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Gardening with Deer and Rabbits

Has this ever happened to you? You come home from the nursery or unpack the mail order box with all of those new plants, which you carefully selected because they're advertised as "deer or rabbit resistant." You spend some happy hours arranging and planting them, and then stand back and imagine how beautiful they'll look as they grow. The next morning you go admire your new babies--only to find they've been munched to the ground.

Plants Grow Deer- and Rabbit-Resistance

Rather than just shooting the culprits, as tempting as that might be, give your plants a boost with preventative protection. They will grow to resist deer and rabbit grazing; they just don't have their armor on right out of the pot, as  Horticulturist David Salman, founder of High Country Gardens writes in "The Xeric Gardener":

Experience has shown me that deer resistant plants generally don’t come that way from the nursery.  This is because nursery grown plants are grown in soil-less mixes that use ingredients such composted bark, sphagnum peat moss , perlite, vermiculite, coir, rice hulls and soluble nutrients to create a well-drained, well aerated mix in which we can grow potted plants.  Most plants that depend on aromatic oils and bitter compounds to repel animals don’t seem to be able to synthesize them in sufficient quantities when grown in non-soil growing environments.  But transplants, after a few months growing in real soil, begin to accumulate these deer resistant compounds in their leaves and stems and their deer resistance increases greatly.

 What to Do to Protect Those New Plants?

Salman suggests deer-repellent sprays for new plantings. (Most work for rabbits too.) As he points out, deer can become accustomed to sprays, so it's good to rotate the kinds you use. And of course, you'll need to reapply as your plants grow tender new leaves. So plan on spraying them every ten days to two weeks.

Another idea is to plant things deer and rabbits truly won't eat in the same area or even the same planting hole. What will these voracious grazers avoid?

Plants with highly fragrant leaves. Think natives like Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), as well as culinary herbs like lavender and rosemary, or Salvias (culinary sages and native Salvias as well). Salman tells a story about a rose-grower in Spokane who lives with deer. She has learned to plant lavender right in the planting hole with her roses as fragrant protection.

Of course, when deer and rabbits are starving because of drought or overpopulation, sprays and fragrant plants may not work. Then it's time to put out row covers (lay them over the plants and anchor them with stakes or rocks), make armor from chicken wire, and even think about fencing. Realize for deer you may have to fence as high as six or more feet, and for rabbits, which can dig, you have to sink your fence into the ground a foot or more.

It's possible to garden with native grazers like deer and rabbits. It just takes persistence, ingenuity, and a willingness to adapt as they do.