Last updated on September 26th, 2022 at 09:29 am
If there are deer, especially in residential areas, it is difficult to control them and keep them from gardens. Especially when deer is overabundant and food becomes scarce.
If the food cannot sustain all of them, they resort to feeding on garden plants and herbs except if the herbs are deer resistant.
So, if you have lemongrass in your garden, you may be scared that it’s potential food for hungry deer.
So you may wonder whether lemongrass is deer resistant? Lemongrass is not completely deer resistant. Although deer will normally not feed on it because of its highly flagrant odor, if there is not a lot to choose from deer will eat anything.
Why And How Lemon Grass Is Deer Resistant In Eleven Easy Ways?
Normally, deer do not like fragrant grasses, herbs, and plants. However, it is not easy to know, point-on, whether lemongrass is deer resistant or not. In this article, I’ll be giving a few pointers on how to know if and why lemongrass is deer resistant.
1. First, deer are repelled by the strong fragrant odor from plants. As such, one way to know if lemongrass is deer resistant is to consider the smell it gives off.
Deer have a heightened sense of smell which it uses to find food, but at the same time, they do not like plants and herbs with pungent smells. But, lemongrass is an aromatic plant. As such deer do not find lemongrass particularly inviting.
2. In general, deer will be more attracted to plants with lush foliage and high water content. But lemongrass, although it grows very tall, is not as lush as the plants and herbs deer would normally be attracted to.
And with its thin leaves and stalks, the water content in lemongrass is not enough for deer to find it appealing. Instead, deer would be repelled by it.
Although the animal may not know at first and would want to get a taste, once they discover the nature of lemongrass, you can be sure they’ll stay away from it. Especially is there is an overabundance of other food in the area.
3. Fruiting and berry-producing plants are other favorites for deer. Lemongrass on the other hand, although it has an excellent aroma and is handy when it comes to making teas. It does not produce fruit nor does it give berry.
As such, deer are not likely to be interested in it. Since deer also prefer to feed on vegetable gardens. You can use lemongrass to deter deer and keep them from your garden unless you have more pungent vegetables and flowers in your garden.
That can serve as a better alternative. Herbs like sage, lavender, peonies, bearded irises, and the like.
4. In addition, lemongrass grows like a tall plant with long narrow leaves known as spathes. These spathes or leaves are covered with hairy spikes that can cause slight skin irritation. And the older the lemongrass, the sharper the spikes.
Well, I’m sure you don’t like eating stuff with spikes in it. Neither do deer, these little creatures are quite picky and they’re less likely to be attracted to plants with spikes or hairy plants.
And since lemongrass meets that criteria, deer will not want to give it a bite. Lucky you.
5. It is well known that deer cannot live on a grass diet. If the only thing deer eats is grass, it will die. Reason? Their physiology and biology aren’t suited to digest full-grown grass. And since lemongrass is, well, just grass they hardly touch it.
Nonetheless, they may browse through lemongrass but only when it’s young and succulent. Even then, they prefer other plants. No deer would want to eat something that could kill it, and the grass is not for deer.
6. Moving on, flavorful perennial plants are hardly eaten by deer. Mostly, deer don’t pay any attention to them at all.
Deer do not typically like to be around strong scenting plants because it would stop them from catching the scent of their predators as easily as if there was no other scent in the area.
And the longer plants grow, the stronger and more pungent their scent. Because lemongrass already has a pungent smell, deer would not even want to browse nearby.
It would be unsafe for the deer to try to eat it, because what if a predator is lurking around the corner?
7. Do you love a sweet and juicy strawberry? If yes, so does deer. Deer are immensely attracted to the sweetness and allure of strawberry and peaches as much as the next person. Deer are usually looking to feed on moisture-rich plants with high protein contents.
However, lemongrass has a lemony crisp taste. And deer do not find that attractive at all, also the thin long leaves of lemongrass do not contain plenty of moisture. At least not enough to interest deer.
8. Like most animals, deer do not eat certain plants because they’re uncomfortable to eat. This happens often with plants that are too fuzzy and prickly, lemongrass is pretty spiny with little spikes on the long narrow leaves.
Mostly, deer will find the grass uncomfortable to chew and swallow, so they’ll simply leave the lemongrass alone and try eating something else. If they try to eat the more tough lemongrass, that could cause some injury to them.
9. Another reason why deer do not love to eat perennials is that they are tough to swallow, literally. Deer prefer plants with juicy and tender foliage that they can gulp down without problems and also that can they digest easily.
Once a plant overwinters or survives one season, the foliage is usually tough or leathery. Sometimes both. Since lemongrass is a perennial, deer prefer to stay away from it. Wouldn’t want to chew the tough stuff.
10. Moving on, deer just find some plants and herbs too stinky. Like the lemongrass, while you and I may appreciate it for its lemony and minty scent, deer do not feel that way.
In fact, deer would not go to a garden filled with lemongrass, it would prefer to browse elsewhere unless it is extremely hungry. The loud lemony odor is the exact reason why deer will turn up its nose at lemongrass.
Conclusion
Maintaining a herb or vegetable garden is not always difficult, but it can be made all the more difficult by deer lurking around destroying and feeding off the vegetables and plants.
If there’re plenty of options, deer generally avoid highly flagrant plants like lemongrass, chives onions, and asparagus.
However, when push comes to shove, deer may choose to feed even on the flagrant plants, although lemongrass is often the last resort if ever. For the above reasons, deer do not like lemongrass very much.
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