I always build a little moat around the plantings so I can fill it with water which will soak down around the plant. And if we don’t get rain for several weeks, I water as a matter of course. If they look a little droopy, I water deeply. The second year, I usually just look at the plants. Water once a week (every week without rain) for the first spring and summer months after you plant and then water deeply at least once a month (or two weeks after a 1-2 inch rain) for the first year. Fill the planting holes with water a couple of times and let it drain out just before planting. You can use one of the long-lasting deer repellents, such as Liquid Fence, especially the first year and each spring while the new growth hardens, until the new growth is above the level of the deer.Īnd all plants need to be babied the first couple of years. But you can use an electric fence, baited with peanut butter to get them to leave the area alone, or use the battery operated lures that you operate the same way only to protect one shrub. I put up a 6’ fence so I could grow some of the plants I love and protected all the rest of my plants with their own individual fences. So I suggest you provide protection for whatever you grow. And bucks will rub the bark off a tree, often completely girdling and killing it even if it is on the deer resistant list. The only things not protected that they didn’t eat was agarita, Texas persimmon, beautybush, wax myrtle and dessert willow. They even ate several of my Juniperus ashei (Ashe juniper). I had to put circles of 2X2” fencing that was 4 feet high around all my shrubs and trees, including Texas redbud, yellow bells, pecan, burr oak, Monterey oak, Blanco crabapple, Mexican plum, rough leaf dogwood and rusty blackhaw. I started a new garden this year in Dripping Springs and deer ate most of the things on the deer resistant list. But even though these plants are considered deer resistant, deer are likely to still eat them when they are starving or when the plant is putting on new growth. I’ll give you a short list of plants that might work for you.