Repel deer and rabbits

Create a barrier (rock, plant, fence)

• Rock barrier: Create a six- to eight-foot wide border of these kinds of large rocks around an area will keep deer from entering. The rock bed needs to be wide enough to prevent the deer from leaping over it.
• Plant barrier: Deer repellent plants include: lavender, onion, catnip, sage, chives, garlic, spearmint and thyme. Strategically place some of these plants along your property border, particularly at points that deer are using as entryways.

Deer resistant foliage categories: See Deer proof gardens.

1. Fuzzy or hairy foliage (e.g. lambs ear, lady's mantle, Siberian bugloss, flowering tobacco, yarrow, etc.),
2. Prickly foliage (e.g. bear's breeches, globe thistle, Cardoon, sea hollies),
3. Heavily fragranced foliage (e.g. sage, thyme, lavender, oregano, catmint, hyssop, Artemisia, Russian sage, boxwood, etc.),
4. Toxic foliage (e.g. ferns, false indigo, bleeding hearts, daffodils, poppies, etc.),
5. Leathery or fibrous foliage (e.g. Pachysandra, most irises, elephant ears, etc.),
6. Grasses.

Deer resistant landscape plants

• Landscape Plants Rated by Deer Resistance. The list was compiled with input from nursery and landscape professionals, Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES) Cooperative Extension personnel, and Rutgers Master Gardeners in northern New Jersey.

"Outside the fence" crops that deer won't touch

• Trees: Fig; Persimmon and leaves (they might be eatting the fruit off of the ground), wild plum, pomegranate, hazelnut
• Berries: raspberry (yellow, red and purple) cane and fruit (they have nibbled leaves); blackberry brambles; boysenberry, nanking cherries, currants, elderberries, honeyberries (may nibble on young scrubs), blueberries
• Vegetables: rhubarb, potato, squash, artichoke, Jerusalem artichoke, garlic, arugula,
• Ground covers: Dragon’s Blood (Red Sedum), Creeping Phlox (Phlox subulata, fast growing), Creeping Thyme (Thymus Serpyllum coccineus), Big Root Geraniums (Geranium macrorrhizum), Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi). See 6 Deer-resistant Ground Covers to Plant This Fall, includes: Eastern Teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens), Kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, or bearberry), Dwarf Plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, may cause dermatitis for some individuals), Barrenwort (Epimedium spp., thrives in shady areas under trees), Pachysandra (poisonous to humans), Sweet Woodruff (Galium odoratum)
• gooseberries (canes, leaves and fruit). Resist deer browsing due to their spines.
• Muscadine vine, leaves, fruit
• mushrooms
• thyme, oregano, rosemary, mustard, cilantro, basil, chives, parsley (may eat), ginger, mint
• walking onions, egyptian onions
• nastursum
• Perilla
• lemon grass, lavender, echinacea (rarely they eat flower buds)
• comfrey, mullien, vitex
  weld and woad...but they love madder and cosmos (all four are dye plants, NOT edibles)
• lovage, luffa and other gourds
• lemon balm
• catnip
• anise, hyssop

Miscellaneous notes

• Plants: Allium, Vinca (Vinca minor), Spring snowflake (Leucojum vernum), Crown imperial (Fritillaria imperialis), Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia), Floss flower (Ageratum houstonianum), African marigold (Tagetes erecta).
• Mint and bee balm.