Creating a Deer-Resistant Front Yard Food Forest & Medicinal Herb Garden

Part of the author’s front yard food forest. May 30th/26.

After completing a Permaculture Design Certification course in 2022, I was so excited to begin planning, building, and creating a front- yard (and back yard) food forest in the Okanagan, BC, Canada.

Before I began, the yard was mostly lilac bushes and junipers, and there was a black locust with a huge crack down the middle; limbs were falling off, and the tree was slowly dying.

The starting point. February, 2023. The author’s photo.

Up until about five years ago, we did not see many deer in the city; now they appear almost daily, and, of course, they also need to eat.

Here are six visitors one day in the middle of April. It is interesting to observe their innate sense of what nourishes and interests them and what does not.

April 15th/26. The author’s photo.

There have certainly been huge learning and challenges in creating an abundant and flourishing food forest when there is an equally strong desire on the part of the lovely wandering browsers to consume it.

Like any passion project and creative endeavour, it is disheartening to put a lot of time, effort, planning, money and energy into things that are quickly and easily destroyed or wiped out. I have found they love to eat red clover, aronia berries, a dwarf red osier dogwood, young hascap bushes, but not as much the older ones. Red and black currents, and jostaberry do get regular nibbles, and many others. They will eat a vast amount of shrubs with berries and trees that bear fruit.

The backyard is fully fenced, so I am grateful for the freedom to plant the trees, shrubs, and perennials that deer really like to munch on. I will share more on the backyard food forest another time.

Now going into the food forest’s fourth year, I feel like I now have an understanding of which food forest and medicinal plants fly under their radar and are not their preferred menu choices, and I thought I would share with those also experiencing constant deer pressure.

Here are some of the perennials that I have successfully planted in my front yard:

Created in Canva by the author.

There is a long-time ornamental crab apple in the front yard, and there is no room for other larger trees. Here are some of the shrubs and ground covers I have planted or will be planting:

Created in Canva by the author.

Elderberry, Hascap, Goldenrod, St. Johns’s Wort, Phlox, Red Clover, Penstemon, & Lily. The author’s photo.

Bee Balm, Wild Bergamot, Daylily, Echinacea, Marshmallow, Lavender, Nanking Cherry, Lamb’s Ear, and Sea Buckthorn.

Motherwort, Valerian, Blue False Indigo, Meadow Arnica, Goumie Berry.

And of course, it all needs water. I had some people help me with a rainwater harvesting system a few years ago. There are 4, 1000-litre totes receiving water from the front and back slopes of the roof. Normally, they are long since filled by Spring rain, but not this year so far and it is all hooked up to drip irrigation. If/when there is no water in the tanks, I use city water. We are in stage three water restrictions right now, so it’s extremely valuable and necessary (for me) to have the stored rainwater.

The author’s photo.

I wish you an abundant, blissful and inspired growing season!