Terry's Gardening Tips
Deer and Garden Damage
QUESTION: I have deer eating my plants, how do I keep them out of my yard?
ANSWER: The City has received questions and concerns about deer causing damage to residential gardens. A recent article appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer offers the following advice on what types of plants to use in your gardens.
Selecting plants that deer avoid during normal conditions may save homeowners from the additional cost and inconvenience of replacing plants damaged or destroyed by foraging deer that are present throughout the community.
Under normal conditions, when food is plentiful, these are among the plants deer will avoid:
- Flowers and foliage: Allium, artemesia, astilbe, baby’s breath, bee balm, bleeding heart, buddleia, coneflower, euphorbia, foxglove, hellebores, lamb’s ear, licorice plant, Montauk daisy, moss pinks, mullein, ornamental rhubarb, Russian sage, salvia, Siberian iris, snapdragon, yarrow and yucca.
- Ferns: Alaska, cinnamon, Clinton’s shield, Fortune’s holly, Japanese painted, Japanese red shield, maidenhair, ostrich, royal and tassel.
- Ground cover: Fragrant sumac, germander, scented cranesbill and sweet woodruff,
- Ornamental grasses and sedges: Elijah Blue fescue, feather reed grass, Japanese sedge, miscanthus, muhly grass, Northern sea oats, panicum, pennisetum, phalaris and Scottish tufted hair grass.
- Shrubs: Barberry, boxwood, butterfly bush, daphne, lavandula, potentilla and spruce.
- Herbs: Catnip, mint, oregano, tansy, thyme and wintergreen.
Plants that deer like to eat include:
- aronia
- amelanchier
- azaleas
- clematis
- daylilies
- forsythia
- holly
- honeysuckle
- hosta
- Japanese maple
- juniper
- lily of the valley
- mugho pine
- pachysandra
- red twig dogwood
- trumpet vine
- tulips
- viburnum
- yew and practically any fruit-bearing tree.
You can also purchase several types of deer deterrents at local stores to put around your plants, but you will need to be reapply it often, especially after a rain.
Also protect your trees from deer rutting by covering the tree trunk with a deer guard. It should be applied to your trees from August until late December. If deer should rut or scrape a tree, clean up the wounded area by cutting the broken or loose bark off the tree, with a clean knife or set of pruning shears, then allow the wounded area to heal itself. Never use a tree wound dressing or cement. Tree wounds need oxygen to heal properly and dressings prevent that from occurring.
QUESTION: I am a hunter, if I obtain the proper permits can I shoot them if they come into my yard?
ANSWER: No. The City of Montgomery has an ordinance against hunting in the City limits, except at Gate of Heaven Cemtary.
