Gardening on the Wild Side

I longed for some spring color the first year we lived in the shop, so I purchased some pansies and planted a pot of them by the front door. That night was the first night of a fight that I was to have until the present day with my friends the deer. Up until that point I had always gardened in town. I knew that we were building our house in deer country because my husband had happily informed me that we were at the northern edge of their annual migration route. The very next morning, I awoke to a shock. The deer had not only eaten every pansy, but had ripped the plants right out of the dirt and let them fall to the ground all around the pot. From then on, it was war. As an already frustrated gardener, l was not about to let the deer take away the little bit of garden I could have. I also discovered that deer eat onions, daylilies, sunflowers, tulips, holly hocks, and just about every type of plant that I was used to having in a garden. Gardening in Central Oregon is already a challenge due to the short growing season and unpredictable weather, but fighting the deer became a new and interesting factor. The second surprise came when I found that something in the field was eating the roots of the daylilies. I planted some daylily seeds that I had saved from my original plants. I was excited to grow possible new seedling varieties and was unhappy to see my little seedlings flop over one day. I pulled them up to find that something had eaten all the roots. My husband informed me that this was a Colombian Ground Squirrel. They eat roots, seeds and insects.
I began to research and ask lots of questions at my favorite nurserys and found that there are deer resistant plants. I downloaded the list from the Oregon Extension Service and used it as a guide. The link: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/deschutes/sites/default/files/Deer_Resistant_Plants_EC.pdf

I think the deer in my neck of the woods are more adventuresome than the average deer because many of the "resistant" plants get eaten. We do several things now that seem to have some success, but the best thing to do is not what most people want to hear. There are many lovely plants that will grow in Central Oregon, but if you also have deer, and you want to live peacefully with them and not continually fight them, then plant things that they absolutely will not eat. This way, you eliminate the heartache of walking out in your garden on a lovely summer morning to find sticks and twigs instead of flowers and foliage.
Over the years I have heard much in the way of advice, but most of them amount to putting odd smelly things like Irish Spring soap on your plants or marking your territory. These sometimes work, but not always. You can always put up a tall fence, but the garden space we have does not lend itself to that sort of look and we wanted to get the most out of our borrowed landscape.

The list, put out by the OSU extension service, is a good guide to start with. The High Country Gardens catalog also lists many deer resistant plants with new ones being added yearly. Check my links for their catalog.

I have experienced success with several annuals, shrubs and perennials that are lovely in the landscape, bloom or look good all summer and seem to be avoided by deer.

Annuals:
Marigolds
Annual Saliva
Annual Lavender

Perennials:
Agastache, Hyssop, all forms, also known as Hummingbird Mint
Alchemilla mollis (Lady's mantle)
Babys Breath
Bleeding Heart
Blue Flax
Nepeta (Catmint)
Coreopsis.
Daffodils and all Narcissus
Gaillardia (Blanket Flower)
Lamium (Dead Nettle)
Lavender, all varieties that are hardy to this area
Lemon Balm
Mint. Be careful with this one, all mints are very invasive.
Oregano (many culinary and ornamental varieties)
Oriental Poppy
Peony
Pervoskia atriplicifolia (Russian Sage)
Potentilla
Purple Coneflower
Rhubarb
Rudbeckia or Black Eyed Susan
Rose Campion
Salvia (garden and ornamental Sage)
Shasta Daisy
Tanacetum or Tansy and Feverfew
Threadleaf Coreopsis
Thyme, all culinary and ornamental varieties
Yarrow, once blooming. Deer will eat the early growth so cover it with a wire cage.


Of the shrubs, I have good experience with Forsythia, Barberry, Rabbitbrush, Juniper and Oregon Grape.

I still have a few old favorites that we spray Bobex or Liquid Fence on weekly. The instructions say to spray less, but with irrigation and other factors, weekly is best.

Lilacs, the OSU guide says, are resistant, but the early leaves and buds in the spring get eaten if we do not spray them.
I love daylilies, and the deer only seem interested in the buds. They do not seem to bother the green leaves or the open flowers but they do chomp the buds before they bloom.
Asiatic Lilies and Oriental Hybrid lilies, also are eaten in bud.
Iris is another one that the deer will not eat the leaves, but once they bud and bloom, they must be sprayed.