Rutgers extension service has a good source of deer RESISTANT plants. However if the deer are REALLY bad they may hit them too. How is the soil (compacted, organic, sandy, pH, etc.....) You may need a professional or at least an experienced gardener to help with that question first. Most perennials have a blooming season (e.g. one type may bloom in June, another in September) of a few to several weeks. If you want added color all the time you may have to stagger types, otherwise you can plant one type or some low bushes or such and interplant with annuals if you really want the color.

Use fencing to exclude nuisance animals and restrain small children. If you are trying to plan an entire garden or other large areas seek local guidance as already suggested. There are consultants you can hire who will come out and talk to you in person about your site on a one time basis and there are also garden designers who can in addition follow up with detailed planting plans. If you are not a gardener avoid loading up on annuals and perennials because after lawns - which can at least be maintained with machines and power tools - herbaceous plantings are the most work. Choose dwarf flowering shrubs for flower color from small plants instead.

Thanks. I did have a designer. I posted on the landscape forum for feedback though and they felt it was a really bad plan. We need to plant the front garden right now so a fence won't really help with that (we'd like a fence in the rear but won't be able to afford it for awhile).

Deer fencing with peeler poles can enclose a fairly large area for hundreds, whereas a conventional solid wood fencing does cost thousands (when a contractor is hired to do it). Either way you don't want to spend a lot of time and money on plantings and then have deer and rabbits etc. help themselves.

Also if there is a 6 ft. height limit on conventional fencing deer can jump over that. And rabbits can get underneath. If neighbors (or yourself) would object to the appearance of deer fencing or other effective wildlife excluding installations then I guess you are stuck with being limited to what plants and plantings you can get past them.

This, however can be quite limiting. Deer in particular are quite variable and unpredictable in their feeding behavior, with differences in winter conditions from one year to the next playing a role. Plus the bucks use trees to rub off velvet, even where a kind might not be damaged by browsing.

I have a conifer in plantings I did for somebody else that lives on country acreage have the bottom branches get mauled one time. I thought it was deer rubbing until I realized it was rabbits* clipping them off, for nesting material is all I could guess. They didn't haul away and use every piece they bit off, that's why I thought it was rubbing instead of biting.

*Just now it occurs to me that Aplodontia rufa may have been possible. I haven't seen their tunnels on the property but they do bite branches off of woody plants