What to do about Deer
Summer has gotten off to a hot and dry start this year….although only 3 weeks officially into summer, we’ve had 90+ temperatures and little to no rain for most of the past 6 weeks. As bad as it is for our gardens, it’s even dryer when you move away from our artificially watered backyards. This means that deer are extra hungry due to reduced plant growth. When deer are hungry, they definitely get more aggressive in going after garden plants. They venture closer to the house for food and In some instances, they eat plants that are normally considered deer resistant.
What has surprised me that they have been eating?
Stokes Aster (Stokesia laevis)
Green and Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum)
Woodland sunflower (Helianthus divaricata)
Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida)
Winterberry (Ilex verticillata)
Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum biflorum)
What should I have expected them to eat?
Garden Phlox (Phlox paniculata)
Oakleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia)
Tall thimbleweed (Anemone virginiana) - although listed as deer resistant, it is eaten almost every year in my yard
Blue Wood Aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium) - same as tall thimbleweed, they always attack it in my yard
What are some strategies for dealing with deer?
Fencing: A fence will definitely help keep deer out. Points to consider are that deer can jump very high. For my vegetable garden, I didn’t stop having problems until we went from a 5.5’ to a 7’ fence. Besides height, if the area you want to protect isn’t large, you could consider adding 2 parallel smaller fences (i.e. one fence inside of another). Deer have poor depth perception and are reluctant to jump over the first fence when they can’t judge the distance to the second.
Deterrents: If you want to grow non-deer resistant plants, this is typically the strategy most people take. There are 2 types of deterrents to consider.
Surface: This is the spray type…it makes the surface of the plant taste or smell bad. The downside to this as that it needs to be applied every time it rains and a lot of them smell really bad (what keeps the deer away). I’m currently using a cinnamon spice blend from I Must Garden. As long as I apply it regularly (always the challenge), it seems to work.
Systemic: This type is applied to the ground. It then dissolves into the soil and is taken up by the plant through its roots and supposedly lasts several months. I’m currently using repellex tablets, which are capsaicin (chemical in hot peppers) based. It has worked well for me in past years, but I waited until early July to apply it this year.
Unfortunately, with the deterrents, to be most effective, you need to change it up as deer seem to get used to them over time. So use one surface spray while the systemic tablets are being absorbed. Then switch to another spray later on in the season. Theoretically, this should work…but I have never found something that is full proof.
Use Only Deer Resistant Plants: Grow plants that are unpalatable to deer. This seems like the obvious solutions. Unfortunately, there is a gradient in terms of deer resistance. This means that you have to accept that not every plant labeled as deer resistant is equally deer resistant when they are hungry. A few plants to consider that are nearly 100% deer resistant: mint family members (bee balm, mountain mint, skullcap, anise hyssop), alliums (ornamental onions), ironweed (Vernonia), bluestar (amsonia) , coreopsis, milkweeds and most ornamental grasses.
Surround non-deer resistant plants with heavily deer resistant plants: This is related to the above strategy of using only deer resistant plants. In previous years, I had purple garden phlox growing in the middle of beds in my front and back yard. Despite hearing how deer loved phlox, I had never experienced this. This year, I rearranged my front bed…moving taller coneflowers back to the middle of the bed and most of my phlox further towards the edge….yes I know, the enemy of good is better. The deer have just decimated the phlox in the front bed. However, in my back bed, the deer still haven’t touched my purple phlox. I suspect that its due to the phlox in the back bed being surrounded by non palatable plants…Purple Coneflowers, Narrow Leaf Blue Star, Penstemon, Soft Rush, Switchgrass and Ironweed. Maybe interplant phlox with ornamental alliums or regular garlic?
Front Yard: Garden phlox devoured by deer
Back Bed: Purple Phlox Not Touched by Hungry Deer. Surrounded by Narrowleaf Bluestar, Coneflowers, Oxe-eye Sunflower, Switchgrass, Ironweed and Soft Rush.
Maybe once we’ve tried all of the above, to the best of our availability, we just need to accept that there will be some deer damage to our plants. We can work to minimize it. But nothing (outside of 7’+ fence) is full proof.
