How to select plants that deer and rabbits tend to avoid, and how to keep hungry critters away from their favorite garden plants.

Deer-Off
Item # 99884 		Deer-Off

each $22.25
  • Topic: Pests
  • Keywords: rabbits, deer, pests, Pests, gardens, rabbitresistant, deerresistant
  • Date: March 2002

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We’re coming up on that season where pernicious critters take a look at what nature’s providing, compare it to the good eatin’ in your yard and (seemingly always) make the wrong decision. An unfortunate truth about rabbits and deer: if you plant it, they will come.

Last year we had a woman in the garden center on three consecutive days buying pansies. On the third day we finally asked why she was purchasing her flowers in installments, and she said that she had made the mistake of dragging her whiskey barrel planter from the enclosed backyard to the front of her house. Returning home after the first planting she found a bunny had made a meal out of the flowers. Pride made her return for a second batch. That evening she actually caught the bunny lounging in the planter—after having eaten all the flowers. Wisdom prevailed. She moved the planter back into the enclosed backyard before returning for the third time.

There is no accounting for taste when it comes to rabbit palates. My neighbors and I have very similar gardens—some years mine gets munched on, some years theirs does. It’s hard not to see it as a lesson in letting go. However, in general rabbits prefer legumes to root vegetables, despite the rabbit/carrot connection. And while tulips seem to be a particular delicacy, daffodils provide a good line of defense planted in “fences” around more delectable plants.

Sometimes it’s just a matter of holding out until area weeds start coming up—most rabbits tend to be a problem only in the early spring or, in a harsh year, during the winter when they chew off the bark around the bases of trees.

There are a number of suggestions and products for keeping your garden to yourself; generally the prerequisite for these solutions are vigilance and/or frequency of application. Some years a product will work great—some years it won’t do a thing. No product or deer-repellant plant is a 100% guarantee against invaders. Most products that come in a bottle, such as hot pepper spray or Deer Off, need to be applied every couple of weeks. More expensive solutions include motion detecting floodlights or sprinklers, but it may take deer only a few weeks to adapt to these—varying the scare tactic will help.

If you have the inclination, fencing is a permanent solution that works well. To keep rabbits out you’ll need to use a wire-mesh fence buried at least three inches. Being the leapers that they are, keeping deer out requires a fence of considerable height—or two shorter fences 4-5 feet apart.

My best suggestion is to understand the habitat requirements of your visitors and do what you can do avoid meeting their needs. Most western rabbits and hares don’t burrow, they conceal themselves in dense growth. By consciously avoiding the planting of dense growth you will make your garden less inviting to critters that need cover.

On a similar note, deer ten to enter a yard using the same route each time. If you map out that route you’ll be able to concentrate your preventative measures, making them more efficient and more effective. For instance, use unpalatable plants at their preferred entranceway or surrounding the perimeters of your garden. Examples of deer-resistant plants include Artemesia, Achillea, lavender and Salvia. Notice that these tend to be xeric staples. Luckily for water-conscious gardeners, many xeriscape principles and plants work well keeping animals at bay, as xeriscaping tends to make use of sparser vegetation patterns and/or plants with pungent odors distasteful to deer and rabbits. Additionally, reduced watering results in tougher, less palatable plants.

If you prefer not to tailor your garden design toward the prevention of invaders, you may be in for a struggle. When people start getting too attached to what they want to see when they look out the door, I always suggest Barbara Kingsolver’s essay “Making Peace” on gardening with (or for) the javelinas. At some point you just have to look at the bigger picture and make a choice—stop planting at all (not acceptable), plant only in well-protected areas (impractical) or plant enough for everyone (my preference).