help me decide on an anti-deer solution

[the_hobbitish]

I have a rather big veg plot in my front yard that I want to keep full of plants and not half eaten stalks. My neighborhood has a lot of deer that are not afraid of humans. I'm considering fence options, but I'm dreading the idea of a big 8ft fence blocking the view. Has anyone had success with lower fences?

I like the look of the wood and mesh fences, but that seems very expensive. The 'invisible' netting style is cheaper, but not as pretty. I've also considered hoops and netting over the individual raised boxes.

Do you have a fence around your garden? What do you think works well or not? Pics welcome!

[Morning Glory]

I have a lower fence but we made the corner posts taller and strung fishing line around the top. Seems to work ok.

[Linea_Norway]

Brainstorming a few minutes with DH brought the following ideas:
- the same as with weeds, if you can't beat them, eat them.
- a dog in the garden
- grow very thorny bushes on the border (combined with a fence)
- digging a deer pit on the border (a hole with spikes, covered by thin branches)
- installing a sheep grid on the border
- get a bottle of strong scent of some preditor aminal and smear that in your garden.
- building strong netting around your plants, also covering above them.
- grow your vegetables on the balcony or on the roof

[norajean]

Motion-activated water sprinklers work well if you don’t mind leaving them on all the time.

[the_hobbitish]

Has anyone tried the fishing trick?

[Fishindude]

Unless you keep a guard dog loose to run them off, a tall fence is really the only way to protect your plants from deer.
We have a 6' fence around our garden.

[iris lily]

For decades, a big reason we didn’t move to “the country” from the urban core is deer. We like to garden so we grabbed up empty city lots all around us and had many gardens. For me growing ornamentals, the only critter I had to fight was the occasional rabbit who nibbled on Asiatic lilies. For the most part they left my plants alone. Now DH that’s a different matter because he grows edibles. But anyway –

Now we’re moving to the country, Really a small town, but it’s a small town where deer walk through our yard regularly.

DH is in the process of building for me a large enclosed deer proof area where I can grow lilies. Lilies are deer candy. Fence will be 6 foot plus.I’m worried that it will not work. They already regularly breach a 4 foot fence.

Recently we read somewhere that double fencing is a good deterrent to. A fence outside of a fence. They don’t like that set up because they’re afraid of being trapped

[FINate]

I would go 8' high for a deer fence.

[iris lily]

I would go 8' high for a deer fence.

You are right, our fence may be 8” not sure.

[the_hobbitish]

I am thinking about this double electric setup. https://www.dooleyhomestead.com/cheap-garden-fencing-to-keep-deer-out-cheap-deer-fencing/

[sixwings]

could plant lots of marigolds, unless the deer are really hungry they may leave it alone since they apprently dont like the smell.

I also have an incredible amount of deer, some that seem to live in my neighbors backyard (I think she feeds them), my backyard is where I grow most of my veg and it's got a big fence so I'm good there, but the front yard just gets decimated by deer. I've been trying to grow garlic up against because apparently deer dont like them but nope, chomped them down. I'm planting a few hundred marigolds to hopefully make a smelly fence the deer don't like... I'm not that hopeful tbh...

[TrMama]

We have ravenous urban deer. Nothing but a tall, strong fence is worth the effort. The deer here can easily clear a 6' fence. I once had a 6' fence placed on top of a 5' retaining wall and watched a deer that had gotten trapped in the yard at the bottom of the wall clear the entire thing from a standstill. Deterrents, like marigolds or smelly things don't work at all. For a smaller veggie garden you can also put up mesh covered hoops, but then you're limited to only growing low things underneath. If you go with some kind of mesh, it needs to be a strong metal mesh. Don't bother with plastic mesh because they'll just go through it. Then you have a deer sized hole in your fence.

At some point I plan to properly fence my veggie garden. I plan to mount deer skulls on the corner posts.

[Freedomin5]

- the same as with weeds, if you can't beat them, eat them

I like this idea. Very Mustachian as it would also provide you with meat for the year.

[YttriumNitrate]

I also live in an area with heavy deer pressure and laws that prevent hunting them. Additionally, modest fences are difficult to get approved, and 6' deer fence would be near impossible to get through. My solution to the deer is the same as the cicada use: overwhelm the critters in the area with so much food that they can't eat everything.

[iris lily]

could plant lots of marigolds, unless the deer are really hungry they may leave it alone since they apprently dont like the smell.

I also have an incredible amount of deer, some that seem to live in my neighbors backyard (I think she feeds them), my backyard is where I grow most of my veg and it's got a big fence so I'm good there, but the front yard just gets decimated by deer. I've been trying to grow garlic up against because apparently deer dont like them but nope, chomped them down. I'm planting a few hundred marigolds to hopefully make a smelly fence the deer don't like... I'm not that hopeful tbh...

marigolds will not keep deer away.

[joe189man]

I also live in an area with heavy deer pressure and laws that prevent hunting them. Additionally, modest fences are difficult to get approved, and 6' deer fence would be near impossible to get through. My solution to the deer is the same as the cicada use: overwhelm the critters in the area with so much food that they can't eat everything.

check with your state and local wildlife departments, where i live they have a program where a land owner can call the dept. to report nuisance deer eating crops or landscaping and one of a pre-screened group of bow hunters will come out and discretely harvest one, in this case the home owner has first dips on the harvest (deer meat).

[YttriumNitrate]

I also live in an area with heavy deer pressure and laws that prevent hunting them. Additionally, modest fences are difficult to get approved, and 6' deer fence would be near impossible to get through. My solution to the deer is the same as the cicada use: overwhelm the critters in the area with so much food that they can't eat everything.

check with your state and local wildlife departments, where i live they have a program where a land owner can call the dept. to report nuisance deer eating crops or landscaping and one of a pre-screened group of bow hunters will come out and discretely harvest one, in this case the home owner has first dips on the harvest (deer meat).

Unfortunately, local laws prohibit the use of both firearms and bow/arrows.

[sixwings]

- the same as with weeds, if you can't beat them, eat them

I like this idea. Very Mustachian as it would also provide you with meat for the year.

Apparently deer in my area are too toxic to eat due to all the stuff they eat that are covered in pesticides :( My city released a bunch of info about it after someone tried to do this and got really really sick/might have died.

[Fishindude]

- the same as with weeds, if you can't beat them, eat them

I like this idea. Very Mustachian as it would also provide you with meat for the year.

We do this also.   Eat 4-5 of the critters every year.

[Morning Glory]

Has anyone tried the fishing trick?

Yes. It works for us.  We also have a friend who hunts at our house and gives us a little meat if he gets one. We threw it right on the grill last time, delicious.

 Now what to do about gophers?

[Trifle]

We live in an area of extremely heavy deer pressure.  We tried various versions of covered beds (wire, bird netting, thin agribon) before we gave up.  The deer just forced their way in one way or another, and also the death toll of animals that got trapped/snagged in the covers was not acceptable.  We researched a ton and ended up building an 8 1/2 foot deer fence.  It’s hex-grid for the first 4 feet and then poly deer mesh the rest of the way up).  I think it looks decent.  It’s pouring rain right now but I’ll take a picture when I can.   

[robartsd]

I've basically heard that either the fence must be very tall (~8 feet) or a double fence (~3 feet between fence lines). The double fence works because deer have poor depth perception. The spacing for the double fence has to be close enough that they can't jump the inner fence. If they do jump into the space between the fences, they get out by running along a side of the perimeter and jumping out at a corner.

[the_hobbitish]

I decided to go with a 8ft fence kind of like the photo below. The only reason I'm able to do this option is because a friend of mine agreed to help me set the uprights. It's not that difficult a project but hiring someone to build it would cost an insane amount in my area. I'm pretty sure I can do the rest myself once the vertical posts are in.

[Fishindude]

We live in heavy deer areas, my sister, brother and myself all have 6' fences around our gardens and they keep the deer out.
Do 8' if you want but it's probably not necessary just to protect a garden.   

When I first ran into trouble, before I built the permanent fence, we put 4' temporary construction fence around the garden and it did the job for the duration of that season.
Deer don't like to jump things if they don't have too, they risk injury.

 

[jfer_rose]

Caution: gross factor ahead. A home decor podcast I listen to experimented with urine to deter deer. Apparently you can buy animal urine products on Amazon.

https://www.younghouselove.com/podcast-99/

[Trifle]

That fence looks really nice @the_hobbitish!   

In our area they jump right over 6 foot fences.  I'm sure it depends a lot on how many deer you have, how hungry they are, and what you're growing.  And how much space there is to hop into.  They don't like to hop into tight spaces. 

Here's our 8.5 foot deer fence -- the top 4 1/2 feet is poly deer mesh -- good stuff.  It's stiff, so birds don't get caught in it, and so far, after two years, it's standing up well to the sun.  Bottom 4 feet is vinyl-coated hex grid which flares out flat on the ground -- it keeps the rabbits and woodchucks out.  We went with this design because we already had a bunch of split rail fence everywhere else, so it "matched."  It's fairly low visibility -- from a distance you can barely see it.  Works for us! 

[the_hobbitish]

Nice fence @Trifele Did you have any trouble with deer not seeing the higher poly fence and trying to jump through it?

I'm planning on coated rabbit guard or hex grid for the bottom half and then open with no wire for the top half. Various places on the internet say deer will assume the top rail is the height of the fence so combined with an inhospitable landing area full of planter boxes I should be good. I'm considering whether that's enough deterrence to go with a 6ft height like you're saying @Fishindude 6ft verticals would cut the cost of the project considerably because10ft 4x4s are so expensive compared to 8fts.

[Trifle]

Nice fence @Trifele Did you have any trouble with deer not seeing the higher poly fence and trying to jump through it?

We were nervous about that.  We tied day-glo pink surveying ribbons to the fence for the first few weeks, to show them that it was there.  Took down the ribbon after that, and fortunately have not had any problems.   

[Aegishjalmur]

We've seen deer around here, but only in the back section of our yard, never close to the house. That may change once we start planting as garden and plants =food source. For my fruit trees, I plan on pruning to keep small and doing hoop netting, for the rest, it will be a play it by ear.

[the_hobbitish]

I started laying out the fence dimensions with stakes and twine. I decided to tie it into the privacy fence that runs down one side of the property so the height will be about 6.5'. Once I get everything squared and measured I'll figure out how many posts to order. I'm excited to have the project underway.

[big_owl]

I have a regular height split rail fence and it keeps them out of my garden (5ft fence).  Maybe my deer are just lazy but I live in the forest and they are everywhere and it seems to work.  It seems like once you can train the deer to avoid a certain area then they develop new traveling patterns and just bypass areas they used to frequent. 

[the_hobbitish]

I'm digging post holes for the fence today. I'm planning on rabbit guard for the bottom and regular 2*4 welded wire for the top. At least one fence side is going to get espaliered plums.

[Weisass]

Motion-activated water sprinklers work well if you don’t mind leaving them on all the time.

This was very effective for us.

[TrMama]

I'm digging post holes for the fence today. I'm planning on rabbit guard for the bottom and regular 2*4 welded wire for the top. At least one fence side is going to get espaliered plums.

Won't the deer eat the plums through the fence? All my fenced plantings can't be within about 6" of the fence or the deer just stick their noses through to eat whatever they can reach.

However, our deer seem to be much more assertive than many others in this thread.

[GuitarStv]

You need some fencing pretty high to deter deer.  My dad's got an apple orchard with 8.5 ft fences, and he still occasionally finds deer wandering around chowing down on the apples.

[anni]

I don't have first hand experience, but I believe I read in Gaia's Garden about planting thorny bushes to keep deer away. If you plant an edible thorny bush and don't mind sacrificing those berries to the deer, they get to eat and they also stay away from what's behind.

[the_hobbitish]

Fence posts are in. Eventually there'll be a bottom and top plate and a belly band at 40in with rabbit guard.

[the_hobbitish]

Posts are painted...

[the_hobbitish]

Belly band and bottom band are in. Next I'll add a to band, rabbit wire fence on the bottom and a small trellis detail above where the gate will be.