Elizabeth and I have been asked by several clients to design a container garden that is deer resistant. We thought you might be interested in hearing about some summer sun and shade spillers, fillers and thrillers that are NOT appetizing to deer.

SUN LOVERS
There are many annual and perennial plant, grass, bulbs, and flower options for deer-resistant, sunny container gardens. The thrillers include: purple fountain grass, echinacea, allium, boxwood, canna lilies, annual black eyed Susan, sulfur cosmos or nasturtium. For fillers, you could try salvia, marigold, geranium, angelonia, gomphrena, lavender, lantana, sweet alyssum, dusty miller, diamond frost euphorbia, verbena and ageratum. For spillers, plant purple heart, sedum or trailing lantana.

SHADE LOVERS
If you have a shady area, there are several annual and perennial plants, grass, and flower options that seem to keep the deer away. A good thriller is a caladium, ostrich fern, hollyhock, boxwood and hellebore. Filler plants include begonias, lambs ear and Persian shield. Great spillers for shade are wishbone, minor periwinkle and ivy.

As we all know, no plant is totally deer proof. You could spray liquid fence for deer and rabbit on your plants to help. Julie has used Liquid Fence on her own plants to keep the bunnies away and it works like a charm.

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