Lush and Rugged: Deer-Tolerant Garden in Boulder Foothills

In Boulder, Colorado, landscape designer Robert Howard and associate Mike Ransom created a naturalistic garden that thrives despite limited water and grazing deer. The key: unthirsty plants with informal shapes that hide browsing damage.

Ornamental grasses — blue fescue, blue oat grass, feather reed grass, maiden grass, and Panicum virgatum — provide year-round color and form. "Deer regularly munch on the grasses, but you don't notice damage because of the plants' informal shapes," says Howard. Companion plants include Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa), Rosa rugosa, santolina, and three-leaf sumac (Rhus trilobata). Local sandstone "moss rock" boulders anchor the design and blend with the hilly terrain.