Beat the Deer While Living on the Edge

However cute we may all find Bambi, he and his relatives are responsible for large-scale degradation of the environment in Northern Virginia. You might suppose that human habitations are crowding out the poor things, but actually the opposite is true. The deep woods that made up so much of our area used to support only a limited number of deer, which do best in edge habitat. Our roads and housing developments have turned Northern Virginia into one huge edge! The problem is compounded by the fact that chopping up forests into tiny pieces allows invasive introduced plants to encroach from all directions – think Kudzu and other vines blanketing the trees along the Beltway.

The hugely bloated deer population has decimated the tree seedlings as well as all the other native plants which are the basis of the entire ecosystem. What is left tends to be small, impoverished parcels of woods consisting only of adult trees and little else to support the wildlife.

But all is not lost! We have the power to turn this situation around and make Northern Virginia a place where butterflies and songbirds can thrive alongside their human neighbors. All it takes is to plant and protect native plants in our own yards (and even on our own balconies). Two strategies are needed when you live in deer country:

1. Protect the plants. Small fences around shrubs and trees until they grow are very effective for taller plants. Various sprays and other strategies for shorter plants can be effective if you are conscientious about using them. And where a deer fence around a whole section of yard is practical, gardening becomes nirvana!

2. Where protective measures are impractical, choose plants that are relatively unpalatable to deer. Many plants that are native to Northern Virginia fill this need. Check out the list (as well as other strategies) here or look them up on our plant search app.