Mix in blender and use hand-held sprayer to apply to foliage. You do not need to cover every inch of the foliage. Reapply as needed, especially after rain. Milorganite is also very effective, especially at keeping deer off pansies. No plant is totally deer proof because stressed and starving deer usually find a way to eat.
Deer are most hungry early spring and late winter because natural food supplies are gone.
Early-flowering plants can be very vulnerable. Except for forsythia and narcissus, which deer really dislike, gardeners may choose to plant later-blooming plants. Deer tend to dislike plants with thorns and briars, fuzzy and fibrous leaves and pungent and medicinal tastes. These dislikes include ornamental grasses, many herbs and plants in the mustard family. Having strong foliage to grab when levering up the bulbs with the garden fork makes it easier on you and the bulbs, writes Beverley Hereford of the Albemarle Garden Club in a recent issue of The Garden Club of Virginia Journal.