Deer Resistant Ground Cover

Updated September 2026 · Garden Advice Guide

The most reliable deer resistant ground cover options are pachysandra, vinca minor, lamium, epimedium, hellebore, creeping thyme, sedum, ajuga, sweet woodruff, and creeping juniper. Deer skip them for four reasons: bitter alkaloids, aromatic oils, fuzzy leaves, or tough evergreen texture. All ten spread on their own and fill a bed in two to three seasons.

Nothing on that list is deer proof in a hard winter, but these are the plants that come back every spring in yards where hostas and impatiens vanish overnight.

Pick from the plants that actually survive your winters first. Check your zone in a few seconds with our free planting zone tool, then match it against the zone column in the table below.

Updated September 2026

Deer resistant ground cover: the 15 that hold up

Every plant here is one deer walk past in a normal year. The "defense" column tells you why, which matters more than the plant name, because it lets you judge new plants on your own later.

This list skews cold hardy on purpose. In zone 8 and warmer, Asiatic and star jasmine do the same job on a bank or under shrubs, and our page on whether star jasmine is deer resistant covers how they hold up to browsing.

A note on honesty, because a lot of lists overpromise: hungry deer in February will taste almost anything. What these fifteen share is that they get sampled once and abandoned, not grazed to the ground. That difference is everything for a ground cover, because a plant that loses a few leaves still holds the soil and still fills the bed.

The four defenses, and why they matter more than the list

Learn these and you can shop any nursery without a printed list in your hand.

Toxic or bitter chemistry. Pachysandra, vinca, hellebore, and ajuga carry alkaloids or glycosides that taste bad and, in larger amounts, make deer sick. Deer learn from a single bad mouthful and remember the plant. This is the most durable defense of the four.

Aromatic oils. Thyme, hardy geranium, and sweet woodruff release volatile oils when brushed. Deer navigate by nose, and a strong scent masks the smell of anything nearby, which is why an aromatic border can protect plants behind it.

Fuzz and wool. Lamb's ear and lamium have hairy leaf surfaces that feel wrong in a deer's mouth. It's a texture rejection, not a taste one, and it works reliably right up until a plant is soaked by rain.

Tough texture. Juniper, bergenia, Christmas fern, and sedge are simply hard to chew and low in sugar. Deer prefer soft, water-rich new growth, so anything leathery, prickly, or fibrous ranks near the bottom of their menu.

The same logic runs through our larger lists of deer resistant perennials and deer resistant shrubs, so once you know the four defenses you can plan a whole yard around them.

Best deer resistant ground cover for shade

Shade is where most people need this, because shade is where the hostas were.

Pachysandra is the standard for dense dry shade under maples and oaks. Japanese pachysandra (P. terminalis) is the fast, glossy one sold everywhere. Allegheny spurge (P. procumbens) is the native, with mottled leaves, better manners, and a slower spread. Both are essentially untouched by deer.

Epimedium is the plant to use where tree roots make the soil impossible. It takes two seasons to look like anything, then holds ground for decades with no watering. Shear the old foliage in late winter before the flower stems push.

Hellebore isn't a spreading ground cover in the strict sense, but planted 18 inches apart it closes into a solid evergreen mass and blooms in late winter when nothing else does. Deer avoid it completely.

Sweet woodruff is the fastest filler for moist shade, with whorled leaves and white spring flowers. It's aggressive in good soil, which is a feature under trees and a nuisance in a small bed.

Christmas fern and Pennsylvania sedge are the native answer for a naturalized woodland look. Sedge in particular reads like a soft meadow lawn under trees and needs no mowing at all.

For deeper shade planting beyond ground covers, see deer resistant shade plants.

Best deer resistant ground cover for full sun and slopes

Sun changes the list completely, and slopes add a second requirement: roots that hold soil.

On slopes steeper than about 3 to 1, plant into the slope rather than on top of it. Dig a small level shelf for each plant so water pools at the root instead of running past. Mulch afterward with shredded hardwood, not nuggets, since nuggets float downhill in the first storm. Our mulch guide covers depths for planted beds.

Worked example: replacing a browsed hosta bed

A shaded 200 square foot strip along the north side of a house in zone 6. The hostas have been eaten to nubs three years running. The plan is Japanese pachysandra.

How many plants. Pachysandra is normally set 6 to 12 inches apart. Tighter spacing costs more plants and fills faster.

Using a triangular (staggered) grid, the area each plant occupies is 0.866 times the spacing squared.

• At 8 inch spacing: 0.866 x 8 x 8 = 55.4 square inches per plant, which is 0.385 square feet. 200 / 0.385 = 520 plants, and full coverage in about 2 seasons.
• At 12 inch spacing: 0.866 x 12 x 12 = 124.7 square inches, which is 0.866 square feet. 200 / 0.866 = 231 plants, and full coverage in about 3 to 4 seasons.

Most people land in the middle, at 10 inches: 0.866 x 100 = 86.6 square inches, or 0.601 square feet per plant, so 200 / 0.601 = 333 plants, filling in roughly 3 seasons.

The rest of the plan.

1. Kill or remove the existing turf and weeds in early fall. Ground cover that has to fight established weeds loses.
2. Spread 2 inches of compost and fork it into the top 4 inches. Skip this on tree roots and just plant into pockets instead.
3. Plant in a staggered grid, not straight rows. Rows leave visible corridors for years.
4. Mulch 1.5 to 2 inches deep between plants, keeping mulch off the crowns.
5. Water 1 inch a week for the entire first season. This is the step people skip and it's the difference between a bed that closes in two years and one that never does.
6. Interplant 30 to 40 daffodils through the bed. Deer never touch daffodils, and they bloom before the pachysandra wakes up.

Use the plant spacing calculator to run the same math for a different bed shape or a different spacing.

How long each ground cover takes to fill in

Spread rate decides how many plants you buy, so it's worth knowing before you plan a bed.

Fast spreaders solve a big area quickly and then need edging forever. Slow ones need patience and more plants up front but stay where you put them. On a small bed near other perennials, choose slow. On a half-acre bank, choose fast.

Ground covers to avoid, even though deer avoid them too

Deer resistance is not the only test. Four popular picks cause real problems.

English ivy. Deer mostly leave it alone, and it is invasive across much of the East and Pacific Northwest, climbing trees and eventually killing them. Skip it.

Lily of the valley. Beautifully fragrant, completely deer resistant, aggressively rhizomatous, and toxic to people and pets in every part. It escapes into woodlands. Plant it only in a contained area, if at all.

Vinca minor and Japanese pachysandra. Both are on invasive-species watch lists in several eastern states because they spread into woodlands and hold ground against native seedlings. They're still the right tool for a maintained bed with hard edges, but not for the boundary between your yard and a wooded lot. If you're on a woodland edge, use Allegheny spurge, Pennsylvania sedge, or Christmas fern instead.

Bishop's weed (goutweed). Deer resistant and essentially permanent. Do not plant it.

Check your state's invasive plant list before planting any running ground cover in quantity; most state extension services publish a current one, and the climbing euonymus groundcovers are among the names to look for. The USDA extension directory will point you to yours.

Protecting a new ground cover in its first year

Deer resistance is a property of mature foliage. Brand new transplants are soft, freshly watered, and smell like a nursery, and deer will taste them once out of curiosity even on the resistant list.

• Spray the first two months. Rotate two repellents with different active ingredients, one egg-based and one capsaicin or garlic-based, every 2 to 3 weeks and after heavy rain. Rotation matters because deer habituate to a single scent.
• Fence bad beds through the first winter. Four-foot plastic mesh on step-in posts is enough for a low ground cover bed, and it comes down in spring.
• Skip the fertilizer. A heavy nitrogen feeding makes lush, soft, very attractive growth. Compost at planting is enough.
• Water in the morning. Foliage that is dry by evening is less appealing and less prone to fungal issues.
• Watch for buck rub, not just browsing. In October and November, bucks rub antlers on anything with a stem. Ground covers escape that, which is one of their quiet advantages over young shrubs.

By the second spring, the mature foliage carries its own defenses and you can usually stop spraying entirely. If deer are still hammering the bed, the problem is population pressure, and what's needed is a physical barrier rather than a different plant. Our list of plants deer love is worth a read as well, because removing the buffet nearby often lowers pressure on everything else.

FAQ

What ground cover will deer not eat at all?

There's no plant deer will never touch, but pachysandra, vinca minor, hellebore, creeping juniper, and lamb's ear come closest. All four rely on toxins, prickles, or wool rather than smell, so their protection doesn't wash off in rain the way a repellent does.

Is there an evergreen deer resistant ground cover?

Yes, and it's a short list worth memorizing: pachysandra, vinca minor, hellebore, bergenia, Christmas fern, and creeping juniper. All hold their leaves through winter in most of their range, though bergenia can bronze or flatten under snow and pop back up in spring.

Will deer eat creeping phlox or liriope?

Creeping phlox gets browsed regularly, especially the new spring growth, so it isn't a good choice under real pressure. Liriope is genuinely resistant across much of the North but gets grazed in the Southeast where deer densities are high and winters are mild. Sedge or lamium is a safer swap for both.

What's the fastest deer resistant ground cover for a large area?

Vinca minor, sweet woodruff, and ajuga close fastest, typically covering in one to two seasons from quart pots. For a sunny bank, creeping juniper takes longer but needs no water once established, so it wins on a slope you don't want to irrigate.

Can I plant deer resistant ground cover under trees?

Yes, and that's exactly where epimedium, Pennsylvania sedge, Allegheny spurge, and Christmas fern shine, since they evolved in root-filled woodland soil. Don't till under a mature tree. Dig individual planting pockets between roots and mulch lightly instead.

Does deer resistant ground cover need less water once it fills in?

Once a bed closes, the canopy shades the soil and cuts evaporation sharply, so most of these need water only in extended drought. The first full season is the exception and needs about an inch a week. Our watering guide explains how to measure that with a rain gauge or a straight-sided can.

When is the best time to plant a ground cover bed?

Early fall is best in most of the country, since warm soil plus cool air grows roots without heat stress, and winter rain does the watering for you. Spring is the second choice. Avoid midsummer planting unless you can water consistently for eight weeks.