A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2003 favorites of deer

No, I am not crazy, but... we have enough acreage that my husband wants to have a "deer area". Not for so-called sport hunting (we both agree that if you plant food for the deer, you can't hunt there, that is called baiting and is illegal and unethical) but rather to provide random plants in addition to the woods that the deer might like to eat. They have cleared the 150 acres behind us for houses, as well as the 5 acres next to us for a road, so he would like to provide an area that we can still enjoy the deer. What plants do you suggest?

Are you aiming for flowers? Or just things for the deer to eat?

For the deer to eat, I would suggest alfalfa and/or clovers...they seem to love both here!

flowers, vines, shrubs, anything that will grow in relative shade (our land used to be part of a tree farm). I would prefer something with some color, southern yellow pine gets awfully boring...

What a great idea!!

What kind of deer do you tend to get in your area?

Here's what I found about white-tails:
Agricultural crops constitute from 40 to more than 50 percent of the whitetail's year-round diet in some areas. In northeast Kansas, corn is the single most-used plant in all seasons except summer, with 29 percent overall use, while in Iowa corn comprised 40 percent of the deer's diet. Although whitetails are commonly observed in alfalfa fields, alfalfa is a relatively minor food source. Native foods that make up part of the deer's diet include woody vegetation, particularly buckbrush and rose, with lesser amounts of dogwood, chokecherry, plum, red cedar, pine, and a host of other species. Forbs, particularly sunflowers, are important, while grasses and sedges are used only briefly in spring and fall. Although whitetails can obviously subsist entirely on native foods, they apparently have a preference for farm crops, which constitute the biggest management problem in agricultural states - balancing deer numbers so as to satisfy both hunter demand and landowner tolerance.

I don't think mule deer go over that far, but if they do here's what they like:
Mule Deer are browsers and eat a great variety of vegetable matter, including fresh green leaves, twigs, lower branches of trees, and various grasses. They are particularly fond of blackberry and raspberry vines, grapes, mistletoe, mushrooms and ferns. They eat so carefully they can even consume the fruit of cactus.

Hope that helps out. I would love to have deer nearby to watch. I didn't realize that there were places that planted food just to attract deer to kill them. That's just mean, I thought the whole point of hunting was going out in the wild. That's like going to a pond that is constantly restocked with fish. Doesn't that kind of take the "sport" out of it?

thanks for the info gardengal Neither my husband nor I believe in "baiting" deer. He hunts and I like venison, but baiting is illegal in GA and unethical to boot. He is a hunter education instructor with the GA department of Natural Resources (trained volunteer) and neither of us think there is any sport in baiting or running dogs.
I am mostly looking to native plants to fill in the land that was cleared when they planted the pine trees 15 years or so ago. I do have some "bird/deer" planted stuff, but 5 acres is a lot to figure out. I am going to work on it a half acre at the tims.

Good luck attracting many deer. That's a lot of work but the results will be worth it, as long as they don't come into your garden when you're not looking.

We have mule deer in the mtns around here and I know they like wheat bread, or at least the ones that come right on up to you seem to. They are sooo cute with their big ears, hopping around.

It's obvious that you don't live in PA!!! We have become overrun with white tail deer and are very unhappy about it. They have plenty of woods and open fields to support them but would rather come up to the house and eat what people have planted for their own enjoyment.
We have watched them for years and assumed that they wouldn't come through our horse pastures but the parade begins early in the evening and can go on all night any time of the year. They come through alfalfa fields in order to eat roses, tulips whatever they can find that is valuable to humans. It is even worse in town where they run through lawns looking for things to destroy.
Guess my point in all this rambling is, you can feed them what they like, but if you encourage them to come closer to your home you may find yourself with a big problem in your garden!!
Apologies to the Bambi lovers, but these critters cause millions in damage to cars and property in our state and are a menace.

You can have ALLLLLLLL MY DEER, dear! In the past 10 years of living in this house I never thought I could hate a living thing - well.....

This Fall I completely ripped out all my beautiful hosta plants and gave them to my father who lives in a suburb on the other side of the Hudson River where they are not bothered by deer or woodchucks. I was very sad to see these plants go, but the very short weeks of enjoying them before they are chomped to bits is not worth the space they take up.

Another plant you can have, is my 21 tree arbovitae hedge that has looked like very skinny topiaries for the past several years - another favorite of the "dear deer"!

Add to that roses(thorns and all), coreopsis, scarlet runner bean vines, pansies,rudbeckia, tulips, daylillies, ornamental lillies, holly bushes(thorns and all), blueberries, green pepper plants, centaura montana,petunias, portulaca, japanese maples, etc... I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but that is my list of plants I donated to the deer population just this past summer. :p


I agree with Carol - I used to think they were beautiful creatures, until our village idiots developed all the available land around us and forced the deer to come right up to houses to survive. The car wrecks and damage are unbelievable. Do enjoy them on your acreage, but beware your gardens.

Lynne

Gosh Lynne and Carol, what a nightmare. I thought I had it bad with squirrels, and inconsiderate neighbors who walk their dogs and don't care where they do their business (don't get me started on the doggie dodo)!!! How sad to see your hard work, destroyed before your eyes.

Vikki,

On doggie dodo...

I read somewhere, just can't remember exactly which book or magazine, of a woman having similar problem with inconsiderate dog owners letting their dogs do their business end in her (front) lawn.

She put out a sign CANINE ABATEMENT AREA. That trick did it. The dog owners skipped her lawn and took their dogs elsewhere.

Papito,
Thanks, I'll try the sign...just don't know if my neighbors will understand the big words!!

Oh dear, a deer dilemma. Don't get me wrong, I also enjoy the deer,but last year was a NIGHTMARE.
We were in a terrible drought situation, as you know, Jiffy. The deer had nothing to eat, but they found sustanence in my garden, both the vegetable and flower. Along with the rabbits and squirrels, there was nothing left. Really was discouraging. This year, we've had a good bit of rain and things were much calmer, but be careful what you wish for-------------

I have the doggie doo problem but not from neighbors walking their dogs rather from neighbors letting their dogs roam freely around. Other people have complained and these people just don't care, we no longer walk our dog for fear of having problems with dogs that are just out and about. And these people definitely would not understand such big words!

Papito- I read that same thing... I think it was in the newspaper, Dear Abbey or one of those type columns. It made me laugh, I only wish it would work. Or that people would just have the common sense to clean up after themselves and their dogs!

Gardengal,

Thanks for the reminder. Now I know where I read it. An advice column at Annie's Mail Box. Would you believed I looked and looked at Bottom Line Black Book and Reader's Digest Household Hints & Handy Tips and couldn't find it anywhere?

I feel like my brain is on vacation and left town without me. Thanks again.

Papito,
Oh my gosh, maybe that's
what happened to my mind!!
Weezie

Mine keeps going on vacation without me too...glad I could help this time!