Plants to keep deer away
- Hey all,
I was doing some research for my up comming garden project, my first
actually (look out world), and ran accross some information on a
website that listed some plants as good to keep deer away. Among them
Achillea filipendulina said to be in the yarrow family
Lavandula angustifolia said to be English Lavender.
I was wondering (hoping really), since deer are a concern in my area,
if anyone knows this to be true. Or if you can offer any other
suggestions as to how to keep the bad out and the good in (bugs
- Dear Brian
Firstly, I would be interested in the site you came across with info on
plants to keep deer away. Any chance of sending me the address?
I certainly have not found any plants that will repel deer. There are many
(well, some!!!) that the deer will not eat but they will quite happily eat a
plant they consider to be tasty even if it is growing next to a plant they
do not like.
So far at PFAF we have found that the only way to be really sure of keeping
deer out is to build a high fence around the land and check it regularly.
There are also various strong smelling substances that people have used to
repel deer - usually soaking rags in these substances and then hanging the
rags from poles or the branches of trees(deer do not like these strong
smells since they either imitate the smell of a potential predator or can
mask the smell of a predator and thus make the deer feel uneasy).
As regards keeping the 'good' bugs in and the 'bad' bugs out - two main
approaches can work here. The first is to make your garden a nice place for
our native wildlife. I do not know how big your garden is, or where it is
situated, but it is important to try and provide habitats and food sources
for the 'good' bugs - birds and mammals included. Thus measures such as
leaving dead plant stems over the winter (ladybirds etc shelter in them) and
making piles of dead leaves in the hedges (hedgehogs can hibernate there)
will increase the number of predators in your garden. If you have the space
then try to plant some native species to provide habitats for the wildlife.
There are various books about wildlife gardening, you might also consider
looking at the book on edible plants we have produced (called Plants for a
Future and written by me, I'm afraid, it has a chapter on native species and
other information on natural pest control). It can usually be obtained from
The second approach is to grow plants that can repel insect pests, confuse
them, or improve the vigour of other plants making them less likely to be
infected by pests. There are several books on companion planting, you could
also consult the PFAF on-line database which has information on over 200
species of insect repellent plants.
I hope this is of some help
----- Original Message -----
From: "brian La Barr" <brlabarr@...>
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 7:18 PM
Subject: [pfaf] Plants to keep deer away
> Hey all,
> I was doing some research for my up comming garden project, my first
> actually (look out world), and ran accross some information on a
> website that listed some plants as good to keep deer away. Among them
> Achillea filipendulina said to be in the yarrow family
> Lavandula angustifolia said to be English Lavender.
> I was wondering (hoping really), since deer are a concern in my area,
> if anyone knows this to be true. Or if you can offer any other
> suggestions as to how to keep the bad out and the good in (bugs
> Thanks Bunches,
> :) Brian
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