Most gardeners spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to keep deer out of their gardens, but there are some of you that want to attract deer to your yard fast.
Watching wildlife as it moves through your yard is exciting, especially for little ones, and deer are always looking for their next meal.
Instead of waiting for deer to come around and destroy a garden, plant a garden that is meant for the deer to enjoy.
After all, we plant gardens that are meant for birds, butterflies and bees to feast on, so why not deer?
5 Plants That Attract Deer To Your Yard
These are some of the plants that deer naturally love to eat and will bring them back to your yard property over and over again once they know there is a ready supply of plants intended just for their enjoyment. Likewise, if you DON’T want to be attracting deer to your yard, be sure to keep these out.
Petunias
Petunias are some of the most common and budget friendly plants a gardener can add to their yard. Deer will munch away at an entire bed full of petunias, so if enough deer come by for a nibble you may have to replant. With the price of petunias being so low, it is easy to add more to the garden whenever it needs a little perking up.
Sunflowers
Cheery sunflowers are big enough that deer will not eat through them right away, especially when you plant a few at a time. With sunflowers it’s a great idea to plant them away from the rest of the yard and near a fence or edge of the yard. This gives deer the chance to enjoy the sunflowers in the cover of trees where they will feel more comfortable.
Clematis
Clematis vines are another vertical grower and a favorite plant for a deer. Plant these where they can grow on something that is sturdy enough to handle both the plant and the potential weight of deer. Sometimes deer try to reach higher areas of growth, and may lean up on, or even try to climb structures to get what they want. Clematis vines happen to be a perennial with the potential to return every year, but if the plant is eaten back enough by deer a new vine may need to be replanted.
Impatiens
Impatiens are tiny floral additions to a deer garden, providing the initial border planting for deer to munch through. These flowers come in several different colors and create a mass of flowers when they are blooming, so choose what you like and the deer will help themselves when they find their way to the yard.
Hydrangea
A nice hydrangea bush is always the talk of a great garden, the shrubs have the potential to grow to be several feet across and vary in color from blue to pink. This choice will fill a considerable portion of any garden, but to prevent deer from trampling everything else try to plant it near a back border that deer can access. Deer will usually focus on a single branch or limb until its eaten clean, but this isn’t enough to hurt the bush as a whole, and the stripped branch will recover the following year as long as there are still some leaves on the bush.
