Deer-Proof Your Garden: Top Native Plants for 2024
Probably one of the biggest headaches you face as a Jamison homeowner is deer. While beautiful, these pesky creatures will eat your hosta, mountain laurel, and other landscape plants before you can run out the door, yelling, “Shoo!”
How can you keep deer from ravishing your landscape? You choose plants that deer won’t normally eat. Granted, if food is scarce, deer will eat almost anything. So, deer-resistant plants aren’t fool-proof but a significant step in the right direction.
In this blog post, you’ll learn about
- Why you need to choose deer-resistant plants for your landscape
- Learn the top deer-resistant plants for southeastern PA
- Learn how to incorporate these plants into your Bucks or Montgomery landscape.
Why Choose Deer-Resistant Plants for Your Perkasie, PA Landscape?
Even if your plants are deer-resistant, you can still have a beautiful landscape in Perkasie, PA., because there are plenty of plants to choose from to deter deer.
According to an article by Penn State Extension, you need to approach deer management on your property using a holistic approach called Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
Learn more: Harsh Weather Planting
Planting deer-resistant plants is one step, but here are other considerations for keeping deer off of your property:
- Installing a double fence or a high fence (at least 6’ high) so deer can’t get into your property
- Using deer repellents, from human hair and soap to noisemakers
- Don’t include favorite plants that deer love to eat any time of year.
Deer don’t like plants that have the following characteristics:
- Thorny plants, such as hawthorns and firethorns
- Leaves or stems that have aromatic compounds, such as allium, bee balm, lavender, and boxwoods
- Tough or textured leaves and stems, such as lamb’s ear and cinquefoil.
You can outsmart deer most of the year. However, deer will eat anything to stay alive during a long, snowy winter.
Best Deer-Resistant Native Plants in Southeastern Pennsylvania
It’s best to start with deer-resistant native plants because these plants have adapted to Southeastern PA’s climate—the hot, humid summers, drought, and cold winter. Native plants also provide food and habitat for pollinators, including insects, bees, and birds.
Here are the top 21 deer-resistant native perennials to grace your Jamison landscape:
- Bee balm
- Black cohosh
- Bleeding heart
- Blue star
- Cardinal flower
- Columbine
- Culver’s Root
- Foxglove
- Goldenrod
- Hyssop
- Indigo
- Irises
- Jack-in-the-Pulpit
- Joe Pye Weed
- Lobelia
- Mayapple
- Milkweed
- Monkshood
- Tickseed
- Wild bergamot
- Wild Ginger.
There are also ferns, grasses, and sedges to include in your Bucks County landscape, such as
- Bottlebrush grass
- Christmas fern
- Cinnamon fern
- Little bluestem
- Northern sea oats
- Ostrich fern
- Royal fern
- Sensitive fern
- Sedges
- Switchgrass.
Top Deer-Resistant Native Trees & Shrubs for Your Property
Native trees and shrubs are an excellent investment because of their hardiness and relationship with the local ecosystem. Native trees tend to live longer, making them a great landscape investment.
Learn more: Get Year-Round Beauty with Shrubs
Bucks attract does by rubbing and scraping their antlers on trees—including native trees. While deer may not eat your trees, they can do other damage with annual rubbing and scraping.
In the article “The Whitetail Calling Card,” older bucks rub their antlers on larger trees and will return to the same tree each year. Pennsylvania bucks prefer highly aromatic trees—not for food, but to leave their calling card.
Cherry trees, pines, and Eastern red cedars are a buck’s favorite trees to leave his scent and rub his antlers. Keep this in mind if you’re buying trees for your Montgomery County property this year.
Here are the top deer-resistant native trees and shrubs—as far as a deer food source goes—for your Jamison landscape:
- Black gum trees
- Carolina allspice
- Flowering dogwoods
- Fragrant sumacs
- Hackberry
- Ironwood/hornbeam
- Leatherwood
- Magnolias
- Pines
- Eastern redbuds
- Sourwood
- Summersweets
- Viburnums
- Winterberry (American holly)
- Witch hazel.
Other Deer Deterrents for Your Hatboro, PA Landscape
It’s a challenge to keep deer off of your Hatboro property. While deer-resistant plants are one way to go, you may also want to add an extra layer of deer protection.
Here are some other ways to keep deer out of your landscape:
Buy natural deer repellents at your local garden retailer. Ingredients, such as blood meal, garlic, and rotten eggs, repel deer but may also repel you from the outdoors. Instead, look for organic options made with mint, cinnamon, and clove to repel deer.
As an alternative, you can hang human hair and hot peppers.
Invest in a double fence that’s at least 4’ to 5’ feet apart, or build a single fence that’s 7’ to 8’ tall. While not ideal, it’s the nearest thing to successfully keeping deer out of your Warrington property.
Summing Up
Get the right plants that keep deer out of your landscape most of the time. Winter can be tricky, but your deer-resistant plants are safe from deer the rest of the year.
Ready to Transform Your Bucks or Montgomery County, PA Landscape?
If you’re tired of your landscape serving as a food buffet for whitetail deer, you need us at Jamison Lawn Care to design and plant deer-resistant perennials, shrubs, and trees in your Bucks or Montgomery County, PA landscape.
Call us today at 267-621-4747 or complete our contact form to schedule your spring lawn and landscape cleanup appointment.
Sources:
Bowman’s Hill Wildlife Preserve (bhwp.org), Deer Tolerant/Resistant Plants.
Extension.psu.edu, Ornamentals, and Deer: Realities and Landscape Plant Options.
HuntWildPa.com, The Whitetail Calling Card.
PLNA.com, The Trouble with Deer.
