Introduction

Welcome to Novicius Landscaping! This website will give you some ideas of deer resistant landscaping for your new home in the Northeast region of USA.

Moving into a brand-new house can be exciting and yet daunting experience, as you are facing with the task of dressing up the curb appeal of your new home. If you have money, you can hire professional landscaper to do the job. Alternatively, you can hire a landscape designer to do the planning, and you do the planting on your own. That still causes you a lot of money. However, you can do some research and do the planning yourself. I have done it for two new houses, and would like to share with you my experience.

Site Selection

The design of a nice landscape starts with assessment of the sites, either around the foundation of the house, around the mailbox, or along the property line. First, you need to take note of the house orientation and places of activity to plan your garden beds. Second, you should pay special attention to possible shading by existent trees or the house. Third, you need to pay attention to easement, and underground electrical and gas lines. A simple phone call to your electric company will reveal their location.

Even if you have a bold ambition to get the job done in the first year, it is wise to take on a small area at a time, so that you will not be overwhelmed by the project and give up. If you cannot decide on what plants you would like, just cover the site with 3 inches of mulch and do more research.

Basic Designs

There are two basic beds, island bed and border. Island bed is one located in the middle of the lawn (as shown in the picture above). It can be round, oval, kidney-shape, or any irregular shape with a width of about 8 feet. The center of the bed may be slightly higher, so that water can drain to the edge of the bed. Place taller plants in the center and shorter ones along the edge of the bed. So that one can view the plants in all directions.

The border (usually 4-8 feet wide) runs against a wall along the foundation of the house, a fence on the property line, a hedge, or a walkway. They should have a natural curve to allow easier mowing. Place taller plants in the back, and shorter ones in the front, so that all plants can receive adequate sunlight.

Deer resistant landscaping: Plant Selection

A good landscape should include shrubs, perennials and annuals. Shrubs, especially the evergreen ones, provide the backbone of the landscape, as most perennials and annuals will die back in winter. Perennials provide colorful shows for many years without the hassle of replanting every year.  However, you do need to dig up and divide them once in a few years. Annuals provide longest period of color for your landscape. They also fill in the gaps between shrubs and perennials before they reach their mature size. However, you need to plant them every year.

In selecting a plant for your landscape, you need to consider four factors, namely, hardiness, sun/shade tolerance, mature size and deer resistance.

First, shrubs and perennials should have hardiness suitable for your area of residence. A hardiness of zone 5 or below is best for regions around Philadelphia. Second, the selected plants should fit in a location according to their tolerance of shade or full sun. Third, shrubs should have the correct mature size for the intended location, so that they will not block the view of window or look out of place a few years later. Fourth, they should be deer-resistant, if you do not want your creation becomes the salad bar for deer.

A list of landscape plants rated by deer resistance has been published by Rutgers Cooperative Research and Extension and is available from this website. You can use it as a reference. Choosing drought-tolerant plants means less work in watering later on, except for long dry spell. Bear in mind there is no such thing as deer proof plants. Hungry deer will eat anything available to them, even plants that are toxic or bitter.

Examples of “field-tested” plants are listed on separate pages. Plants can be purchased at reasonable price in big box stores such as Home Depot. However, they are available from online stores, such as www.jungseed.com, at even lower prices. To reduce the cost of shipment, online stores often ship their plants as “bare roots”. They are dormant plants, and can establish very successfully, if you plant them according to the instruction.

For a list of recommended perennials, annuals, and shrubs for the Northeast region, please click on menu under “Home” for the following pages:

Deer resistant landscaping: Planting

The best time of planting is early spring or early fall. Plant the shrubs first, making sure there is adequate spacing between them. Relocation of shrubs will be expensive or impossible. Then plant the perennials with spacing of about 2 feet in front of the shrubs in small repeating groups rather than en masse. Since most perennials bloom only for a short while (usually two weeks), planting a single type of perennial en masse will leave the garden bed without any color for the rest of the year. Finally, fill in the empty spaces with annuals before the shrubs mature.

Application of about 3 inches of mulch will discourage the growth of weeds and save you lots of work in weeding later. Just make sure that the mulch does not touch the stems of the plants. To prevent grass from growing into the flower beds, you can dig a narrow trench along the edge of the flower bed, such that the grass side is a vertical cut of 3-4 inches deep and the flower bed side is a slope of 45 degrees. Alternatively, you can use plastic, wood, or metal edging or stone pavers to separate the lawn and flower bed. Of course, the stone pavers are most expensive.

After planting, water the newly planted shrubs and perennials once a week, if there is no rain. For annuals, you may need to water them twice a week. Some perennials such as astilbes, Japanese iris and bleeding hearts may require watering twice a week.

Deer resistant landscaping: Periodic re-design

A flower garden is a dynamic place. Even with the most careful planning, you may need to re-design the garden from time to time. Shrubs are difficult to move around. But some may die after a few years, so you can select a different plant in their places.

On the other hand, you can move the perennials around easily for the change of your taste. Furthermore, they may over-grow in a few years and you need to dig up and divide them. The time for division of perennials is when they form a doughnut-shaped structure (the old plant at the center died). Moreover, you may need to relocate sun-loving perennials when they are shaded by neighboring shrubs as they mature.

Deer resistant landscaping: Examples of designs

For some examples of deer resistant landscaping designs, please go to this page.