How to Keep Deer from Eating Plants & Veggies

Deer can be attracted to certain plants or enjoy the area in your garden beds due to their strong sense of smell. When deer start roaming into your garden and plants, they can create havoc when they start trampling or eating them. While there are some obvious reasons you would want to keep deer out of your garden, there are other reasons you might not have considered. Luckily, there are plenty of ways and purposes to keep deer out of your garden, which this article will explain.

So, what exactly deters deer from your plants and garden? What are some good homemade deer repellent choices to use on your plants? Will plants grow back if deer eat them, and what plants do deer not enjoy?

Here is the complete breakdown on keeping deer out of your plants.

Table of Contents

What Plants and Vegetables Tend to Draw Deer to Them?

Hostas, fruit trees, pansies, or tulips can all be very attractive to a hungry deer. Other plants that attract deer include sunflowers, petunias, hydrangeas, and clematis. Finally, deer enjoy some vegetables, including lettuce, spinach, beans, tomatoes, cabbage, beets, and more.

What Deters Deer from your Plants and Vegetables?

Deer can be skittish, so a sprinkler, bright lights, a scarecrow, and wind chimes can help keep deer away. That also includes anything that moves or is just odd looking.

A tall fence or hedge around your garden can also stop deer from getting to them. An electric fence is also an option if you have a large deer population. If it is hard to get into, the deer are more likely to press on for somewhere else.

What is Some Good Homemade Deer Repellent to Keep Them Away from Plants / Gardens?

Some great DIY deer repellents are easily homemade and can be natural for your garden. As mentioned before, deer have a strong sense of smell, so certain items in your home can deter deer from your plants and vegetables. Those items include a strongly scented bar of soap, garlic, rotten eggs, and hot peppers.

Some other homemade repellents that are more mechanical include netting or some protection around young plants. Also, fishing lines, chicken wire, or some visual repellent can be odd-looking deer and make them take off.

Finally, if you have a pet dog or cat that can stay in your backyard, you can have them back there. Deer sensing another animal might tend to stay away from the yard. Also, you can scatter some of your dog’s or even human hair around the yard since that smell can deter deer.

Will Plants and Vegetables Grow Back after Deer Eat Them?

Mature plants can often stand up to nibbling from deer. Many plants come back nicely depending on your garden plants and flower beds. There are some restrictions to this statement, though.

If a deer were to eat an entire plant or manage to dig up roots, that would probably be the end of that plant. If a plant is newly budding, and the deer nibbles away all the buds, that can damage the plant. Young or very new plants can also have a difficult time coming back.

Is There Any Upside to Deer Eating Your Plants?

Unless you love to watch the deer eat your plants and vegetables, there is not much benefit. Deer can eat quite a lot in a day, and they could destroy quickly if you have a small garden. Deer in the garden can be very harmful, but many plants with the occasional nibble will survive.

Why Do You Not Want Deer to Eat Your Plants?

Deer grazing may not be a complete death sentence for your garden, but most would rather avoid a deer problem altogether. Deer can potentially eat an entire plant or ruin it beyond being able to return. If one deer finds your garden a grazing spot, then that can lead to others coming. A garden is hard-pressed to survive the grazing habits of a small herd of deer.

Another potentially lesser-known issue is that deer can carry ticks and diseases that should be left out of the garden. Bringing in ticks and diseases can affect other plants and latch onto humans or pets in the backyard, which becomes another problem altogether.

Finally, unsightly droppings will be left behind if deer frequently visit your plants and garden. Your garden will be better off by trying to deter and repel deer from eating your plants.

Conclusion: How to Keep Deer from Eating Plants

In summary, there are many ways to keep deer out of your plants and vegetables during the growing season. Deers have a powerful sense of smell, so putting items around your plants and garden with a pungent smell can help deter them from getting near them. In addition, you can build a type of fence or hedge around the plants and even have a pet or scarecrow/wind chimes around that can startle a deer and stop it from coming back to your yard in the future.

Most plants and vegetables can survive some deer, but it can become a slippery slope and be detrimental to your garden if you don’t stop the problem early. Chances are that you planted the garden for yourself and not as a deer cafeteria, so that is a big reason not to want deer around. Also, considering that they are wild animals and can carry ticks and other nasty ailments, it is best not to have them around plants and gardens.

Finally, it is best to remember there isn’t much upside to having deer interact with your vegetables and plants. While the sight of deer nibbling away at your plants might look cute, chances are this will become a repeatable behavior, which can then cause more problems down the road.

How to Keep Deer from Eating Your Plants and Vegetables