There’s nothing worse than spending months patiently cultivating a patch of flowering ornamentals, only to have them completely ravaged by deer come spring! Notorious for being vigorous and seemingly insatiable as grazers, deer can damage extensive crops, snack on all the fruits of an edible shrub, and litter your yard with their droppings. They are particularly attracted to young plants, largely because of their tender, easy-to-eat shoots.
The only way to truly keep deer out of your garden would be to construct an animal-proof fence. This may be a costly and unappealing endeavor, especially if you would like your garden to seamlessly blend into the surrounding landscape. Moreover, you may wish to attract wild animals to increase the biodiversity of your local environment.
In this case, it would be best to cultivate a selection of plants that can withstand being occasionally browsed by deer – even better if they are deliberately avoided by wild animals! The most ideal species would require minimal care and should be hardy to ambient conditions in your area. The plants listed below are lauded for their general versatility and tolerance to a moderate amount of grazing.
1) Common boxwood (Buxus sempervirens)
The common boxwood is one of the most extensively valued perennials for its use as a natural hedge, topiary plant, or living screen. This evergreen species can be grown as a shrub or as a low tree as it rarely measures more than 30 feet (9 meters) tall. The branches of its productive shoots can be pruned and trained to maintain a defined shape. Through the growth period, the leaves can generously fill in any gaps.
This garden favorite is known for being exceptionally deer-tolerant once its stands have matured. This is largely due to its compactness and its chemical profile. All of its parts contain varying levels of steroidal alkaloids and flavonoids, some of which are toxic, pungent, and distasteful to both humans and animals. Unless there are truly no other edible plants around, common boxwood hedges are rarely damaged by deer.
Partial to limestone-rich and loamy substrates, the common boxwood can prove to be low-maintenance in hardiness zones 5 – 9. You may grow it as a low border around more susceptible plants, but keep in mind that taller deer can simply walk over short hedges to access food. Stands that are at least a few feet tall should emit a more intense scent and help hide other edible plants.
2) Lavender (Lavandula spp.)
Several lavender species are suitable for creating grazer-resistant gardens. These fragrant and eye-catching perennials are unmatched in their capacity to repel a wide range of wild animals. Deer, mice, and even subterranean pests avoid their well-established stands. Some might approach the blooms and leaves out of curiosity. Nonetheless, they’ll quickly learn that this bitter plant is not an appetizing herb.
English lavender (L. angustifolia), French lavender (L. dentata or L. stoechas), and Egyptian lavender (L. multifida) are popular as sources of essential oils and as ornamental plants. These have subtle morphological differences, but they are generally characterized by muted green leaves, spikes of purple blooms, and alluring scent profiles. Rich in phytochemicals like linalool, caryophyllene, camphor, and limonene, they function as natural pest repellents.
Lavender species are best for deer-resistant gardens in semi-arid and fully sunlit locations. If they are grown in soils with excess moisture and in areas with partial to full shade, they themselves may attract troublesome insects and eventually die back. Thriving, healthy stands should be fragrant enough to hide the scent of vulnerable crops. Grow them in well-ventilated rows to increase their effectiveness.
3) False goat’s beard (Astilbe spp.)
Generally ignored by deer, insects, and many other small grazers, astilbe species and hybrids are some of the best low-maintenance plants for shade gardens. Set apart by their highly textural foliage, which may resemble the appearance of fern fronds, they are quite spectacular as ornamentals. Avid growers will revel in their throes of feathery, plume-like inflorescences. Seemingly weightless, these can effectively brighten up dim patches.
If the focal point of your garden is a wildlife or ornamental pond, you’ll be happy to find that astilbes thrive in the consistently moist borders of water features. Their root systems, which are easy to divide and propagate, are suited to clay soils. These may become dormant through cool winters, but they should quickly produce new growths in spring.
Though deer tend to favor leafy evergreen plants, they don’t usually snack on the leaves of mature astilbes. If they do, it may be out of curiosity or due to the lack of other sources of nutrients. Regardless, a few nibbles shouldn’t harm fully grown astilbes. After tasting their leaves, young deer are likely to abandon them in search of more flavorful greens.
4) Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum)
It’s hard to go wrong with ferns as low-maintenance ornamentals in partly to fully-shaded gardens. This fantastic perennial can add a striking, oriental touch to the pond side or to a porch that could use some texture and color. As a bonus, its vibrant leaves are avoided by most hungry grazers. For best results in sheltered areas, aim to acquire A. niponicum var. pictum – an RHS award-winning variety.
A closer look at this deciduous fern’s fronds should reveal that they are quite variable in length and that they have further subdivided pinnae. The leaflets contribute to the fronds’ highly textural and feathery appearance. Each of these usually has a deeper-colored midrib, bringing out the silvery-green hues of the lacy leaves.
Deer tend to find feathery, fern-like leaves unappealing – partly due to their texture and relative coarseness. This particular species is also listed as deer-resistant because its mature stands can tolerate a bit of grazing – at least from one or two curious and hungry herbivores. Their shoots are unlikely to suffer from losing a few leaflets.
5) Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Among the wildflowers of the US, the purple coneflower is perhaps one of the most robust, hardy, versatile, and pest-resistant species. Commonly found in prairies, barren landscapes, and woodlands, it can tolerate a wide range of substrates and moisture availabilities. Moreover, as it can grow in both exposed areas and under partial shade, it is suitable for virtually any part of a well-draining garden. Take advantage of its deer-resistant properties by planting it around more susceptible flower beds.
Though the hungriest of deer can and will likely feed on purple coneflowers if these are the only edible plants around, they are unlikely to cause severe damage. Grazed coneflowers can quickly send out new leaves and shoots to make up for the amount of plant material lost to any grazers. If there are other sources of nutritious leaves nearby, you can expect this plant’s hairy leaves and spiky coneflowers to remain wholly intact.
6) Common yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Also known as “bloodwort”, the common yarrow is often cultivated as a low-maintenance ornamental in temperate gardens. Once believed to be a rich source of healing oils for all sorts of wounds, it was intentionally grown in many regions as a medicinal herb. Fortunately, its anecdotal uses are well-founded as it has been proven to contain phytochemicals with pharmacological value. Extracts of its oils have antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties.
The compounds that give yarrow its wound-healing abilities also function as natural pest repellents. The hairy and highly textural leaves emit a slightly spicy scent that puts off approaching deer and can mask the more subtle scents of edible herbs. As the shoots of this plant can grow to about 3 – 4 feet (91 – 122 cm) tall, they can be arranged in easily manageable, deer-resistant rows around the perimeter of your yard.
As a bonus, the spritely clusters of white, pink, yellow, or red yarrow blooms should appeal to a wealth of pollinators and beneficial insects. These should help increase the diversity of your garden and encourage the development of more viable seeds.
7) Marigolds (Tagetes spp.)
Marigolds are one of the key components of a grazer-repellent and pest-resistant garden. These flowering annuals and perennials are known for their vivid spring-to-summer blooms, which are culturally valued throughout their native range. In mild to warm climates, you definitely can’t go wrong with cultivating these low-maintenance plants because of the ecological services they provide.
As border plants around plots of cash crops and vulnerable flowering perennials, marigolds can serve as ornamental accents and as natural deterrents. Both their leaves and blooms emit a pungent, musky scent due to the compounds in their essential oils. Thiophenes are released as gaseous compounds that waft around the garden and mask the scent of nearby plants.
Limonene, caryophyllene, and alpha-pinene – phytochemicals in many other strongly-scented herbs – are also found in the most popularly grown marigold species (i.e. T. patula, T. erecta, T. tenuifolia). These are known for increasing the bitterness of leaves and stems, making them unpalatable to grazers.
8) Common foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)
Now naturalized in many parts of North America, the common foxglove is set apart by its eye-catching inflorescences. Terminal and elongated, these consist of a column of tubular blooms. Depending on the hybrid or cultivar, the blooms may be yellow, white, light pink, or fuchsia. A closer look at their openings reveals a pattern of speckles. Beneath the towering floral spike is a shoot with spirally-arranged, woolly leaves.
Deer tend to keep away from the common foxglove for a couple of reasons. First, the fuzzy texture of its leaves is unappealing to them. Second, this plant is highly toxic to both humans and animals. Ingesting a fair amount of its seeds, leaves, and blooms can lead to fatal symptoms; this is due to the presence of a cardiac glycoside called digoxin.
An adequate amount of digoxin would likely cause heart failure in medium-sized mammalian grazers. As deer can be relied upon to instinctively detect the presence of dangerous compounds, largely due to their sensitive sense of smell, it is highly unlikely that they would target foxgloves as sources of food. While rows of this plant can certainly keep them away, bear in mind that they may be dangerous in gardens that are frequented by children and pets.
9) Irises (Iris spp.)
Widely cultivated for their showy flowers, irises are some of the most prized ornamentals in botanical gardens and parks. These horticultural favorites, which include the bearded iris (Iris x germanica), Japanese iris, Siberian iris, and African iris, are perfect as border plants. They add vertical dimension, even texture, and bright colors to landscapes with well-draining soils and ample sun exposure.
Low-maintenance once they are well-established, irises are able to self-propagate via a network of underground rhizomes. As they come in many species with varied moisture requirements, it’s fairly easy to pinpoint a specific type that would be suitable for your garden. The yellow or blue flag iris, for example, would be ideal for the pondside as they favor moist conditions and can tolerate seasonal submersion.
Irises are able to repel deer and many other grazers because their leaves have a bitter taste and contain pungent oils. When left with no other options, deer may consume the leaves of these plants. Nonetheless, they are unlikely to graze them down to their rhizomes. As long as their root systems remain intact, irises are able to survive through moderate grazing.
10) Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus)
Rosemary is definitely a no-nonsense, low-maintenance addition to a deer-resistant garden. Its increasingly woody stems and leathery, needle-like leaves are hardly ever consumed by the hungriest of grazers. Packed with a fragrant and bitter essential oil with compounds like rosmarinic acid, camphor, 1,8-cineole, and carnosol, the leaves repel a wealth of pests in semi-arid environments.
While rosemary repels deer, it is certainly appealing to us and to many wonderful pollinators. Its spring-to-summer inflorescences have the most delicate blue, white, pink, or purple petals. In regions with mild or warm climates, these flowers may be present all throughout the year – even during brief droughts. Borne on sturdy shoots with a lengthy lifespan, you can count on them to add ornamental interest to an herb garden for years on end. For some extra charm, go for the ‘Benenden Blue’ or ‘Severn Sea’ cultivars!
