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How to Keep Deer Out of Your Northern Virginia Yard

Northern Virginia Yard

Sure, it's a peaceful, pleasing sight to see deer from your Northern Virginia window. But it's not so peaceful to learn that those deer can wreak havoc on your landscape by chomping through your plant and flowers, potentially costing you lots of money for landscaping services. Follow these natural methods and tips to keep deer from ruining your landscaping:

• Sprinkle human hair around the perimeter of your yard or in trees and flowerbeds. The human scent will keep deer away. As an alternative, hang bars of soaps from trees, which will also give off a scent deer associate with humans.
• Place a salt lick at an end of your yard to encourage deer to visit the salt lick instead of your flowers.
• Install motion-detector lights to scare away deer that step foot in your yard after nightfall.
• Plant fuzzy, spiny, or aromatic plants, which often deter deer. However, deer are known to try anything, so they may still dine on such plants.
• Spray plantings with hot sauce or garlic. Make sure to respray after rainfall.
• Attach silver pie plates or old CDs to strings and hang them on branches. The reflective surface will catch the deer's eye and startle them from your yard.

For more landscape-friendly tips, contact Second Nature, Inc. Located in Linden, Virginia, Second Nature Inc. provides a full suite of landscaping design and construction services to the entire Northern Virginia and Washington DC region.