A Plant that Deters Deer

This tip was offered by a guest at our Smart Gardening Workshop on "Deer-Resistant Gardening". See what plant you might try as a way to ward off deer.

This gardener, whose name and location we didn't catch, swears by coriander as a plant that wards off deer. She recommends keeping pots of it around deer-favored plants you wish to protect. She also snips its leaves and drapes them over the stems of susceptible plants, though she notes this obviously has to be repeated.

Coriander is also known as cilantro and Chinese parsley. (In cooking, this plant's seeds are "coriander" and its leaves are "cilantro.") It is an annual herb that likes full sun and warm but not hot temperatures. (It will start to go to seed, or bolt, when temperatures reach the high 70s.) It needs good drainage and can survive some light frost.

File under: worth trying.