Last updated on September 23rd, 2022 at 04:31 pm
Pineapple sage is an excellent companion plant to herbs such as thyme, mints, basil, and a host of others. They aid the growth of the plants, but they also help ward off some harmful pests.
However, among all these, its cultivator may be worried about deers.
So, is pineapple sage deer resistant? Both leaves and the flowers of a sage plant are edible to both man and animals, and as such, the plant is susceptible to several pests. Nevertheless, deers are not excluded. Pineapple sage is a deer-resistant plant. Deers are not attracted to this variety of the sage plant because of its highly aromatic leaves.
Do Deer Eat Pineapple Sage?
Deer eat other sage plants with lesser aromatic flavor, but it avoids the pineapple sage like the plague. Cases of deer feeding on pineapple sage plants are indeed rare.
Therefore, you can rest assured, your pineapple sage plant is safe.
Is Pineapple Sage Deer-proof?
The aroma of a pineapple sage plant is too intense for a sage plant to bear. In addition, deers find the scent of its foliage repulsive.
However, pineapple sage is not entirely deer-proof. A deer can and will eat anything depending on its level of hunger. A pineapple sage is highly deer-resistant, true, but you must not bank on that alone to keep deer away from your garden.
Should I Use Pineapple Sage as a Deer Repellent in my Garden?
Deers are capable of causing a whole lot of damage to your herb garden. Not only do they damage your plant, they keep coming back to wreak more and more havoc, especially if they find your plants healthy and inviting.
Fortunately, pineapple sage is an excellent tool to use against deer. Deer eat just about anything, but heavily fragranced and strong-smelling plants repel them. Luckily, the pineapple sage plant is highly aromatic and is not in the least appealing to deer.
The presence of a pineapple sage in your garden is disturbing to the deer because of their hyperactive sense of smell. A deer’s sense of smell is scientifically proven to outdo a human over a thousand times.
Furthermore, a deer can detect the presence of a pineapple sage plant from afar before it even reaches your garden. As a result, it is advisable to plant pineapple sage next to plants with weaker fragrances so that the deer perceives it instead when it stops eating the plant.
How Else Do I Keep Deer Away From My Garden?
Keeping deer away from the garden could prove to be a tedious task. However, deer are pretty much strong-headed animals and will keep returning to your garden unless you take drastic measures.
One crucial factor to note is this; Deer do remember. A deer’s memory is almost as good as its sense of smell.
So if it happened to have a good time during its last visit to your garden, it will remember this and find its way back. And worse, it might bring company along with it.
No particular method is strong enough to keep deer away. You will need more than one strategy to keep the big guy away. Aside from using a pineapple sage plant, you can also use other effective measures to keep deer from devouring your garden.
1. Fencing:
This is probably the most effective way to keep deer away. Surround your garden with a fence that’s at least eight feet tall. Deer can jump fences, so the higher the wall, the better.
Fencing your garden keeps the plant out of the deer’s sight. Although its smell would hint to the deer of its closeness, the deer would be left with no option other than to wander about in search of it with no clue of its exact location.
Also, you can plant deer-resistant plants around your fence. This not only doubles the distance the deer would have to jump to get into your garden, but its pungent smell would repel it.
The fence must not be spaced. A deer is less likely to jump a fence if it can’t see what it is jumping into. In the face of these many obstacles, a deer would walk away to find more vulnerable ground to devour.
2. Use of sprays:
A combo of rotten egg, dried blood, garlic, and some other materials can be mixed into a spray. Adding this combo to your garden produces a pungent and repulsive odor that deer do not find appealing.
However, you have to reapply this spray constantly. As mentioned earlier, deer do remember. A constant encounter with this unpleasant smell will remind the deer not to return to your garden.
However, a disadvantage of this homemade spray is that the smell it gives off is repulsive to both deer and humans.
So, if you do not want your garden smelling like a garbage dump, you might want to reconsider using this measure.
3. Soap:
As weird as it may sound, deer are allergic to deodorants. Drill a hole in a bar of soap and attach it to a string. Hang it close to your plant and watch it chase away deer from your garden.
4. Regular harvest:
This is also another way to keep deer away. Once deer-attracting crops are pulled out of the garden, the deer would have no reason to revisit.
5. Mass planting:
Planting lots of herbs in your garden would be a great idea. This isn’t a guarantee that deer won’t come visiting, no, but at least, when the deer is done, you would have remnants to make do with.
Another option would be to mass plant deer attracting plants and fence them with deer-repelling plants. However, this would make it difficult for deer to reach across to the vulnerable plants.
6. Dog on duty:
If you happen to have a dog, you should consider letting it out occasionally to stand guard in your garden.
Young deer feel threatened by the presence of dogs and are very likely to bolt away when the dog begins to bark.
However, older and bigger deer are less moved on the sight of dogs, especially if they are more significant than said dogs.
Conclusion
It is a beautiful sight to watch deer stroll around your garden. But then again, deer do not just embark on aimless strolls. Instead, they are headed for your garden.
Over time, gardeners have encountered deer damage on their plants and have devised means of curtailing the excesses of this ruminant animal.
Planting deer-resistant plants such as pineapple sage could be one of your best attempts at keeping deer away from the perimeters of your garden.