Yes, there are a lot of hungry deer in our backyards
Published 4:09 am Wednesday, July 27, 2005
By Staff
I must admit there is something breathtaking about a deer, walking in the road or standing in a field, I find myself stopping my car to watch it.
Mostly, I believe it's because, it's just that, a wild creature. I think the deer are handsome animals, with those huge liquid brown eyes, and those sleek, wiry, lean bodies. But…..in a garden they're a gardeners nightmare!!!
Because they are such curious creatures, a deer can do a lot of damage just by looking around. Knocking things over (like birdbaths) stepping and trampling on everything in their paths, nipping here and chewing there. They just have no respect at all for our 'gardening" handiwork. And munching everything in sight right down to the dirt. Well, maybe we can plant some things that won't suit their sensitive taste buds.
Deer are smart, they rely on their noses to help them determine what is non-poisonous and safe to eat, If the plant is aromatic, minty pungent and strongly scented, also if its coarse, fuzzy bristly, thorny and has spinney features ( they love roses, raspberries and blackberries, these are an exception to the thorny rule) this tends to confuse the deer and these plants will hopefully make them leave the area.
We want to use these spicey, pungent, fuzzy, prickly, strong-flavored plaints around the borders of our gardens and make the deer believe ALL the plants in this garden are off limits and unsafe to eat. Like planting daffodils around the perimeter of our tulips. If a deer were to nibble just one of the daffodils, they would think they are all daffodils and move on.
Try planting a few astilbe, ferns lungworts, cranebill, hellebores and bleeding heart in and around your hostas.
Deer generally refuse all herbs, boxwoods, yarrows, delphiniums, lavender, artemisia, daffodils and bleeding hearts just to name a few.
Let's delve a little deeper into this pungent, spicy thing.
How about trying a few Aconites, foxgloves, alliums, bee balm, catmint, ferns and ornamental grasses. Also plant a few lamb ears, astilbes, peonies, strongly scented cranebill, lungworts, salvias, coneflowers, milkweeds (asclepias tuberosa) columbines, russian sage, bearded iris, hyssop (agastache), hellebores,monkshood (aconitum) deer fern (Blechnum spicant, that's a good one, deer don't like deer fern, ha ha ha) lavender cotton ( santolina chamaecyparaissus) dusty miller, oriental poppies, stonecrops (sedums) morning glories, lily of the valley, lemon balm, chives, and onions, thyme, sage, mints, rosemary, coreopsis, flowering tobacco (nicotiana, a few groundcovers, pachysandra (japanese spurge) ajuga, repans (carpet bugleweed), a couple shrubs and trees, lilac, honeylocusts, flameleaf sumac, dogwood, magnolia, viburnum, japanese barberry, juniper, and holly.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. I wonder if marigolds would work? There are a lot of books on the subject now to also help us fight this war against deer. It's to bad we as gardeners have to go to find such lengths to defend our garden, but cheer up, as a gardener it might supply us with some fun meddling with the deers dinner plans.
Did you know? A lawn is a natural air conditioner. As grass releases oxygen, it cools the air. On a hot summer day, lawns are 30 degrees cooler than asphalt and 14 degrees cooler than bare soil.