Deer, perhaps more than any other pest or plant related problem, are one of the greatest challenges in choosing an appropriate plant palette for landscaping in many areas. As a design/build landscape contracting company in Marin County, California for the past 15 years, we have found that creating deer-resistant landscaping has been one of our company’s greatest plant-related challenges. Marin County is a classic example of an environment where deer thrive and are a continuing problem. Many of our landscape installations are in areas near or directly adjacent to large open space and woodland settings that provide excellent forage and habitat for deer populations. Problems arise when deer leave the natural open spaces and begin to prey on the landscape plantings.

Deer in suburban and rural settings are a major problem and in these situations they tend to be relatively fearless of people or anything else for that matter. Our company has tried and experimented with a host of deterrents -- everything from different types of predator urine, blood meal or even Irish Spring soap to plastic netting. While these solutions may prove effective in the short term, eventually the deer will come back and often destroy or severely damage new landscaping.

The question then becomes what is the best and most pragmatic solution in creating deer-resistant landscape plantings. Perhaps the most obvious solution would to establish some sort of physical barrier: erect a fence, use plastic netting, or metal cages around individual plants or groups of plants. Typically in most California homes, front yards are not fenced, but often back yards do have fences. A 6-foot-tall solid fence will usually deter deer. Permanent fencing is an option for back yards, although it’s expensive, and labor intensive. Temporary fencing systems are also a possibility while plants establish themselves, and they prove to be moderately effective. However, these fences raise a host of other issues such as the visual impact on the installed landscaping, and the fence’s overall durability. In towns and cities, fencing may not be feasible because of height or community restrictions. Even where zoning allows a 6-foot fence in front, often this is just not attractive or conducive with the overall landscape design.

Repellants may prove to be a suitable alternative to fencing or physical obstructions. However they raise a host of questions as well. Application and effectiveness of these repellants tend to be the most recurring concerns. Does one spray the foliage on a continual basis, at least until the plants are established, with a traditional commercial repellant, or use perfumed soap, hot-pepper wax or other alternative repellants? Often the best answer to this question comes on a case specific basis.

One solution may even be to eliminate or reduce plantings in the front yard and install more hardscapes and other materials such as rock and gravel. Since a beautiful and lush landscape is often the primary goal in landscaping, the choices that are made here are critical to the result. Fencing or plastic netting may work, but they are just not attractive. Spraying plants every few days is not a practical long-term solution, and paving over the front yard may not be the client’s idea of a successful and beautiful landscape.

Deer-Resistant Plantings

The solution that has evolved in the course of our experience is to plant the right trees, shrubs and flowers in the landscape, those that are the most deer-resistant. First, it is important to understand that there is no such thing as deer-proof plantings -- under the right conditions deer can and will eat almost anything. So we like to think of plants as deer-resistant, not deer proof. What may work in one area, sometimes even in the same landscaping, may not work in another area. The bottom line becomes you either live with the deer and adapt to their presence in the landscape, or eventually the deer may win out and destroy your beautiful installed landscaping. It has been our experience that extraordinary efforts, such as spraying and plastic netting, often do not prove effective in the long run. Once these efforts are stopped, the deer return and destroy the landscaping.

The only solution that consistently works is to plant the correct plant material in the first place and that means adding deer-resistance to other plant selection considerations such as slope, soil type, wind and sun exposure, etc. Once these factors have been taken into consideration, a decision can be made on what plant materials you should plant.

Below is our system for selecting and creating deer-resistant plantings. It is important to emphasize once more that we choose to live with the deer and, accordingly, only use plant materials that have an excellent chance of surviving. Also important to note is that for some reason, plants just out of the nursery seem to be desirable to deer. In the case of many plants, this is related to the succulent, tender quality of juvenile leaves. Whatever the reason, deer seem to love nursery plants. And they can eat just about everything, from stalwart resistant plants like Rosemary, to new ornamental grasses.

Steps to a Deer-Resistant Landscaping

1. Look at the site and the surrounding area. What plants are currently growing? Is there evidence of deer in the area? Are there deer trails, deer droppings, evidence of deer eating the existing plants?

2. Drive up and down the neighborhood to see any evidence of plants that have survived in the area. Talk to clients and ask them how often they see deer in their front yard. Remember, most front yards are not fenced but the back yards often are, and a 6 foot tall fence will usually deter deer.

3. Do a site and soil analysis to see what type of amendments need to be added to the soil and what the growing conditions may be.

4. Select plants for the landscape design for deer affected areas. The plants that are used will usually be determined by the client’s preferences for color, texture, design style, etc. Some deer-resistant plants, clients may find objectionable (hardly anyone likes junipers, for instance, and neither do we).

5. Set out samples of the plants that are going to be used and see what happens when the deer come out at night. We often leave plants right in the nursery containers, but not planted in the ground. We have found that sometimes the deer do not eat the plants that we set out but as soon as we plant them, they proceed to eat them to the ground. This is one way to find out before planting how severe a deer problem there is. Sometimes this is all that needs to be done; the plants that have been selected are not eaten and can be planted and grow successfully.

6. After assessing which plants the deer have eaten, decide which plants are going to be used. Some plants such as grasses are rarely eaten, but others such as Vinca are often eaten to the ground. In some areas, once established, plants that were eaten initially will do well.

7. After planting deer-resistant varieties, spray the plants with deer repellent. Be sure to do this right away. Do not wait to see if there will be deer damage, because in a high traffic area, damage is a given. There are many commercially available deer repellants on the market that are effective, but often they have to be sprayed every day to work effectively. This may sound like an exaggeration, but if plants are not sprayed every day with a dilute solution of the deer repellent, the plants may have to be replaced in areas with a significant deer problem.

8. Check the new landscaping daily after planting is complete; you will often be surprised. If the plants survive with a little minor damage after being sprayed each day, then it is likely that the planting is successful. If the plants are grazed even with the deer repellent spray, we usually replace them with another variety during the first week of planting. This may sound like a lot of work, but if you can remove the plants and allow them to recover they can be used for later use in another landscaping. If not removed, many of the plants may be permanently damaged and never come back and grow again. After removal, replant with other plants that the deer will not favor as much. Again, this can be a trial and error process, and in our opinion is one of the reasons why many deer-resistant plantings don't succeed. The clients are kept happy by this process of replacement, for no matter how much we warn them that the deer will test our new plantings, they are usually surprised and in some cases, alarmed, that any of their beautiful new plants are being eaten. If you replace them right away, it usually satisfies the clients and requires less work than replacing the plants in the future.

9. What plants will be a success may change depending on location, time of year, and weather factors. If deer are hungry or even thirsty, as they are during droughts and in the late summer and fall in California’s Mediterranean climate, they will eat plants they leave alone at other times. Young deer will often taste plants or pull them up and drop them if they don’t like them. There are plants that all deer almost never eat, either because of the taste, smell or toxicity. Here is a sample list of some of our favorite deer-resistant plantings. Many of them are also drought-tolerant.

Trees:

Arbutus unedo (Strawberry Tree); Craetagus (Hawthorn); Ginkgo biloba (Maindenhair Tree); Maytenus boaria (Mayten Tree); Melaleuca (Paper Bark); Olea europaea (Olive); Quercus (Oak); Podocarpus gracilior (Fern Pine); Magnolia ‘St. Mary’s’ ; Palms

Shrubs:

Alygone huegelii (Blue Hibiscus); Arctostaphylos ‘Emerald Carpet’ (Emerald Carpet Manzanita); Bamboo; Buddleia davidii (Butterfly Bush); Calluna vulgaris (Scotch Heather); Carpenteria californica (Bush Anemone); Ceanothus ‘Dark Star’ (California Wild Lilac); Choisya ternata (Mexican Mockorange); Cistus (most) (Rockrose); Coprosma x kirkii; Correa (Australian Fuchsia); Coleonema pulcrum (Breath of Heaven); Elaeagnus pungens (Silverberry); Feijoa sellowiana (Pineapple Guava); Heteromeles arbutifolia (Toyon); Leptospermum scoparium (New Zealand Tea Tree); Loropetalum chinese (Fringe Flower); Myoporum lateum; Pieris japonica (Lily-of-the-Valley Shrub); Plumbago auriculata (Cape Plumbago); Ribes viburnifolium (Evergreen Currant); Salvia greggii (Autumn Sage); Sarcococca (Sweet Box); Viburnum ‘Spring Bouquet’; Westringea fruticosa (Coast Rosemary)

Evergreen Vines:

Clytostoma callistegioides (Lavender Trumpet Vine); Gelsemium sempervirens (Carolina Jessamine); Jasminium (Jasmine); Tecomaria capensis (Cape Honeysuckle)

Perennials:

Acorus gramineus (Sweet Flag); Artemisia; Aster; Campanula porscharskyana (Serbian Bellflower); Carex (Sedge); Geranium (Cranesbill); Kniphofia uvaria ‘Little Maid’;

Mimulus (Monkey Flower); Miscanthus (Japanese Silver Grass); Muhlenbergia rigens (Deer Grass); Nepeta (Cat Mint); Pachysandra terminalis ‘Green Sheen’ (Japanese Spurge); Phormium tenax (New Zealand Flax); Santolina (Lavender Cotton); Scaevola ‘Mauve Clusters’ (Fan Flower); Stipa gigantea (Giant Feather Grass); Thymus (Thyme)

Even in high deer traffic areas, we have had outstanding success with using the above plants. By following the procedures we’ve outlined, you can eliminate the constant replanting of individual plants, and do most of the replanting within the first two weeks after installation. Within a few months of planting, the established landscaping is looking lush and vibrant, and even the most troublesome deer usually avoid well-established mature plants.

We believe that plant selection is the main criteria for creating a deer-resistant garden. Even with the use of a deer-resistant plant list, the more experience that is gained through trial and error the better the results will be. It is more likely plants selected will survive in any particular area. Much of the beauty of a landscape comes from the design, and there is enough variety of color, texture, height, shape, and plant type variation in deer-resistant plants to satisfy even the most discriminating designers and clients.