[jlglover]

I completely agree with most of your points. I have a spot in my garden where I want to plant a large native tree, probably an oak. I would love to plant all natives, except that they quickly get eaten by deer in my neighborhood. Even many "deer resistant" varieties like coneflower and beebalm. Of course, this make no sense, since deer and native plants should have evolved to survive beside one another. I think this contradiction is because the local deer population is just much much higher than the historical levels, since they have no natural predators here. My neighbors say they weren't a problem until recent decades. I was somewhat skeptical, except that I see many plant varieties thriving in the 2012 Google streetview shots that would not be feasible to grow today.

[bmitc]

We have deer as well that keep eating certain plants. I am drawing a blank on which ones, but they kept growing back rather quickly. We are going to take into consideration this year and perhaps plant them in less convenient spots, more quantity, or something else when it comes to mind, like some sort of deer sprinkler project that targets them. Haha. Although it is quite annoying as they were eating two of my favorite plants I got last year, I'm not too bothered by it. I'm going to buy more and try what I mentioned above and see if it helps at all. They leave the milkweeds alone, probably for obvious reasons, and the milkweeds are the happening place for basically all the insects. It is crazy how popular they are. There are other plants they also leave alone. I think it's going to just be trial and error since they don't seem to like all the native plants, just some of them.

[schiffern]

You might consider a splash of bone sauce[0] to deter deer.

[0] https://www.permaculturenews.org/2014/06/05/bone-sauce-a-too...

[circlefavshape]

Couldn't you put a fence around the tree until it's big enough to survive a bit of deer-nibbling?

[chiefalchemist]

Yes you can. I did it last year after transplanting a 4' to 5' tree that needed time and space to grow. I see deer "evidence" all around outside the fence. But they can't get close enough to munch.

[quercusa]

Deer densities are much higher than historical averages and, when hungry enough, they'll eat just about anything.

You can see this in wild areas with lots of deer - there's almost nothing growing less than about 7 feet off the ground.

[0xdeadbeefbabe]

You can see this if you don't get eaten by deer.

[is_true]

You could buy a bow and do some management. It's really interesting. There's a YouTube channel, seek one.

[jlglover]

I live on a medium-sized lot within the limits of a city, so bow hunting is not allowed in my yard.

[bluGill]

Are you sure? In some cities it is allowed. The city might say it is not allowed, but the state has different rules that overrule whatever the city says.

Of course you do still need to be safe in your hunting, and that can be tricky.

[is_true]

Maybe somewhere close. Near where I live they had to start paying people to hunt because off all the accidents caused by deer