The secret weapon

Not even deer can resist that perfect combination of peanut butter and chocolate. Jim Harbage, director of floriculture and conservatories at Longwood Gardens, tried all the usual methods to keep deer out of his meticulously-crafted plant displays.

But on a behind-the-scenes tour of the gardens for members of the International Plant Propagators Society, he divulged what worked better than everything he’s tried: Reese’s Peanut Butter cups hanging from a strand of electrified wire. After a few zaps, the deer associate the smell of the treat with the shock and stay away.