If you’re a first-time visitor, welcome! To receive The Weekly Dirt in your inbox every week… Hello, friends! As we roll into the planting season, many of you — hoping to get on better footing this year — have been asking about deer proofing the garden. If you live in an area where there aren’t many deer, I urge you to keep reading; that may change soon, and forewarned is forearmed.
I was told recently by a botanist that deer hate peonies too. Googling seems to confirm this. But as you say, a starving deer will eat anything! Hard to imagine ours here in the VA countryside are starving, but we do have herds of them, and by definition they are competing for the best forage.
One thing I learned raising sheep: a foraging herbivore will first go for what's new and unusual, what they haven't had access to. So deer are going to try your domestic/exotic plants. What I've noticed lately from my deer and rabbit problems: new, young plants will be eaten to nubs while older plants of the same species may be ignored. Which means they may eat your young "deer resistant" plants and might even kill them.
Deer Browsing: Here's how to save your garden
Thank you for the information. My daffodils are still standing!
I was told recently by a botanist that deer hate peonies too. Googling seems to confirm this. But as you say, a starving deer will eat anything! Hard to imagine ours here in the VA countryside are starving, but we do have herds of them, and by definition they are competing for the best forage.
One thing I learned raising sheep: a foraging herbivore will first go for what's new and unusual, what they haven't had access to. So deer are going to try your domestic/exotic plants. What I've noticed lately from my deer and rabbit problems: new, young plants will be eaten to nubs while older plants of the same species may be ignored. Which means they may eat your young "deer resistant" plants and might even kill them.