Readers have asked for advice on planting a deer-proof garden. In a word: plastic.
However, when it comes to real, living plants, “deer-proof” is not a realizable goal. The best we can hope for is to come up with a list of deer-resistant plants. In general, these are plants that deer don’t like well enough to eat all of, or plants that grow faster than the deer can eat them.
Over the years, I’ve seen lists of plants that deer love and plants that deer hate, and I have been fascinated to notice some of the same plants on both sides. It seems that deer in one area eat things that deer elsewhere don’t.
They also can change their habits. For many years, deer in my yard ignored my garden, but last year ate tomatoes and cucumbers down to the ground. I now have deer that browse the new growth on ivy, which I’ve never seen before. On one notable occasion, a deer ate the better part of a large, extremely toxic angel trumpet, yet I found no dead Bambi in the driveway.
Voracious and charming, greedy and beautiful, deer can be the bane or the grace of the garden. Although young deer will eat pretty much anything, mature deer are more discriminating.
Though there really is no such thing as a deer-proof plant, there definitely are deer-resistant ones. Often these are plants with hairy, smelly, waxy, dense or highly textured foliage. I have quite a lot of experience with deer, having been blessed with many of them in each of my gardens. At present, my yard hosts a clutch of young bucks in the lower back yard which are mainly cattails.
They come out of the cattails and go to the alfalfa across my driveway and occasionally come up to the yard of the house. They seem to be not afraid of the dogs at all.
Here are some of the more resistant plants:
Bulbs
Allium (ornamental onions), Begonia (tuberous begonia), Crocosmia, dahlia, Endymion (Spanish bluebells), freesia, Galanthus (snowdrops), gladiolus, hyacinths, daffodils, Scilla (squill), Polianthes (tuberose).
Shrubs and sub-shrubs
Abelia, Berberis (barberry), Brugmansia (angels trumpet), Buxus (boxwood), cotoneaster, daphne, Datura, Hypericum (St. John’s wort), juniper, lavender, spruce, Pieris (lily-of-the-valley shrub), pine, Potentilla (cinquefoil), laurel, Rhus (sumac), Ribes (flowering currant), rosemary, sage, spirea, lilac, viburnum, and ironwood.
Perennials
Aconitum (monkshood), yarrow, Agastache (hummingbird plant), Alyssum (basket-of-gold), Artemisia, aster, Aubrieta (rockcress), Bergenia (leatherleaf), chrysanthemum, Crambe (sea kale), Digitalis (foxglove), Echinacea (coneflower), Erigeron (fleabane), Eryngium (sea holly), Euphorbia (spurge), fennel, ferns (all), Gaillardia (blanket flower), geranium, hellebore, iris, Kniphofia (poker plant), Lavatera (mallow), lupine, Meconopsis (Welsh poppy), Monarda (bee balm), Nepeta (catmint), Oenothera (evening primrose), Papaver (poppies), Penstemon (beardtongue), Perovskia (Russian sage), Phlomis, Phormium (New Zealand flax), Pulmonaria (lungwort), rhubarb, Rudbeckia (black-eyed Susan), Santolina (lavender cotton), Scabiosa (pincushion flower), Stachys (lamb’s ear), thyme, Verbascum (mullein), verbena.
Annuals
Alyssum (sweet alyssum), Calendula (port marigold), Clarkia (farewell to spring), Cleome (spider flower), Eschscholzia (California poppy), heliotrope, lobelia, forget-me-not, nasturtium, Nicotiana (flowering tobacco), Papaver (poppies), Pelargonium (geranium), petunia, Ricinus (castor bean), marigold, verbena, zinnia.
Vegetables
Asparagus, rhubarb, potato, and lima beans.