If you live in an urban environment where there are no deer, stop and count your blessings. On the other hand, there are millions and millions of other homeowners who love deer, but wish they were browsing someplace else. Homeowners are losing landscapes to deer who have lost their feeding grounds. In this case, the homeowner’s landscape now becomes the feeding ground for deer.

Some facts to keep in mind:

* A pound of food (plant materials) adds up to approximately 674 bites by a deer;

* Deer consume four pounds of food every day;

* In a good habitat, female deer (doe) can breed almost two fawns a year;

* There are some 20 deer per square mile in forested lands;

* A male deer usually has a “family” of 10 female deer;

* The average age of deer killed on the highway is 18 months’ old.

Here is a summary of deer feeding habits:

Always attacked:

Arborvitae, azalea, euonymus, hemlock, holly (blue holly and Japanese holly), mountain laurel, mulberry, rhododendron, rose and taxus (yew).

Occasionally attacked:

Trees: flowering fruit trees (apple, cherry, crabapple, pear, fir, pine and serviceberry.

Shrubs: false cypress, dogwood, horizontal and skyrocket junipers, Russian olive, autumn olive, all hollies and winterberry.

Seldom attacked:

Bedding plants: agapanthus, agave, bleeding heart, calendula, California poppy, columbine, cornflower, forget-me-not, gerbera, hollyhock, iris, ivy, lobelia, lupine, narcissus. Periwinkle, spiderwort and sunflower.

Ornamentals: barberry, bayberry, boxwood, broom, coralberry, cotoneaster, forsythia, grape holly, hydrangea, inkberry, most junipers, kerria, leucothoe, ligustrum (privet), lilac, mockorange, pieris japonica, pearlberry, potentilla, pyracantha, quince, smoketree, snowberry, spicebush, spirea, viburnum, weigela and witch hazel.

Perennials and vining plants: achillea, artemisia, astilbe, bee balm (Monarda), black-eyed Susan (rudbeckia), celastrus, columbine, coreopsis, dicentra. Geranium (only Max FreI, New Hampshire and Mayflower cultivars), honeysuckl;e, Siberian iris, lavender, liatris, peony, perovskia, evening primrose, salvia, sedum, veronica, Virginia creeper and wisteria.