Oh deer! Gardening can become a big challenge for gardeners who have properties adjacent to natural areas where deer are more prevalent. Unfortunately for us their taste (literally) in plants can be as refined as ours munching on our prized evergreens and perennials. Here are some facts and a few suggestions on how to protect your garden from these hungry grazers!
The Problem?
Deer can cause a range of damage in the landscape including:
- Eating shoots, leaves and flowers. Ripping and stripping plants to bare branches or, in case of perennials, right to the ground
- Eating tree bark if no other food is available in winter months
- In late winter/ early spring male deer will rack the trunks on young trees in order to remove the layer of skin from their emerging antlers. As they rub the tree bark it begins to fray creating large wounds on the trunk. Depending on the size of the wound, a young sapling may or may not recover.
Deer like to feed in early dawn or dusk throughout the year but can be particularly damaging in the winter months when food is scarcer.
Solutions
Netting & Fencing
The most effective way to protect against deer is by screening off the entire property with fencing or to use netting on individual shrubs. Fencing must be at least 2.5 meters tall for it to be effective or else the deer will jump over it. If fencing off an entire property is not plausible, netting is very effective, especially if you only need to protect a limited amount of shrubs in winter months. It can be used to cover small shrubs or to cover the first 2 meters of tall evergreens (the height the deer can reach).
Tree Guards
To prevent racking, be sure to build a protective barrier around the trunk of newly planted saplings and young trees. This can be done by driving in four wooden posts or T-bars around the base of a tree and using thick wire, tightly connecting each post at breast height.
Repellents
A couple of natural spray products available in garden centres are Bobbex and Plantskydd. Bobbex contains a mix of scents such as garlic, castor oil and dried eggs among other ingredients while Plantskydd mainly contains dried blood. These sprays should be applied directly onto plant foliage; especially in the spring when the deer begin to learn where all the good snacking sites are.
After talking with a few local garden centres, both products had mainly positive reviews, customers seem to prefer one over the other. Keep in mind that for these sprays to work effectively one must be persistent! These products will have to be reapplied regularly and are weather dependent. Always follow the directions on each product.
Plants
There are a numerous lists of deer-resistant plants available for homeowners to reference. Use these lists as a guide but keep in mind that no matter how many of these plant lists you look at, if deer are hungry enough they will try to eat anything. One helpful tip, try to choose plants that have a sticky, rough or fuzzy textures such as Jerusalem Sage or ones with spines such as Flowering Quince. They also don’t tend to eat plants with scented leaves such as Russian Sage. Some examples of plants to use:
Trees:
- Alder
- Birch
- Hackberry
- Honey Locust
- Kousa Dogwood
- Larch
- Magnolia
- Oak
- Redbud
- Spruce
Shrubs:
- Boxwood
- Mugho Pine
- Butterfly Bush
- Barberry
- Flowering Quince
- Forsythia
- Japanese Kerria
- Elderberry
- Viburnum
- Weigela
Perennials:
- Anemone
- Beebalm
- Black-Eyed Susan
- Chrysanthemum
- Columbine
- Coreopsis
- Helleborus
- Lavender
- Peony
- Yarrow
Annuals:
- Alyssum
- Cleome
- Cosmos
- Dianthus
- Geranium
- Marigold
- Morning Glory
- Nicotiana
- Saliva
- Zinnia
For more comprehensive plant lists and articles please check out these links:
guelph.ca/wp-content/uploads/HealthyLandscapes_Rabbit_and_Deer_Resistant_Plants.pdf)
www.trca.on.ca/dotAsset/36876.pdf
www.canadiangardening.com/how-to/pests-and-diseases/deer-proof-your-garden/a/1574/2
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Happy Gardening!
Andrea
Post contributed by Andrea Weddum, Landscape Designer
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