Gardening for coexistence

Strategic planting, deterrents & fencing that work

In Montclair, some folks complain about deer, rabbits, groundhogs, and other critters munching on their garden. Others never have an issue with wildlife foraging. Others have implemented thoughtful designs and strategies where critters aren’t a nuisance at all.

It means gardening a little smarter. With some planning you can do it!

The good news: a combination of proven dense, wildlife-resistant planting, and/or motion-activated deterrents, repellents and/or fencing handles the vast majority of residential conflicts. Many of the same strategies address rabbits, deer, groundhogs, and squirrels. For more, see our groundhog and rabbit pages. For deer, see below.

Quick resources

Our favorite resource on humane, sustainable gardening is Nancy Lawson, The Humane Gardener. Others are listed below as well.

A. Design tips

Curated from experts and residents’ advice.

  • Plant densely, plant smart. Deer are creatures of habit and efficiency. An open, easy-to-browse yard with a few prized plants scattered around can be an invitation in certain neighborhoods. A densely layered landscape — where deer-resistant plants crowd out easy sightlines and easy snacks — is a deterrent in itself. Many Montclair front yard gardens do just that — check out the gallery.
  • Layer your plantings. Combine trees, shrubs, and groundcover so there’s little open, “grazeable” lawn near the plants you most want to protect.
  • Create a buffer zone. Put your most tempting plants in the middle or close to the house. Wildlife are cautious near human activity and structures — use that instinct as a buffer zone. One Montclair resident describes how this worked for them: “Have a fence, wall or house side on one side at least, then have a buffer zone of mountain mint, wild bergamot, native grasses, maybe thorny wild raspberry. They don’t like wading through that kind of buffer. It protected the Joe Pye weed that they were munching on in another unprotected area.”
  • Border vulnerable beds with deer-resistant plants. A thick perimeter of unappetizing texture and scent (fuzzy, spiny, fragrant, or bitter foliage) discourages deer from pushing further in. Or plant these on their own and you’ll likely see little foraging.
  • In a shade garden, avoid hostas — a deer favorite — and replace with similarly pleasing ferns (Christmas fern, sensitive fern, lady fern, hay-scented fern) or grasses like little bluestem, Carex, blue fescue, and silvergrass. Or, as one Montclair gardener puts it: “Frame your hostas with a layer of plantings that deer dislike.”
  • Protect newly planted trees with a wrap or temporary fence until they are mature, then remove it — this prevents deer antler rubbing from harming the trunk. (example tree guard) See Temporary mini-barriers for young trees and plants below.
  • Prioritize deer-resistant plants. See Deer-resistant plants for Northern NJ yards below.
  • Watch out for a very harmful invader — Asian jumping worms. Harmful jumping earthworms are invading NJ — why homeowners should be concerned, NJ.com

Montclair residents share:

  • “I planted my front yard very densely with natives. They have been thriving. I did catch a deer walk up my driveway and nibble one day, but there was no damage.”
  • “Interesting — my friend’s house backs up to open farms. They don’t even have a fence, but they surround their entire veggie garden with marigolds and the deer don’t touch their plants.”
  • “I often suspect that deer take the blame for 90% of groundhog bad behavior.”

What you’re doing is actually moving the deer around your landscape yourself and deflecting the herbivory away from the plants that you really like.

Oswald Schmitz, Yale University professor of population and community ecology

A great resource on all of this: The Humane Gardener — “Deer eat this garden, and it flourishes”

Design for coexistence infographic
Design for coexistence.

Deer-resistant plants for Northern NJ yards

Nancy Lawson provides an excellent “Gardening Among Hungry Mammals” handout, free on her website. It lists native deterrent and protector plants, plus browse-resilient species that bounce back.

This is drawn from Rutgers Cooperative Extension’s list of landscape plants rated for deer resistance, developed with nursery professionals, Rutgers NJAES staff, and Rutgers Master Gardeners in northern New Jersey. Another great list comes from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Many of the plants on this list are native, benefitting other wildlife as well.

Mint and its aromatic relatives—lavender, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and basil among them—owe their deer resistance to the same fragrant oils that make them so beloved in the kitchen. As Boston.com explains, this huge plant family (over 7,000 species!) has been valued for its aromatic foliage for thousands of years, and that same quality happens to keep deer away. The Native Plant Trust author says “They are guaranteed to delight, enchant, and engage with every garden visitor from humans to insects to birds — except deer!”

Driving around Montclair you can see many beautiful, lush, native, thriving gardens. See our gallery.

Gardening for Deer

Expert Nancy Lawson says: “Deer eat my plants, and I let them. But I also barely notice the nibbling. Here’s why (and how) I favor coexistence over resistance when it comes to these misunderstood animals.” Learn more.

B. Startle-based deterrents: motion-activated sprinklers

Motion-activated sprinklers work by combining a sudden burst of water with movement and noise — enough to startle deer without harming them. Some Montclair residents swear by these, and a few specifically recommend the Yard Enforcer, from Orbit Irrigation (linked below).

A great idea as well if you can’t install fencing due to topography.

A few things to know

  • Placement matters. Position units to cover approach paths and vulnerable beds, not just open lawn.
  • Rotate location and pattern periodically. Deer can habituate to a predictable deterrent over time; moving the sprinkler or adjusting timing keeps it effective.
  • Pair with plant choices. Sprinklers work best as one layer of a broader strategy, not a standalone fix.
  • Consider your neighbors and foot traffic. Aim away from sidewalks and shared paths.

C. Fencing: a reliable long-term solution

Fencing is widely considered the gold standard for protecting a yard from deer — it’s humane, and highly effective when done right. Many residents already use fencing for privacy and dog protection, making it a commonly accepted tool.

Avoid fencing with spiked tops. Deer and other wildlife have been known to be injured or impaled on them. The same caution applies to any fence an animal can be caught in — soft netting, narrow vertical rails, and wrought iron.

Key considerations

  • Start by asking what actually needs protecting. Do I need to fence my entire property, or only certain parts, or certain plants? Is the need temporary — such as protecting young trees for a few years?
  • Height matters most. Deer are excellent jumpers; fencing generally needs to be tall (commonly cited guidance is 6–7 feet for full exclusion) to reliably deter them. However, Montclair residents also report deer staying away from yards with 4-foot fencing.
  • You don’t have to fence the whole yard. Targeted fencing around vegetable gardens, prized garden beds, or young trees is often enough — save full-perimeter fencing for yards with persistent wild visitors.
  • Choose fencing wildlife can’t get caught in. Skip soft plastic netting, which can snare and strangle birds and other animals, and avoid vertical metal rails and wrought iron, which can trap deer by the head and neck. If you use a metal grid, make sure the openings are large enough for rabbits, snakes, and turtles to pass through freely, but small enough that deer can’t get caught.
  • Double fencing works well in tighter spaces. Two shorter fences set a few feet apart can be as effective as one tall fence, since deer struggle to judge distance across parallel barriers — useful where an 8-foot fence isn’t practical or permitted.
  • Use shrubs as fencing. Deer need to see inside the place they are jumping and they don’t like narrow spaces. Plant a tight shrub hedge, or install a lower fence with a tight row of shrubs or hedges inside.

Montclair residents share:

  • “I thought I needed an 8-foot fence, but no deer browsing since I installed my 4 foot fence.”

Temporary mini-barriers for young trees and plants

  • Tree guards prevent damage from deer, squirrels, and rabbits.
  • Barriers can be bought or made at home. They can protect small areas, individual plants, or just the vulnerable parts of a plant.
  • Stake them down. To stop deer pushing over or shifting a mini fence around a tree or shrub, make it five feet high and stake it to the ground.
  • Antler rubbing is seasonal. Deer antler bark rubbing happens only in the fall, when a buck may rub its antlers against trees.
  • Leave guards on until the tree matures. Once a trunk passes about 4–6 inches in caliper and the bark gets thick and furrowed, rub impact drops off sharply. In practice that is usually 3–5 years for a fast-growing tree, and up to 8–10 years for something slow like an oak or beech.
  • Wire cages work well. We recommend cages four feet tall and one and one half feet in diameter, placed around individual plants and held with stakes. They are inexpensive — you can buy a roll and stakes at a local hardware store, or buy an individual one (example).
Line drawing of a wire mesh fence staked around a young tree
Line drawing of a wire cage with fine mesh at the base around a young tree
Barriers can be bought or made at home.
A young tree trunk protected by a cylindrical wire mesh guard staked into a lawn
A simple wire cage around a young tree does the job without fencing the whole yard.

D. Repellents: taste and scent deterrents

Repellents work by making plants smell or taste unappealing to deer, rather than physically blocking access. They’re a useful layer for beds where fencing isn’t practical, but they require consistency — a repellent applied once and forgotten won’t do much.

Dealing with rabbits or groundhogs rather than deer? See our rabbit and groundhog pages for what works with each.

A deer at the edge of a garden bed of orange daylilies, protected with repellent
“These large swaths of daylilies remain mostly unscathed thanks to timely application of deer repellent. Although deer pass by the border daily, they move on to look for a tastier meal.” Photo: Karen Chapman.

Commercial repellents

These tend to be tested and formulated for effectiveness — some brands claim protection for up to five weeks before reapplication is needed. They come as ready-to-use sprays, concentrates you mix with water, or dust-on solids. Brands local landscapers have suggested: Bobbex, Repel All, Liquid Fence, Deer Out, and Plantskydd (which also works on rabbits and other critters).

Caution Predator urine repellents (coyote, bobcat, fox, and wolf urine) are marketed as a natural deer deterrent, but they come from animals housed permanently in cages on dedicated “urine farms” tied to the fur trade. EPA registration records document concerns raised about the inhumane treatment of animals kept solely as sources for these products. Source: EPA Biopesticides Registration Action Document, “Predator Urines: Coyote Urine” — epa.gov

Questions to ask a commercial spray service

Repellent services vary widely, and “natural,” “organic,” and “eco-friendly” are marketing words with no regulated meaning. Before you hire anyone, ask:

  • What are the active ingredients? A legitimate applicator can tell you immediately, or send the product label. Egg solids, garlic, capsaicin, and essential oils are the common non-toxic actives. If they won’t say, that is your answer.
  • Does it contain predator urine or any animal-derived scent? Ask directly. Many “all natural” repellents are urine-based (see the caution above).
  • Is it EPA-registered, or exempt under FIFRA 25(b)? Either is fine, but they should know which, and be able to send the label or safety data sheet.
  • Is it safe for pollinators? Some products are applied as a foliar spray that coats blooms. Ask whether they avoid spraying flowering plants, and when they apply — early morning or evening, when bees are less active, is better.
  • Do they apply anything besides repellent? Some landscaping services bundle in insecticides or mosquito spraying. Say clearly if you do not want those on your property.
  • Will they put it in writing? A short email confirming what will and will not be applied protects you both.

A company that answers these easily is one worth hiring. Hesitation or vagueness about ingredients is reason enough to keep looking.

Montclair residents share:

Residents use njdeercontrol.com, a natural spray service — a safe and convenient method of deterrence. There are other services as well.

  • “My cousin’s business specializes in deer control. They use a natural spray that is harmless to people and pets but works great to repel deer.”
  • “We have found deersolution.com to work! We have almost an acre, unfenced, and I have seen a huge change. They come once a month and spray the things in your yard that the deer eat.”
  • “Do it yourself. Use a product called Liquid Fence. It’s a spray application. We use it with great success. It’s about $30 a gallon.”
  • “Bobbex works well regularly sprayed on the plants they eat. This year I just threw some netting over my hydrangeas, hostas and yew and that seems to be a deterrent.”
  • “I used that liquid deer repellent, DeerBGone. Smells like sulfur and eggs. You need to reapply it after a big rain. It worked very well!”
  • “I bought Deer Scram and sprayed it, seems to be working.”
  • “I used to use little cheese cloth bags full of blood meal attached to branches inside of bushes and had great luck.”
  • “I use Deerstopper once a month like clockwork. It works.”
  • “Liquid Fence is amazing! You do have to be diligent and apply at least weekly. After a while, the deer learn and leave your garden alone. I also plant a lot of marigolds and Russian sage around the garden.”
  • “This year we sprayed Bobbex on the plants they like the most (e.g., hostas, tulips) every 3–4 weeks and saw a major improvement over last year.”

Homemade repellents

A commonly recommended recipe

Blend 2 cups water, 5 cloves garlic, 1 cup chopped onion, and 5 tablespoons powdered hot pepper. Let stand 24 hours, strain, then mix with 1 gallon of water and apply with a sprayer.

  • Egg-based sprays are generally considered the most effective homemade option — the smell mimics predator scent cues deer instinctively avoid.
  • Human hair or pet fur in mesh bags, hung about 3 feet up near vulnerable plants, uses the same predator-scent principle.
  • Expect more frequent reapplication. Homemade repellents are inexpensive but typically need reapplying more often than commercial products, and tend to work best in smaller plantings rather than large areas.

Application tips for any repellent

  • Spray from the ground up to about 6 feet, since that covers a deer’s typical browsing height.
  • Reapply after heavy rain. Even light rain can cut effectiveness significantly.
  • Rotate between different repellents (scent-based and taste-based) so deer don’t habituate to a single deterrent.
  • Focus first on your garden’s perimeter and on deer favorites (hostas, roses, tulips, daylilies) — treating the outer edge heavily creates a scent barrier before deer reach anything else.
Deer coexistence one-pager infographic
Deer coexistence at a glance.

On Forests — Spread the Blame

Factors that may impact some regional forests include climate change, fragmentation, disease, pests, available light, soil chemistry, invasive plants, seed sources, and deer and other animal browsing.

An emerging and frightening culprit is the Asian jumping worm.

Soil is the foundation of life — and Asian jumping worms change it. In fact, earthworms can have such huge impacts that they’re able to actually reengineer the ecosystems around them.

Mac Callaham, USDA Forest Service soil researcher

Jumping worms devour the leaf litter that forms the top layer of forest soil — the layer that seedlings, fungi, and countless small creatures depend on. What they leave behind has the texture of coffee grounds and holds neither water nor nutrients well. Where they take hold, the forest floor stops regenerating.

They have been confirmed in Essex County and in residents’ own yards. New Jersey is one of at least 38 states with sightings.

But Montclair doesn’t have large forests.

We have parks, some with a few very small wooded patches, and one small neighborhood preserve (Bonsal) of about 20 acres. Even Bonsal is smaller than it sounds: only about 14 acres are upland woods. The rest, roughly a third, is wetland and floodplain — ground that grows wetland plants, not a hardwood forest. And Bonsal’s biggest problem arrives from outside it. The preserve is drained by five stormwater pipes and an outfall, and invasive plants — knotweed and phragmites among them — wash in through that water from upstream and re-seed themselves season after season.

The answer for this small area is straightforward: plant strategically where needed, protect those plantings with fencing where necessary, address soil and light where they’re limiting, stay ahead of the invasives as they keep arriving, and keep an eye out for the invasive worms. These are small, defined areas — exactly the scale where targeted restoration works.

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The information on this site is curated from published research, wildlife and veterinary organizations, and the experience of Montclair residents and gardeners. It is provided for general education and does not constitute medical, veterinary, legal, or professional pest-management advice. We aim for accuracy and cite sources where we can, but readers should consult a qualified professional for their own situation. Mentions of specific products or companies are not endorsements.