Plant accordingly and don't get too upset when something is eaten. Just plant again, she advises. She has found that the sharp leaves of Ilex cornuta cv. Deer don't seem to eat tea olives and, so far, haven't touched her large gardenia bushes. If you want to look at it as an analogy to a meal, it's dessert - all those nice little flowers.
Deer tend to go for nursery-grown plants that fertilizer makes more nutritious.
Kiawah's native vegetation is adapted to very sandy soil with a low organic content and high pH, explained Kiawah Island Natural Habitat Conservancy Chairman Dave Elliott. As a result, native growth has less nutrition than pampered introductions. He, too, landscapes with mostly native plants and has found that deer eat most anything when in need. One dry year, they even ate prickly pear, but only once, he said.