As spring turns to summer, homeowners turn to their gardens for enjoyment. Ornamental grasses thicken and grow tall, hostas send up tender flower shoots, and hydrangeas begin to bud. Back from the nursery come tomato plants, culinary herbs, and cucumber seeds. But what it amounts to, particularly in some parts of the country, is a delectable buffet for deer. The battle between people and hungry deer continues, with the deer—to some homeowners more furry rodents than forest friends—gaining the upper hand.
The number of white-tailed deer in the U.S. continues to climb. Recent estimates put the population at 30 million, compared with 500,000 a century ago, and they are most prevalent in the eastern half of the United States. The New York and New Jersey suburbs, in particular, are among the most deer-dense in the nation. What’s a gardener to do? While some communities have hired professional sharpshooters to address the problem, most homeowners must resort to less extreme measures.
Deer, it seems, are highly adaptable creatures. “Things people did 10 years ago, like hanging out Ivory soap, aren’t effective anymore,” says Jill Trischman-Marks, a landscape architect in Charlottesville, Va. Their sense of taste has evolved too. Now they’re munching on things they once ignored—even prickly holly leaves—though they clearly relish some plants more than others. “Hostas, daylilies, yews, and hydrangeas have not been part of my design palette for some time,” she says.
However, two plants that Charlottesville deer consistently avoid are daffodils and boxwood. Fragrant herbs are off-putting too, so Trischman-Marks often mixes them into perennial beds. (Local nurseries can provide a region-specific list of deer-resistant plants.) Another damage-control strategy is to put shrubs that bloom on old wood close to the house, where dogs and people scare wildlife away. By contrast, woody plants that bloom on new spring growth can be placed farther away because deer damage sustained over the winter has fewer consequences. For example, “you can mow Annabelle hydrangeas down every year and they’ll come back in spring” with their blooming ability intact, Trischman-Marks explains.
Border Patrol Fencing is a more effective—and expensive—solution. Today’s deer fencing is virtually see-through, whether it’s made of fine-gauge wire or polypropylene mesh. The key is to work it into a network of trees and shrubs so that it disappears in the distance. For a client whose 5-acre estate included an orchard and herb and water gardens, Trischman-Marks speced an 8-foot perimeter fence. “Their entire property was surrounded by woods,” she says. “We put the fence in the woodland where you couldn’t see it.”
