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Friday, June 12, 2015

Deer Resistant Gardening

Every spring they return. While we do find them charming, our neighborhood deer are not so great for my garden. 



Luckily with some creativity and research I’ve been able to create a front garden that is relatively deer proof (at least so far!).





The area I needed to landscape was prime deer grazing ground, sunny and (because of drought conditions) dry. 
My pallet of maroons, yellows and soft greens kind of chose me. Once I started discovering plants that fell in both the “deer resistant” and “low water” categories I found myself limited largely to these colors. 



Two plants that I have used in multiples, that come in both yellow and maroon, are Yarrow and Euphorbia (be careful Euphorbia are poisonous). 

Yarrow

Here is an online source for the same yellow yarrow I have in my yard. The deer completely ignore it!

A golden cloud of Euphorbia

Deer with a new maroon Euphorbia


Lamb's Ears

I used several varieties of lavender and soft fuzzy Lamb's Ears mimic the grey green foliage of the yarrow. Then I interspersed these light grey-green plants with darker maroons, for contrast. 

Cordyline and Lavender




As a side note, I am very happy with the solar tiki torches you can see in the photo above. They've been out there for over a year and are still going strong!


Another tough maroon plant is Purple Fountain grass, pictured bellow with some of my deer friends. 


I've also learned that having deer-resistant plantings doesn't mean you have to sacrifice the joy of seeing flowers in your garden. Besides Yarrow, I've also had successes with Lavender, Salvia (of all kinds) and Mango Popsicle.



Mexican Sage is another tough plant that they seem to ignore.


In addition to flowers, I've found that ornimental grasses make an excellent addition to my deer proof garden. My two favorites are Mexican Feather Grass and Karl Foerster Grass.


I love the way they glow in the sun.


For more ideas about how to chose plants that glow, please see this post I wrote a while back.


I even chose a hose that matched my color scheme! It really helps to brighten up the space :)


I also use a lot of succulents out in this area, because the deer don't seem to pay any attention to them.  For much more about my succulent gardens, please see this post.


Here are some more photos of my deer resistant garden, enjoy!



Deep red Kangaroo Paws










That's all, thanks for stopping by!


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