! In addition to this garden, they also disturbed my holly bushes and yellow twig dogwood. They also entered into my perennial garden which had a tee pee of morning glories, and decimated them as well. I just located a picture of the morning glory disaster (We were working on the house at the time, as you can see.):

My mother had similar experiences in her yard and we are both determined to try to do something about it. Last summer, she visited the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller estate and gardens in Vermont. The gardeners had hung bags of Irish Spring soap on 1-2' stakes every 3' around the perimeter of the gardens. They did this in the early spring when the deer map out their paths for the season. Apparently, they are creatures of habit and tend to follow the same trails each day. The scent of the soap is distasteful to them so they make paths that avoid the garden. We thought it was worth a shot. I have since read many mixed reviews on line but am still hoping for success.
My mom found little green bags that she hopes will help this spectacle blend as the plants grow. I picked up stakes and Lowes and soap and BJs. Actually, my husband was sent to pick up the soap and felt very silly buying 3 packages of 20 or so bars of soap each! We cut the soap into quarters, put them in bags, stapled them to the stakes and put them every 3' around the gardens and near the shrubs.
It looks ridiculous. I hope it works!