If there are deer in the area of your home or cottage, sooner or later they will find their way to your garden seeking out a food source.
While we love deer, we also don’t want to encourage them to destroy the beautiful garden spaces that we worked so hard creating and maintaining.
If there are deer in the area of your home or cottage, sooner or later they will find their way to your garden seeking out a food source.
While we love deer, we also don’t want to encourage them to destroy the beautiful garden spaces that we worked so hard to create and maintain. Considering one deer can consume two to four and a half kilograms of vegetation in one day, your garden could be ruined in no time.
There are deer fences and repellents you can use. Those who want to keep it natural can try planting plants that repel deer. And although there are no guarantees that a plant is totally deer resistant, the following plants have been known to detract deer, so it’s worth a try.
Below are just some of the plants deer generally avoid:
- Alliums
- Mugwort (Artemisia, most species except A. lactiflora)
- Barberry (Berberis)
- Bee balm (Monarda)
- Bleeding heart (Dicentra)
- Boxwood (Buxus)
- Columbine (Aquilegia)
- Daffodils (Narcissus)
- Daphne
- Ferns (most species)
- Forsythia
- Foxglove (Digitalis)
- Christmas rose (Helleborus Niger)
- Holly (Ilex) and other prickly plants such as some species of cactus
- Lambs’ ears (Stachys byzantina) and other fuzzy-leafed plants such as sage
- Lady’s mantle and sunflowers
- Monkshood (Aconitum) and other poisonous plants such as lily-of-the-valley and castor bean plant (Ricinus communis)
- Pine (Pinus)
- Spirea (Spiraea)
- Spruce
- Strongly scented and resinous herbs such as rosemary, oregano, thyme, lavender and sage
If you are interested in the full list of deer repellent plants or need deer proofing help for your garden, call Natural Images Landscaping Ltd. today. Debbie and Dan are happy to help set up your garden so you and the deer can happily coexist. Call today at 705-646-0610 or visit them at www.naturalimagesmuskoka.com.
