Whitetail deer
by Lori Rose
The North American White-tailed Deer is a beautiful creature, especially when seen from the back, running away from your yard, white rump bobbing as it disappears. Deer are vegetarian, and a hungry deer will eat anything that grows in soil. It will eat Adam's Needle (yucca) even though it makes huge paper-cut slits on its tongue. It will eat the hedge sprayed with hot pepper sauce or coyote urine. A hungry deer will waltz right up to your kitchen window and order a salad.
There is no easy fix for hungry deer. But there are many things that can be done to deter them, even live harmoniously with them. Maybe one or more of these ideas will work for you.
First, fences. There are several different types of fences to choose from, depending on the amount of deer damage you have, and the money you are willing to spend to install and maintain it.
Permanent high-tensile electric fencing provides year-round protection from deer damage. This is the kind of fencing most used by orchards and nurseries.
Standard wood fences deter deer, but keep in mind that they can jump over an eight-foot fence if they are really tempted. Check with your township to see if you can raise the fence to ten feet just to be safe.
A four-foot-high fence constructed with wires along the top, middle, and bottom of the posts, along with wires that run on an angle to four feet wide will frighten them. Although they can easily jump four feet high, they will not want to try to clear the four-foot width. Viewing the fence from the side, picture a triangle with the horizontal side (the ground) and vertical side (the fence post) each measuring four feet, with the end points attached by wire, and you'll get an idea of what this fence will look like.
Another option is to construct two wire fences, one four feet high and one three feet high, about three feet apart. Deer will avoid this type of fence even though they can jump over both fences because they will be afraid of getting caught between the two fences or tangling their hooves in the wires.
There are also many spray repellents on the market, with brand names like Deer Scram, Liquid Fence or Deer Out. All of them work to some extent. Once the repellent washes or wears away, the deer will be back, so diligence is required. They will all need to be applied regularly every few weeks, or after hard rains. Wear a facemask when spraying any of these products, as you'll need to spray up to eight feet high (deer will stand on their hind legs to get a snack), and even "natural" products can be toxic.
How about deterring deer by planting trees, shrubs, and flowers that they don't like? Even though a hungry deer will eat just about anything, there are some tried and true plants that they don't like. Here are some of the more popular deer-resistant plants and their attributes.
Trees
American Holly is the one we think of for holiday decorations. It has gorgeous red berries and sharp, pointy evergreen leaves.
Colorado blue spruce is a large evergreen tree with pretty, bluish needles.
Paper birch loves damp areas and has unique, peeling bark.
Shrubs
Barberry is a thorny purple/maroon shrub that is easily managed and makes a great hedge.Pieris, also known as Japanese Andromeda, grows slowly to eight feet and has pretty, white flowers that look like strings of tiny bells in spring.
Leucothoe is a large native shrub that can grow up to ten feet tall and wide with long, arching branches, deep green leaves, and strands of white flowers.
Forsythia, that harbinger of spring with its yellow flowers that bloom along with the daffodils, will create a hedge whether clipped or left to grow naturally.
Perennials For Sun
Mums, Shasta daisy, purple coneflower, blanket flower, and feverfew are all in the same family, with daisy-shaped flowers in various sizes and colors.
Foxgloves grow tall and stately in partial shade, with spikes of purple to white flowers that look like little fairy caps. All parts of this plant are poisonous.
Iris – flag iris are the smaller plants that like wet areas, and bearded iris have thicker leaves and larger flowers that come in a rainbow of colors.
Perennials For Shade
Lungwort is a deep green plant with unique white splotches on the leaves and flowers that can be blue, lavender, and pink all at the same time.
Brunnera is an eye-catching, large-leaved woodland plant with forget-me-not blue flowers.
Hellebores bloom before winter is even over, sometimes in the snow, with flowers that range from greenish white to maroon, and all shades in between.
Tiarella, or foamflower, is lovely en masse, its frothy white flowers looking like foam in the woodsy garden.
Bulbs
Allium is a member of the onion family, and is abhorred by deer, rabbits and squirrels. The large bulbs produce interesting balls of florets in purple or white, some very tiny, and some as big as your head.
Daffodils need no introduction, and all of them are deer, rabbit, and squirrel resistant.
Muscari looks like little purple grapes. It comes up with the early daffodils, and makes a lovely groundcover beneath other bulbs.
Perennial Herbs
Chives are member of the allium family, and can be cut and used in cooking. If you don't cut the plant, it will reward you with little pink flower balls in late spring.
Lemon balm is a pretty plant worthy of the flower border, with a strong lemony scent. It can spread rapidly.
Mint comes in many flavors, and all have square stems. It can be invasive; you may want to grow it in a pot.
Annual Herbs
Basil, the queen of herbs, comes in many sizes, colors, and flavors, and is the perfect partner for tomatoes, both in the garden and on the table.
Dill and fennel look very similar in the garden with needle-like leaves and lacy flowers.
Annual flowers
Petunias have sticky, hairy stems that deer don't like. You'll enjoy the trumpet-shaped flowers that bloom all season in almost every color.
Sunflowers are a delight to children and birds, but not deer.
Zinnias come in all shapes and sizes, both the plants and the flowers, and the colors can't be beat in the garden and in the vase, where they can last for a week or more.
Cleome is also called spider flower. This tall plant has pretty hand-shaped leaves and flowers in purples, pinks, and whites. It blooms in August when other flowers have quit.
Groundcovers
Pachysandra is a ground cover workhorse. The evergreen plants like a bit of shade, and they will spread and fill out in no time.
Vinca is a vine with pretty, blue flowers in early spring that spreads slowly into a green carpet.
Lamium has green or variegated green and white leaves with purple, pink or white flowers that look like tiny balloons. Some hybrids even have gold leaves.
With some thought and a little extra effort, you can create a yard that deer may just pass over, hopefully preferring your neighbor's yard to yours.
(bio)
Lori Rose, the Midnight Gardener, is a Temple University Certified Master Home Gardener and member of GardenComm: Garden Communicators International. She has gardened since childhood and has been writing about gardening for over twenty years.