Help me with landscaping my front yard
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Anonymous
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We live right behind Wheaton Regional Park and therefore have a TON of (very hungry) deer. Any plant that doesn't kill deer (i.e., daffodils) gets eaten by the deer around here, so we can't use deer-resistant plants in our yard.
Our front yard is just grass. What can we plant in front of our house? It is mostly sunny but gets some shade from the big tree in our front yard. Can we plant butterfly bushes and keep them low enough to not block our front windows (so around 18-24 inches, max)? TIA! |
Anonymous
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I have a family of deer visiting my yard every day in Wheaton. You might have tried these already but the plants that have survived for me are:
Daylilies Bee balm, Agastache Blue Fortune, agastache Tutti Frutti Black-eye Susans (rudbeckia Golsturm is a very hardy variety) Cardinal flower Salvias (black and blue, Amistad, Amante, Hot Lips, Wendy's Wish, greggii varieties) Butterfly bush might survive but even the dwarf varieties get big so they might not fit in front of your windows |
Anonymous
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OP here. Thank you for this list.
Where do you buy your plants? Now that Behnke's is closed we usually end up at Home Depot but I'm not sure that I've seen these flowers there. |
Anonymous
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I buy most of my plants online, but Homestead Gardens, Meadows Farms and Merrifield would be my choices now that Behnke's is closed.
Home Depot and Lowe's have black-eyes Susans, bee balm ,coneflowers, Cardinal flowers, some daylilies and butterfly bush in spring/summer. The Home Depot stores in Germantown and near Briggs Chaney Rd seem to have a better selection than the one in Aspen Hill. |
Anonymous
| Walk your neighborhood. See what plants eaten by the deer. Take a picture of what is thriving and ask a nursery or garden center for shrubbery names. |
Anonymous
You can get divisions of the day lilies, rudbeckia, and bee balm from your neighbors if you can't find them in stores. I have a ton I'd happily dig up for you, but I don't live near you. |
Anonymous
This does not make a lot of sense. Daffodils are poisonous to animals like deer and pets. Anyway, we have deer and bunnies plaguing our yard and they avoid common daisies, bee balm, and they nibble on our liatris flowers but they survive. |
Anonymous
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American Plant has two locations on River Road that you might want to try. I usually get good advice there too. If you’re willing to drive a bit further afield, native plant nurseries tend to be really good at solving plant-animal conflicts. Here’s a list of some local ones: https://choosenatives.org/resources/native-nurseries/.
Butterfly bushes will definitely get too large for your needs. The smallest cultivars are 1.2m x 1.2m, even when cut back hard in the early spring. They’re also detrimental to butterflies, despite their name. Butterflies will feed at the bushes, but their larvae can’t survive on them, so the net effect on the insects can be negative. |
Anonymous
Daylilies get eaten when they bloom in our neighborhood. Maybe Wheaton deer are pickier! 
The deer haven't touched our rudbeckia, dahlias, peonies echinaces, or zinnias. Not natives, probably, but easy to grow! I like American Plant, and look out for plant sales in the spring all over the place. Brookside Nature Center has one in April usually that has lots of pollinator friendly plants. |
Anonymous
Rudbekia and echinecea are native. |
Anonymous
Don't plant nandina. It's supposed to be deer resistant but the deer loved mine to pieces. 
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Anonymous
| You can grow whatever want if you use anti deer spray. It is basically rotten eggs and only smells when it goes on. I spray once every two weeks, it is organic and nontoxic and the deer have not touched a thing since I started. Just a thought. |