BCMG Deer Resistant Garden
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Are deer eating all the plants in your gardens and yard?
We showcase deer-resistant plants.
Deer resistant doesn’t mean deer proof!
Deer avoid fuzzy, prickly, fragrant plants, like holly, viburnum, dogwood, wisteria, daffodil, muhly grass.
When the original design of the Demo Garden was drafted, the alle’e was created with oak trees from the Ag Center parking lot to the Demo Garden to match the main entrance to the Ag Center from Shawan Road. The berms were part of the design plan and a way to mitigate some of the problems with water flowing from above the gardens. Originally, the berms were planted with pink Muhley grasses, similar to the entrance at the UT gardens in Tennessee, and daffodils. In April, 2014 the newly named Deer Resistant Garden became the garden project for 4 of the new interns from that class. We met and developed the mission and initial plan for the new garden. Most of the Muhly grass had died by the time we took over, so we dug up the grasses, weeded and mulched and grew seeds for our plantings as we did not get a budget until July of that year. We grew strawflowers and planted them with annuals and coneflowers from seeds. When we finally had monies to buy plants we purchased our shrubs and hollies and planted Russian sage, amsonia, agastache and coreopsis as our deer resistant perennials. We planted ‘Hameln’ fountain grasses around the rocks of each berm. Once the trellis was built, we did the zig-zag wiring of the trellis for the plants per the original design and planted the Kentucky and American Wisteria. Several BCMG members served as our resources for any questions.
Due to the continual problems with flooding in the entrance and gardens, swales were built above the north garden fence to reduce the water flow and later the field above the gardens was cleared and planted with trees. An environmentally friendly recycled plastic grid was placed under the trellis and garden entrance and seeded with grass to reduce the mud and water infiltration.
Each season the plantings have been surveyed and removed or replaced to refresh the garden appearance and design.
Education applied:
We used the cardboard and leafgro cover to smother weeds when we planted the trellis. We use deer repellents and two strand fencing to dissuade deer from browsing. The strong stream of water was used to dislodge and then remove the red twigged sawfly larva. We learned to grow from seed and measure and order plantings at the correct distance and number. We have amended the soil each year to increase drainage and provide the best environment for our plantings to grow.
Fora list of native deer resistant plants, visit the Home and Garden Information Center website: https://extension.umd.edu/resource/deer-resistant-native-plants/
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