How Can You Protect Your Garden from Deer?

Fall is a great season—beautiful weather and pumpkin spice treats. What’s not to love, right? But if your garden is your prized possession, this is the time of year where deer are really active, and it doesn’t bode well for your plants!

Why do deer keep coming back to your yard and treating your garden like a salad bar? How can you keep this from happening? Let the experts at Botanical Decorators give you some quick tips.

Brief Guide to Achieve a Deer Proof Garden

What Attracts Deer?

It all starts with why the deer are there in the first place. Deer like to eat smooth, flavorful plants, trees, shrubs, and even grass. Some of the plants they are most attracted to include:

• Shrubs, particularly those with berries
• Hardy geranium
• Candy lily
• Sea holly
• Evergreen azaleas
• Rhododendrons
• American arborvitae trees

See Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station’s full list of landscape plants rated by deer resistance »

How Can You Keep Deer Away from Plants & Protect Your Yard?

While you may not be able to keep every single deer out of your backyard, these tips can help prevent severe damage and keep your garden as deer-free as possible:

• Stick with deer-resistance plants. Deer stay away from plants that are prickly and have pungent odors. Some prime examples include:
  • Daffodil
  • Peony
  • Mint
  • Bluebell
  • Lavender
  • Common lilac
  • Poppy
  • Lamb’s ear
  • Black-eyed Susan
• Use repellents and strong odors. There are plenty of deer repellent solutions, but common food and household items may work as well—onion, garlic, and even soap, for example! If you’re going to use repellent or the like, we suggest applying it to the perimeter of your property and replying after it rains.
• Get loud. As we all know, deer startle pretty easily. Alarms and other such sounds can be effective, but so can something more subtle. Elements like wind chimes and ornaments with moving parts provide the unpredictable sounds and movement that can scare off deer while also enhancing the look of your garden.
• Use physical barriers. Fencing is another viable solution for deer proofing your garden. Keep in mind that it needs to be tall enough—most deer can leap pretty high, so a four- or five-foot high fence may not cut it. You can also put netting over plants and flowers—this has the added benefit of keeping away more than just deer.

Landscape Design in Maryland, DC & Northern Virginia

Deer can be pesky when they continually eat the plants, flowers, shrubs, and trees you’ve worked so hard to grow and maintain. If you need help creating a beautiful landscape design that will help repel deer and also enhance your overall yard and home, look no further than Botanical Decorators. Contact us today to start transforming your yard!