I like deer as much as the next person. Okay, maybe that isn’t exactly true. As a gardener, I know all too well how much damage deer can do to my gardens and landscape and it does tend to color my attitude towards them. I have always been willing to coexist peacefully with the ever-growing deer population; however, the deer don’t seem to want to cooperate with me. They have a nasty habit of coming in at night and eating everything I’ve planted right to the ground. Now is that nice? 

            I was extremely optimistic when we first moved into our present home. I went right out and planted a huge perennial bed and over a hundred shrubs. Not long after that I discovered that my yard was smack dab in the middle of one of the main deer trails going up the hill behind our house. Needless to say, my poor perennials and shrubs took a nasty beating every night for the first season.  

            So what did I do to stop them from decimating everything in my yard? I built a very tall (and electrified) fence.  I could have said that I only planted things I know they don't like, but hey...I have to be honest!

            A woman recently called asking for plants that deer don’t like and then proceeded to tell me how the deer had eaten her rhubarb right to the ground.  Now everyone knows that rhubarb leaves are extremely poisonous, which only illustrates a very important point—given enough time, deer will eat almost anything.

            A peculiar thing about deer is how their likes and dislikes vary from neighborhood to neighborhood.  I’ve actually had people tell me that the deer eat everything in their yard except the hosta, which is usually on their all-time favorite food list. (I’ll bet they ate their rhubarb instead!). 

            So why am I telling you all this?  Because next to this article is a list of plants that deer don’t usually eat and chances are that the deer have eaten at least one of them in your yard.  That’s just the way it is, contrary creatures that they seem to be. 

            There are a few things that might help when choosing plants that they tend to avoid.  Deer never eat ornamental grasses.  Yes, I did say never (please don’t email me if they eat yours—I’d rather not know).  They also don’t usually eat herbs or plants that have a strong fragrance such as sage, lemon balm, monarda (bee balm), Russian sage (Perovskia), etc. They don’t generally like plants with thorns or “prickles” either, roses being the exception. Some of the prickly flowers and shrubs they avoid are cleome, barberry, and purple coneflower. 

One last thing, please do not feed the deer.  You aren’t doing yourself, your neighbors or the deer a favor.  I won’t belabor the point, but by feeding deer you are bringing many diseases and parasites into your yard, which can then transfer to your pets or your children.  Deer over browse the areas around feeding stations (yours and the neighbor’s yards) and when well fed will produce more offspring adding to the overpopulation problem.  Because deer feeding usually occurs near roads, the deer are also more likely to be involved in collisions with motor vehicles.  All in all, it just isn’t a good idea. 

That said, here is my list of  perennials, biennials, annuals, shrubs, trees and ground covers that the deer don’t usually eat:

Achillea spp. (Yarrow)

Aconitum spp. (Monkshood)

Allium schoenoprasum (Chives)

Anaphalis triplinervis (Pearly Everlasting)
Amsonia tagernaemontana

Anemone spp. (Windflower)

Aquilegia spp. (Columbine)

Arabis spp. (Cress)

Armeria maritima (Sea Pink)

Aruncus dioicus (Goatsbeard)

Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly weed)

Artemisia spp. 

Astilbe spp. 

Aubrietia spp. (False Rockcress)

Belacamda