Critters in the Garden—and keeping them out!

Critter control in the garden may sometimes be better handled through selective planting rather than a fence or poisons.

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  • Topic: Pests
  • Author: By Cindy Bellinger
  • Keywords: Moles,gofers,deer,rabbits, and elk resistant plants, Garden Design, gardens, animalsrabbitresistant, rabbitresistant, deerresistant
  • Date: April 2005

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Now that I’ve found deer tracks on the road near my garden and a rabbit running from my apricot tree that he’d obviously munched on, I’m more interested than ever in keeping these critters out of the garden. But we need to add gophers and moles to the list, too.

Controlling Deer, Elk and Rabbits

Readers write in saying the only prevention is a six to ten foot high fence. If that’s not possible, then try selective plantings. Some plants have scented foliage with internal chemicals that naturally repel browsers. Then again, readers have reported that deer love their Daylilies, Gaillardia, Sunflowers, Hollyhocks and Echinacea.

Last year a man wrote in saying, “They never touch Santolina, which is not on your list.”

Then another said he planted two Kolkwitzia (Beauty Bush) plants and the deer have ignored them along with the Woods roses, but they’ve sampled the Forsythia. A plant they ravaged is Burning Bush, a variety of Euonymous. “They stripped every leaf,” he wrote.

One product other readers swear by is Deer Off, which does exactly what it says—keeps the deer off your plants. Given the overwhelming evidence, it looks like browsers will eat anything if hungry enough no matter what you do.

However, for lists of browser resistant plants that are broken up into perennials, herbs and shrubs click on the following:

Controlling Moles and Gophers

For moles and gophers, Mole and Gopher-Med is an excellent soil-applied repellent to keep burrowing mammals away. Keeping cats around helps also, as well as a fresh supply of used kitty litter sprinkled in the garden.

For those of us who live in browser habitats, growing a garden is a challenge. Then again, when we’re gardening, whether we like it or not, we are dealing with the natural elements. So good luck on all your skirmishes with the four-legged elements.