You can reduce your garden’s vulnerability to deer by putting up some natural and physical barriers in your yard. It’s generally agreed upon that deer are beautiful when they are viewed from afar, and hopefully that means in someone else’s yard. So how can you keep them at bay?
Keeping them out of your yard in the first place is one of the key points. The longer they have been visiting and munching on your shrubs and plantings the harder it is to dissuade them. Our landscape designers and architects can help you design and implement a plan including plantings and installing physical barriers to minimize the deer exposure in your yard.
If deer are hungry enough they will eat what is available. But planting shrubs and plants they don’t like is one of the best lines of defense. They don’t like shrubs or flowers that are prickly, pungent, have thorns, fuzzy textures, or believe it or not, gray leaves. Some of the plants that fit that bill include: rosemary, maiden grass (miscanthus), viburnum, foxglove (digitalis), rugosa roses, false indigo (baptisia).
There is no assurance that the deer won’t even nibble the plants that are on the deer resistant lists. But you’ll increase your success by starting with them. Some other deer-resistant plants that are worth planting are: bee balm (monarda), butterfly bush (buddleia), catmint (nepata), fescue grass (festuca), fountain grass (pennisetum), lavendar (lavandula), ornamental onion (allium), Russian sage (perovskia), salvia, summersweet (clethra), and wormwood.
In addition they like to rub their antlers on trees because of the bark. This can cause damage to the tree as it exposes it to insects and disease. We can help you protect your trees with wire mesh barriers, and landscape wrapping. We can also plan and design fences that serve as barriers for the deer’s entry to your yard.
Contact us on 952-292-7710 to design your deer resistance plan today.
