Combatting deer and rodent damage with toxic plants
Tired of bunnies wreaking havoc in your freshly installed planting? Deer mowing down your carefully constructed border? Squirrels, voles, and geese pulling out plugs, eating roots and otherwise being garden menaces?
We are, too!
For individuals who are a.) sick of battling nature for garden peace and b.) not gardening with concerns of pets or small children eating plant materials, let us introduce you to the world of gardening with toxic plants.
This garden idea is the opposite of the edible garden. It’s the poisonous garden.
Part of the reason the daffodil, native to southern Europe and North Africa, is so ubiquitous isn’t just for its early season charm; the plant’s toxicity makes it unpalatable to herbivores. Why reinvent the wheel, especially when planting natives? These plants have spent millennia devising and refining their secondary metabolites, or substances manufactured by plants that make them competitive in their own environment, to deter herbivores. It would be almost rude not to use them!
Try weaving these toxic perennials and vines into your garden design to put off aggressive herbivory in the garden. All these plants contain different kinds of toxic compounds that irritate the digestive system and will not require any additional inputs to ensure that they are left alone. If you’re feeling really inspired, create your own native plant version of a Danger Garden (à la The Poison Garden at England’s Alnwick Garden).
Finally, a deer-proof garden!
The plant list for toxic plants isn’t long so we suggest combining your toxic plants with other natural deer deterrents. Natural deer deterrents include strong-tasting plants (like members of the onion or mint families, strong-textured plants (foliage with spikes, rough textures or hard edges) and warm-season grasses to add complexity to the design. Suggestions include:
• Native mint or onion family members: beebalm (Monarda), creeping mint (Meehania cordata), mountain mint (Pycnanthemum) or nodding onion (Allium).
• Native plants with unpleasant textures: coneflower (Echinacea), rattlesnake master (Eryngium), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), fleabane (Erigeron) or sage (Salvia).
• Native sedges, rushes, and grasses: switchgrass (Panicum), big bluestem or broomsedge (Andropogon), little bluestem (Schizachyrium), muhly (Muhlenbergia), rush (Juncus) or sedge (Carex).
• Native mint or onion family members: beebalm (Monarda), creeping mint (Meehania cordata), mountain mint (Pycnanthemum) or nodding onion (Allium).
• Native plants with unpleasant textures: coneflower (Echinacea), rattlesnake master (Eryngium), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), fleabane (Erigeron) or sage (Salvia).
• Native sedges, rushes, and grasses: switchgrass (Panicum), big bluestem or broomsedge (Andropogon), little bluestem (Schizachyrium), muhly (Muhlenbergia), rush (Juncus) or sedge (Carex).
Want to know what exactly makes these plants toxic and what active chemical compounds are contained in their foliage and roots? Here is a list of references:
• University of Vermont Poisonous Plants
• Poisonous Plants of the Southern United States
• University of California Safe and Poisonous plants
• U.S. Forest Service Plant of the Week – Common sneezeweed (Helenium)
• North Carolina Extension Toolbox – White snakeroot (Eupatorium)
Tinkerer, gardener, marketer, content creator – Chelsea Ruiz enjoys a bit of everything. While working in horticulture research and in public gardens, Ruiz gained hands-on gardening experience and became intimately connected with which garden rules work – and which are a bust. Marketing native plants was a natural fit when it became clear that customers were eager for this hands-on knowledge. She now transmits plant experience, trial evaluation results, and horticultural skills to a commercial and residential audience. A marketing assistant for North Creek Nurseries, catch her work on The Plug and on Facebook and Instagram @northcreeknurseries.