Is Garden Sage deer resistant?

The culinary sage, and one of the few herbs that earns a place in an ornamental bed for its foliage alone. Cut it back in spring, never in fall, or it dies over winter.

Do deer eat sage?

Rarely. Rutgers rates garden sage Rarely Damaged, Iowa State lists it in the top tier, and NC State lists deer, rabbits, drought and dry soil among what Salvia officinalis resists. The felted gray leaf carries the same oils as the ornamental salvias and more of them: the perennial salvias in the encyclopedia sit one tier down, and the culinary one sits at the top.

Where it grows

Zones 4a to 8b, full sun, 1 to 2 feet, summer flowers in blue-violet that bees work. NC State's one warning is "Frequent Disease Problems," which in a garden means a wet summer. Sage wants the gravel and the slope that lavender wants.

Protecting sage

Nothing from deer. From itself, the pruning rule: spring, never fall. A sage cut back in October dies over winter.

If it is browsed

A browsed sage regrows from the woody frame, slowly, and the leaf that comes back is the same leaf. A sage that goes bare in the middle after four or five years is old, not eaten, and is replaced from a cutting.