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Deer Resistant Herbs for Resilient Gardens
Do you garden in the presence of deer? We do! While many of our choice veggies and flowers are protected from deer, we also grow many herbs and other plants unprotected.
We didn’t deer fence the entire property because it would be cost and labor prohibitive. We also enjoy honoring the deer and allowing them access to (and safe passage through) a good portion of this land because it’s their home too. In some of these unprotected spaces, we garden with the deer.
I’m excited to share some of our favorite deer resistant herbs. Not all herbs are deer resistant, but because of their physical and medicinal qualities, there are actually a fair amount of deer resistant herbs in this world.
Practically speaking, this list is far from exhaustive—instead, it’s very personal and energizing!
Table of Contents
Our Requirements for Deer Resistant Herbs
To make the cut in this deer resistant herb list, each herb must:
- Have tempted deer in high traffic areas for at least several seasons.
- Be super easy to grow in less than optimal conditions.
- Attract our family’s love and adoration.
- Grow as a perennial or re-seed easily.
- Produce abundant food or medicine.
- Bonus points for beauty!
Finally, we offer seeds for each of these deer resistant herbs because they are so good—they really need to be shared with other passionate gardeners and homesteaders!
Bergamot
Bergamot is very deer resistant due to its strong fragrance and essential oils. Those oils are also what give bergamot its flavor and medicinal qualities.
I used to recommend everyone grow oregano as one of their first herbs, but now I am preferring bergamot to oregano when a taller herb is acceptable. Bergamot’s flavor is strikingly similar to greek oregano. But bergamot’s leaves are much larger and easier to harvest, dry and process.
Like other bee balms, bergamot’s flowers are stunning and numerous once established. We really enjoy bergamot leaves and flowers steeped in tea and cooked in food!
Burdock
Burdock root is a delicious, mineralizing “food as medicine”. The leaves, stalks and seeds are also food and medicine. Burdock is a powerful liver tonic and less bitter than dandelion.
We can all benefit from a little burdock in our diets and I try to eat some burdock or take burdock infusion or medicine daily because I feel so great when I do!
The above ground plant is beautiful and its lightly fuzzy leaves and bitterness keeps the deer at bay.
Clary Sage
Like many other sages, clary sage is very deer resistant for the scented oils and lightly hairy leaves. Clary sage’s flavor is not quite as strong as other sages and some prefer it as a gentle tea.
As a gardener I really appreciate clary sage’s big leaves for blocking weeds. The blossoms are so beautiful and lovely in a cut flower arrangement!
We use clary sage’s seeds like chia seeds in cooking, except they are bigger and easier to grow and harvest than chia seeds. Clary sage re-seeds easily (even in grass!) and is very drought tolerant!
Elecampane
Elecampane is a powerful lung medicine and helps our lungs in myriad ways. We especially appreciate elecampane as an expectorant and an antiviral for our lungs.
Since covid-19 we’ve been embracing elecampane medicine even more whenever viruses move into our lungs.
The blossoms are beautiful, like numerous small sunflowers or big yellow daisies growing on tall stalks from each plant.
Elecampane’s leaves are downy and deer don’t bother with even a nibble!
Fennel
Fennel is a must have in our gardens and kitchen! The strong anise/licorice flavor and scent keeps deer from eating our fennel plants, so we grow many unprotected!
Fennel is a delicious “food as medicine”. Some people grow fennel as an annual for the often swollen bulbous stem, but we prefer to grow fennel as a perennial and enjoy eating the tender young shoots in the spring.
We also collect the seeds in the fall and stock our tea and spice cupboard full of the flavorful seeds who help our digestive system.
Fennel reseeds easily, loves moist or dry soil, can handle some salt and loves rocks too!
Hyssop
Hyssop is a fun culinary and medicinal herb that we didn’t know for many years. Once I started growing hyssop, I want more hyssop plants in our garden!
Like many other Mediterranean herbs the leaves have a strong scent and flavor which give it medicine and help hyssop repel deer. I find hyssop’s leaves to taste like a unique blend of sage, mint and oregano with a light spicy note.
Hyssop leaves make a delicious immune strengthening tea and help our food taste more delicious!
I enjoy having numerous hyssop flower stalks jumping up from each plant. They are so beautiful, don’t you think?
Lavender
Oh lavender! Lavender is a favorite for bouquets, wreaths, flower crowns and just enjoying in the garden.
Lavender’s scent is delicious and floral, sending us into a day dreamy state. Indeed lavender tea and medicine is calming and relaxing.
We enjoy lavender tea in the winter, whether the flowers are dried or put up fresh in honey.
The best part is deer don’t touch these beauties thanks to their beautiful fragrance, so we plant lavender along our driveway and paths where deer have free access!
Lemon Balm
We are lucky to have lemon balm gracing our gardens with her beautiful fragrant leaves. I love brushing against lemon balm’s leaves and smelling the fragrance which I have come to adore. Deer, on the other hand, don’t appreciate the smell and stay away from lemon balm—their loss!
We enjoy lemon balm leaves dried and fresh in cooked meals and salads. We make pesto with lemon balm leaves and freeze it to eat throughout the year.
Lemon balm tea and tincture are relaxing medicine. Lemon balm is also a topical antiviral.
Lemon balm is drought tolerant, but perhaps the best characteristic about lemon balm is how easily it re-seeds for years of herbs and friendship to come.
Motherwort
Motherwort is a beautiful herb! The leaves are very unique and attractive. Motherwort’s flower stalks are delicately beautiful. Up close, the open flowers look like fuzzy little pink dragon mouths!
Motherwort is a strong heart tonic and helps prevent and moderate heart conditions. As a preventative medicine, motherwort builds heart strength and grow new blood vessels in the heart.
Motherwort is also a calming herb and helps relieve mild anxiety and stress.
Deer don’t bother with motherwort’s lightly fuzzy leaves or flower stalk!
Mullein
Mullein is a gorgeous, robust plant and makes quite a visible statement wherever it grows, which includes tough, derelict soils as well as good garden soil.
We consume mullein for its nourishing minerals and lung strengthening properties. Mullein is also an expectorant, nervine and can help heal ear infections.
Mullein helps build soil, grow biomass and does not need summer irrigation to thrive!
Mullein’s leaves are fuzzy/hairy and that quality repulses the deer from even nibbling this delicious, soft, gentle nourishing, powerful plant.
St. John’s / St. Joan’s Wort
Oh St. John’s Wort—A weed who battles are waged upon. If only more people knew how valuable, helpful and beautiful this versatile herb is.
St. John’s Wort, also known as St. Joan’s Wort, is a powerful systemic antiviral, healer of burns, nerve pain reliever, wound healer, mood lifter, has delicious tannins, and the list goes on… What more could we ask for from one plant!?
I didn’t even mention the beauty of these blossoms, and the incredible bright, blood red color that St. John’s wort medicine yields—quite magically!
St. John’s Wort is a strong survivor and grows well in derelict, dry soils as well as rich garden soils.
I am not sure exactly what qualities prevent the deer from eating much of St. John’s wort, but in my experience it doesn’t need protection!
Disclaimer: While we are confident you’ll have success with any herb on this list, deer resistance is a gradient quality and our region’s deer may not be the same as your region’s deer. Your mileage may vary!
Thanks for reading to the end! I’ll update this list in future seasons as our family continues to learn from other deer resistant herbs.
What herbs stand out to your or pique your curiosity? Are there any deer resistant herbs that you love to grow that weren’t mentioned here? Let us know in the comments!
Want to grow trees more naturally in the presence of deer? You don’t need to install a costly deer fence around your entire orchard or property. Protect your fruit and nut trees individually from deer. Fine tune deer protection based on your goals, habits of your local deer and any inherent deer resistant qualities within your trees. Allow deer and other wildlife safe passage through the land you steward.
See our course Protect Fruit and Nut Trees from Deer and Rodents for details!
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