Do deer eat mint? If I plant it, will it keep them out of the garden?

[ginnyinWI]

5. I have mint in a spot in my front yard.

We have deer--live very close to a state forest, and there is a woods behind our lot too.

They have not eaten my mint, lemon balm, oregano, sage or chives, none of which are behind a fence. Critters in general don't like herbs.
But would they stay away from a garden because of it? Probably not. I have a 5 ft. fence around my 17x20 ft garden and that works. If you have a bigger garden, you will need a higher fence because they will be happy to jump over a 5 ft. fence as long as they know they have enough room for a running start to jump out again. Apparently my space looks too small for that, so they stay out.

They come into the yard to get windfall apples from my trees, and that's fine with me. They did crash through one of my lilac bushes and broke off the top--not so fine with me!


I've heard human hair deters them, but have not tried it.