If Bambi is the bane of your backyard bliss, Carol Kirkpatrick of Butler knows how to put a halt to the late-night, browse-through dining.

She knows ways to save some of your garden from becoming the animal's all-you-can-eat buffet.

And more importantly, she knows plants that will pleasure your eye but not deer's tongues. The best part is, most of those plants are perennials, so you'll only have to plant once.

After experimenting with deer resistance for about 15 years at a nursery on her parents' property in Butler Township, Kirkpatrick said there are eight reliable families of native plants, meaning North American, and quite a few more Asian species that deer find unpalatable. Kirkpatrick, a longtime landscape enthusiast, speaks to gardening clubs and other groups about the dining habits of deer.

Some of the plants in her beds are ancestral cousins to what are termed native here. The differences between native and Asian deer-resistant plants are the adaptations they've made as result of riding on moving landmasses in early geodynamic plate shifts, she said.

Kirkpatrick said she thinks what makes a plant deer resistant is the texture of the leaf. "Lavender is fuzzy and viburnum has crinkles or hairs. Euphorbia sap burns the tongue," she said.

Kirkpatrick also speculates grasses are often deer resistant because of their sharp edges.

Jerry Feaser, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, said a study on road-kill deer identified about 100 plant species ingested by deer.

"More than half were tree, shrub or vine species. The remainder were herbaceous plants," he said.

"They don't prefer things like hay-scented fern (an indigenous plant). They don't prefer striped maple trees.

"There are things they don't prefer, but there is very little that they won't eat," he warned, suggesting caution in using the term "deer resistant."

Deer will also avoid barberry, foxwood and hollies, said Jeannine Tardiff, a wildlife biologist in the game commission's deer section.

"It varies, depending on how bad the conditions are surrounding habitat," Tardiff said. "If pressured, they'll eat almost anything."

"It's like a buffet," she added. "You go to a buffet. It's covered with all kinds of food. You're going to eat your favorite things first."

Despite these rules of thumb, Kirkpatrick, Feaser and Tardiff say there is one small drawback: It would seem deer have regional tastes.

"What may be deer resistant in one place might be icing on the cake in another," so finding what's best for this area can sometimes be a matter of trial and error, Kirkpatrick said.

"I'll give something a three-year test. If it doesn't work, meaning it fails to thrive in our climate or proves to be tasty rather than yucky, out it goes. There's a lot of fine-tuning and tweaking."

In all, Kirkpatrick grows about 500 plant varieties, from ground covers to shrubs and small trees, most of them uncommon cultivars not available in the average garden center's inventory.

All are hardy in this latitude and none are particularly invasive, she said.

Some deer-resistant perennial plants Kirkpatrick grows are shade loving; some can shrug off drought conditions. Some have gorgeous flowers and for some, it's all about the foliage.

"Some deer-resistant plants can be incredibly beautiful," she said.

Although many of Kirkpatrick's favorites are difficult to find in retail nurseries, a few are more readily available.

Black cohosh, blue cohosh, some varieties of pachysandra, Jacob's ladder, bloodroot, viburnum shrubs and native gingers are among those more easily found.

Although many of the plants she uses do not flower, Kirkpatrick said the variety of color provides a beautiful landscape.

"

You can cultivate your garden in all foliage plants and there can be lots of colors. It's not necessary to have flowers. There are plants that look good all summer and all winter."

However, there are ways to protect things like hostas, which are the equivalent of a trip to the dessert bar for deer.

Spot Treat is available at most garden centers, said Kirkpatrick. The important thing to do with that product is to make sure you apply it to the underside of the leaves as well. It's the underside of the leaves that meets with the tongues of dining does.

Liquid Fence also works from the time you begin using it.

"It's a concentrate, so read the label. Carry it home in the trunk of your car," she advises with a smile. "It smells like really bad B O."

For long-term protection against being eaten alive, Kirkpatrick recommends Re-Pellex.

"It's a systemic tablet and read the directions on the container when you use it."

Re-Pellex is applied this year and begins to work next year as it is taken up with the next spring's growth. Coverage lasts about two years.

Kirkpatrick recommends using Liquid Fence to protect this year's growth while waiting for Re-Pellex to take over the job in the following growing season.

The Cornell University Department of Horticulture also recommends Deer Away Big Game Repellent, Deer-Off Repellent Spray, Hinder, Miller's Hot Sauce Animal Repellent, Nott's Chew-Not and Tree Guard.