Plant Ideas for Deer Tolerant Plants

If you live in an area that is commonly known for foraging deer, you’ll want to consider planting deer tolerant plants as these will be a great addition to your landscaping efforts. We take a look at a few great plant options you can consider for your garden.  

If you want to revamp your garden and turn it into a landscaped masterpiece, you need to make sure that you choose the right plants for your environment. This means that you should consider using deer resistant plants if you live in an area prone to foraging deer. These plants are not preferred by deer and will likely be a deterrent for them. The idea is that they leave your garden alone and go look for something more appetizing. 

What Deer Prefer 

In general, deer prefer to eat plants with high water content and lush foliage, including hostas. They will also choose early spring plants, such as forsythia and tulips, as well as berry-producing and fruity plants. These of course include vegetable gardens, and native plants.  

You should try and avoid these plants in your landscaped garden, if you want to discourage deer from eating away at your greens. You can also choose to work with an experienced garden landscaper to help you choose the right plant combinations for your garden.  

Deer are less likely to look for: 

• Ferns 
• Grasses 
• Plants with hairy leaves 
• Foliage that is heavily scented 
• Plants with strong flavors 
• Prickly plants 

When you plan your landscaped garden, start with plants that have heavy scents as they are excellent deer resistant plants to work with. This can include lavender, as it has a strong scent that we can enjoy, but deer not so much. It’s an excellent choice, especially if you want to add herbs to your garden at home.  

 

Another great herb that you can choose to plant is rosemary. It’s evergreen and works very well in plant gardens, making it perfect to use at home. Ornamental grasses such as fescue, flame grass, pampas grass and sedge are all great options to use, too. 

If you want to add ferns to your landscaped garden, go with options such as New York fern, sensitive fern, wood fern, and Christmas fern. Since most species of ferns are considered to be deer tolerant plants, they are great and very versatile to use. 

In terms of perennials and groundcovers, you can use catmint, lamb’s ear, rose campion, Russian sage, thistle, spurge, bugleweed, anise hyssop, iris, foxglove and forget-me-not plants. These are just some of the great options you can use when you want to add a wide variety of deer resistant plants to your landscaped garden. This will help you to maintain your beautiful garden for longer, and discourage deer from eating away at your garden.  

Fox Hollow Landscaping & Design specializes in landscaped gardens and can help to choose the best deer resistant plants. Contact us today for more information about our landscaping services, and how you can make the most out of your garden.