Plants Resistant To Deer

Although it seems as if deer eat everything in sight, the experience of many homeowners suggests that there are, in fact, a fair number of landscape plants that deer seem to avoid unless they are desperate. While fawns may taste anything once, deer do have preferences and have been observed to spit out a partially chewed mouthful of a plant. Deer tend to ignore plants that are prickly, aromatic, or have hairy foliage. Deer preferences vary considerably from region to region.

Consider replacing plants destroyed by deer with some of the plants on the “alleged deer proof” list. Landscape new homes located in areas where deer normally feed with shrubs, trees, ground covers and other ornamentals from this list. There is no guarantee that local deer may not develop a taste for these plantings also, but they may prefer to dine elsewhere.