With regard to the boxwood - I have somewhat clayish soil, but it's still rich at least 18" deep. Boxwood do not grow slow in my opinion, and require very little care other than watering until they are established and pruning mid June for my zone. I have one on the northeast corner of my house and it's monstrous and beautiful after just a few years - Green Velvet I believe. The boxwoods in the direct sun tend to grow a little slower, and more compact. I have all three varieties - green mountain (great for hedging), green velvet (these mound nicely) and green gem for a nice tight compact ball OR you can also hedge these. A house up the block facing east with full morning to mid day sun planted an entire row of the wee small ones you'd find at a box store about three years ago. This year, they've all grown together into a nice solid low hedge. So, I think it depends on where you live and the growing conditions. Boxwood can suffer from winterburn, so we do cover them with pine sprigs or burlap in the winter for those who get sun exposure. So in my own experience, and I have them in all areas of my yard except full shade, and they thrive and grow at a moderate rate.

In the last few years deer lost their last vacant lot in the neighborhood and I had to experiment to see what I could keep in my garden. Our deer will leave basil and other herbs alone. They leave chrysanthemums, snapdragons, irises, daffodils, butterfly weed, melampodium, little firecracker zinnias and gomphrena alone, stepping over them to nibble on a remaining rose bush and lilies. Creeping phlox is safe, but garden phlox is a treat. In dry shade hellebores and euphorbia flourish. Cyclamen bloom in the fall and have ground covering foliage in the winter. Purple shamrocks are left alone. Dragon wing begonias bloom all summer. Liriope grows like crazy. As for shrubs, deer leave my azalea and my camelia alone, preferring "prune" the nearby knockout roses. They also ignore my striped zebra grass. My hollies were removed before the deer lost their habitat. Most of the deer repellant products have to be reapplied too often for Arkansas where we may get daily rains. You miss a day and your garden is gone. You might ask at local hair salons. I've heard that human hair is a better deterrent than dog hair. Yes, our deer laugh at the neighbor's mastiff. They even watch us watch them through our patio window.

I would try Cardinal flower (lobelia cardinalis), Mistflower (Eupatorium coelestinum), Great Blue Lobelia (lobelia siphilitica), they are all relatively short. I'm not sure how deer resistant they are. IME, deer resistance is often a factor of what is left to eat... Normally, I would suggest that you add some grasses and sedges, like fox sedge or sweet grass, but those would definitely get eaten by deer right away. So probably not a good choice given your criteria.

I planted cherry laurels in my Trumbull CT yard and they lived through several winters but ultimately did not come back after one cold winter. These were the taller cherry laurels and not ottoluken. They were nice while they lived. I would only recommend for coastal CT. We are a ten minute drive north of the coast.