Tune In to “Walk On the Wild Side”!

In our experience here at our own Barneyville Road All You Can Eat Buffet, hungry deer (and their plant eating friends) will snack on nearly anything, though some plants are clearly not preferred and incorporating those generously into your landscape helps mitigate browsing damage. We know it is frustrating to invest in plantings only to find them eaten soon after. 

Deer have absolutely become a challenge in residential landscapes because of habitat loss. In our opinion rather than fretting over each individual plant, what we really we need to collectively focus on is conserving and improving the habitat in more local wild spaces while also encouraging as many people as possible to make efforts to restore habitat at home. We also encourage planting with the level of density that makes it hard to even notice some browsing here and there - it really is possible to do this! These may not be the answers you want - but it is the one we will keep repeating! 

We have had favorite plants damaged too and we know it isn't fun. But we try to keep the perspective that it isn't really the deer we are angry at - it is the currant state of our community landscapes and a lack of enough wild predators that is the actual problem. But, here are the best practical tips we have! We have found that the more aromatic a plant is the less likely a deer is to be interested - they also tend to not be overly fond of fuzzy leaves. And there are some things they just plain don't like! Rutgers University has created a ranked list of plants and their levels of deer resistance - you can explore it HERE. We refer to this resource ourselves often!

When you focus on planting densely (lots of plants) damage will be minimized. Plants in our yard do get browsed but by learning about less favored varieties and by planting things very close together (good practice for a whole host of reasons) the damage truly is minimal in established plantings. Use the concept of bodyguard plants - tucking plants that might sustain browsing right up tight against plants that are virtually never touched (native grasses, mountain mints, goldenrods, monardas and the like). As plants mature many inherently become less palatable and far better able to sustain some nibbling. And an important point to note, some of the most heavily browsed plants in our landscape are not things we even planted - weeds in the lawn, patches of clover, pokeweed, Virginia creeper, poison ivy, and oak saplings that spring up here there and everywhere! By allowing plants to do their thing and giving up a bit of control you might just find things balancing out and thriving a bit more with less of a heavy hand. 

We are often asked about (or told about) deterrent sprays. Because not enough is yet know about the unintended impacts these may have on pollinators  - or other creatures - we choose not to use them here.  For newly planted shrubs and smallish trees we strongly encourage (and practice) protecting the plant with caging. We prefer to cage each individual plant versus broader fencing since individual plant cages still allow for free movement of animals around the space. Typically after 2 or so years, most well established plants will be strong enough to sustain any browsing and the cages can be moved to other new plantings at that point. 

We have included a few highly recommended readings on the subject of sharing spaces with hungry herbivores  below. We hope you will take the time through and consider some different perspectives.