How to Keep Deer Out of Your Garden: Should You Give Them Their Own Corner?

If deer visit your yard, you have probably had this thought: what if I just gave them their own spot? Set up a corner at the back of the property with a feeder, a tub of water and some buckwheat or clover, let the deer eat their fill there, and maybe they will leave the roses alone. It is a generous idea, and it makes sense on paper. In practice it usually brings more deer, not fewer, and in California it is against the law. The good news is that the thinking behind it, planning your yard around the deer instead of fighting them, is exactly right. Here is how to do that in a way that works.

The idea: give the deer a corner of their own

The logic goes like this. Deer are going to eat something. If you put the easiest, tastiest food in one place, away from the house, they will spend their time there and have no reason to wander up to the flower beds. Hunters and large landowners plant food plots of clover, buckwheat and grains for a similar reason: to hold deer in one area. A tub of water makes the spot even more attractive in a dry summer.

It feels kinder than fences and sprays, and for a lot of people that is the appeal. The problem is what happens after the deer find it.

Why a deer feeding station backfires

• It is illegal in California. California Code of Regulations Title 14, Section 251.3 says no person shall knowingly feed big game mammals, and deer are big game. Colorado bans feeding deer as well, and many other states and counties restrict it. That covers feeders, grain, salt and mineral blocks.
• You get more deer, not fewer. A reliable food source draws deer from the whole neighborhood and teaches them to come back every day. Well-fed does raise more fawns, so next year there are more mouths.
• They do not stop at the feeder. Deer are browsers. They take a few bites of one plant, move on, and take a few bites of the next. A deer that just ate at your feeder will still nibble the roses on its way out, and now it knows your yard is worth visiting.
• Predators follow the deer. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife warns that bunching deer together draws mountain lions into neighborhoods. That puts pets at risk, and the lion is often the one that ends up being killed.
• Disease spreads where deer gather. Chronic wasting disease was confirmed in California deer for the first time in 2024. Feeders and shared water tubs put many deer nose to nose, which is how diseases like that move through a herd. Deer also bring ticks, and crowding them near roads leads to more collisions.

The water tub on its own is not named in the regulation, but it draws deer for the same reason a feeder does. In a dry summer water is often the main thing bringing deer into a yard, so adding a tub makes the problem bigger.

Keep the good part of the idea: plan your yard in zones

The instinct to give deer a place and protect the rest is sound. You just do it with plants and layout instead of food. Think of the yard in three rings:

1. Close to the house: the plants deer love most, such as roses, vegetables, fruit trees, hostas and most annuals. Keep them near the doors and windows where people and pets are around, inside a fence, or in raised beds you can net.
2. The middle of the yard: deer-resistant shrubs and perennials that look good year round.
3. The edges and the paths deer already walk: the toughest plants of all, the ones deer find smelly, spiny, bitter or boring. This ring is the first thing a deer tastes. If it tastes bad, many deer keep walking.

On a large rural property you can go one step further and leave the far edge wild: native brush and natural cover instead of lawn. That gives deer somewhere to move through without you putting out food.

What deer tend to leave alone

No plant is deer proof. Young plants, new growth and anything in a drought year can get nibbled. But deer consistently avoid a few kinds of plants:

Trait	Why deer skip it	Examples
Strong scent	Aromatic oils taste bad and mask other smells	Lavender, rosemary, sage, artemisia, yarrow, rockrose
Fuzzy or gray leaves	An unpleasant texture in the mouth	Lamb's ear, artemisia, many Mediterranean shrubs
Spines or leathery leaves	Hard to chew and painful to eat	Agave, barberry, bear's breeches
Bitter or mildly toxic	Deer learn to avoid them	Lily of the Nile (agapanthus), butterfly bush, boxwood
Grasses and sedges	Low in the tender leaves deer look for	Feather reed grass, blue grama, Berkeley sedge

Browse the full deer resistant plants collection, or start with the groups below.

Scented and silver-leaved plants for the outer ring

Evergreen structure and hedging deer tend to skip

California natives deer rarely browse

Agaves and grasses for the toughest spots

For more natives, see California native plants. For agave care and placement, see the agave plant care guide, and to check what grows where you live, see plants by USDA zone.

Use rock where plants keep getting eaten

Every deer yard has a bed that gets eaten no matter what you plant in it. Stop replanting it. Turn it into a rock garden with a few boulders, a layer of landscape rock and one or two tough plants set into the stone. A decomposed granite path through the middle gives the space a purpose. Rock gives deer nothing to eat, the bed looks finished all year, and it uses no water, which also means no tender new growth to tempt them after every watering.

Boulders, rock and D.G. for the beds deer keep eating

For more ideas, see drought-tolerant landscaping with rock.

What actually keeps deer out

• A tall fence. Deer clear a 4 to 5 foot fence without trying. Plan on 7 to 8 feet, or two shorter fences a few feet apart, which deer do not like to jump.
• Cages for the plants that matter most. A wire cage around a young fruit tree or netting over a vegetable bed costs far less than fencing the whole yard. Leave it on until the tree is taller than a deer can reach.
• Repellents, rotated. Sprays work best applied before the damage starts and switched every few weeks so deer do not get used to one smell. Reapply after rain and new growth.
• Surprise. Motion-activated sprinklers and a dog in the yard both make deer nervous about staying.
• No free water. Raise birdbaths, cover rain barrels, and fix drippy hose bibs and irrigation leaks.

Most yards need two or three of these together. Deer-resistant plants on the outside, cages or a fence around the favorites, and no food or water left out is the combination that works for most people.

Frequently asked questions

Will a deer feeder keep deer out of my garden?

Usually not. A feeder brings more deer to your property and teaches them to come back every day, and deer do not stop at one food source. They fill up at the feeder and then browse the garden on the way out. In California it is also illegal: 14 CCR §251.3 prohibits feeding deer.

Is it illegal to feed deer in California?

Yes. California Code of Regulations Title 14, Section 251.3 says no person shall knowingly feed big game mammals, and deer are big game. Colorado bans it too, and many other states and counties restrict it. Check your state wildlife agency before putting out any food, salt or mineral licks.

What plants will deer not eat?

No plant is deer proof, but deer tend to leave alone plants that are strongly scented (lavender, rosemary, sage, artemisia, yarrow), fuzzy or gray leaved, spiny or leathery (agave, barberry), or mildly toxic. Ornamental grasses and many California natives such as manzanita are also rarely browsed. A hungry deer in a dry year will still sample almost anything.

How high does a deer fence need to be?

Plan on 7 to 8 feet. Deer clear a standard 4 to 5 foot fence easily. For a small vegetable bed or a young tree, a wire cage or netting around just that plant is cheaper than fencing the whole yard.

Does a water source attract deer?

Yes. Deer get much of their water from the plants they eat, so in a dry summer a tub of water, a birdbath or a pond can be the main reason they visit. If deer are a problem, do not add water for them, and raise or cover the water features you already have.

Plan your deer-resistant yard

Shop deer resistant plants, California native plants, boulders and landscape rock, or request a quote and we will put the materials for your project together. Questions? Call (800) 215-7372.