More deer

I've decided that from reading here and elsewhere, that the surest way to keep deer away from your veggies is to erect a barrier as some here also have done.  I've searched and read the posts regarding experiences with deer but other than chicken wire, does anyone have the names of any effective deer netting /fence?

What I have found in stores looks easily chewed-through by squirrels.  What I find on the net (that's highly-rated) is typically VERY expensive and many times greater quantities than I need.  Be great to find the good stuff "by the foot"  I really don't need 100-300'

Thanx

Is it just deer you are trying to keep out or other critters as well, like woodchuck and  rabbit? How long is your perimeter?
Sheep fencing would do better rather than chicken fence, if deer are the problem. Another thing to consider is you may not want holes small enough to trap other wild life.

J Long wrote:I've decided that from reading here and elsewhere, that the surest way to keep deer away from your veggies is to erect a barrier as some here also have done.  I've searched and read the posts regarding experiences with deer but other than chicken wire, does anyone have the names of any effective deer netting /fence?

What I have found in stores looks easily chewed-through by squirrels.  What I find on the net (that's highly-rated) is typically VERY expensive and many times greater quantities than I need.  Be great to find the good stuff "by the foot"  I really don't need 100-300'

Thanx

I live in western Pa. so have  the same problem with deer too.  Had to build a fence to keep them out so built a structure with black deer netting. It keeps them out and is fairly inexpensive, you can get it a box store, BUT it does not keep rabbits out.  Will try to post some pictures

I have 42 ft of perimeter.  Yeah I have rabbits and groundhogs too.  We have about every thing here but bear, and this in a city.  I live fairly close to a large park system and the property backs up to a utility easement which is essentially a wildlife conduit from the park and river.

In past attempts a low skirting of chicken wire has kept out rabbits, but a groundhog will get right over that. It's the deer that have shown to be most destructive because what they might miss eating gets trampled.

I saw posts where someone built a structure integrated with boxes and that is what I'm going to attempt with the right enclosure material.

We have deer & rabbits as well.  Our neighborhood is an old cow pasture...

What we did was put up chain link and then the plastic 1-inch green chicken fencing inside of that, including over the areas between fence & gates.

Worked fine last year...

I have a very small time operation.  Just three 4x4's and a bunch of EarthBoxes.  I've been expanding to open area spots where I've mainly just added the 5 compost combo... not really much vermiculite or peat moss... so I don't feature stuff from that here because it's not SFG in its purest form.

In our subdivision, fencing of the front of our property is not allowed.  For some areas of our garden, this is problematic.  This is how I get around that...

What has worked for me is a combination of deer block netting and granulated Liquid Fence:



I drape the netting over the PVC dome on my boxes and I fasten the netting with velcro ties:



With my EarthBoxes, I use tomato cages to support the netting and then I tuck the netting underneath them.




For a long while, my 4x4 boxes were not covered with netting... but diligent application of Liquid Fence granules kept deer at bay.  The trouble with Liquid Fence is that it has to be applied every time it rains... that can start to be expensive and also it's a pain to remember and then actually apply it.

At the moment, I only have a little bit of Liquid Fence left (we've had heavy and intermittent rains).  The price of Liquid Fence has gone up, so I'm going to try Ortho Deer B Gon.  Where Liquid Fence's active ingredient is pretty much just putrified egg, Deer B Gon works by using Cinnamon Oil, Clove Oil and Putrescent Egg Solids.  Because Deer B Gon has the same amount of good reviews (on Amazon) as Liquid Fence, I'm willing to try it.

I use granulated types of deer repellent because it lasts longer and is a bit more rain resistant.

Incidentally, Easy Gardener Deer Block has a money back guarantee.  However, such a guarantee wouldn't mean much to me if I lost my plants.  So far so good, this will be my third season using it (goodness, that much time has gone by??).

Unless you want to put up a fence or netting a minimum of 8 ft tall, with ten feet being safer,  I suggest tying Irish Spring soap on stakes around your garden beds.  It might work.
I had trouble one year with deer eating my new dwarf fruit trees.  One year they were pretty well decimated by deer.  The next spring I put one Irish Spring soap in each used onion bag (because they are netting) and tied them to a 2 1/2 ft fence around my trees.  It worked.  No more trees being eaten.
The only other solution, since you have only a few beds, is to cover them with insect barrier which lets thru sun and rain, but keeps off insects.  It should keep deer from nibbling on your harvest as well.
I hope you find something that works for you.

quiltbea wrote:Unless you want to put up a fence or netting a minimum of 8 ft tall, with ten feet being safer,  I suggest tying Irish Spring soap on stakes around your garden beds.  It might work.
I had trouble one year with deer eating my new dwarf fruit trees.  One year they were pretty well decimated by deer.  The next spring I put one Irish Spring soap in each used onion bag (because they are netting) and tied them to a 2 1/2 ft fence around my trees.  It worked.  No more trees being eaten.
The only other solution, since you have only a few beds, is to cover them with insect barrier which lets thru sun and rain, but keeps off insects.  It should keep deer from nibbling on your harvest as well.
I hope you find something that works for you.

Interesting about the Irish Spring quiltbea.  How did you hear about it for using  it to keep away deer?  I love when folks write about such interesting and practical solutions!

Windmere.....I think I heard about it from another gardener a few years ago.  Tried it and it actually worked for me.  I just renewed the bar of soap every 6 months.  I hung 2 bars from each circular fence.  It has to be the deodorant soap.
I haven't seen any more deer in my yard the last couple years, so I haven't used the soap trick since.

The enclosure is small enough that deer won't jump into it and the soap thing from my reading, works until they get used to it.  I am building the "fencing" (which doesn't really fall into the category of a fence as defined in code here) which will be about 7' tall.

Thank you for the alternative suggestions, but what I'm looking for are sources and brand names of deer fence/netting.

Thanks again.

J Long wrote:The enclosure is small enough that deer won't jump into it and the soap thing from my reading, works until they get used to it.  I am building the "fencing" (which doesn't really fall into the category of a fence as defined in code here) which will be about 7' tall.

Thank you for the alternative suggestions, but what I'm looking for are sources and brand names of deer fence/netting.

Thanks again.

J Long, the deer netting I used came from Amazon (photo in my previous post):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004RA0N/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

100 ft is currently 18.49.  It is also available in smaller sizes.  I hope that is helpful.

As for the liquid fence, this will be my third season using it.  A few days ago my daughter and I were coming home from a walk when we saw 7 deer run from our woods, across our garden and then down the street.  At that time, a few of my beds were uncovered but had liquid fence on them.  Also, my wife feeds the deer with bird seed in an area far across from the garden.  The deer have never nibbled my garden even with all that going on.

J Long, my fences around the trees were short enuf that the deer just reached over and ate from the outside.   They stripped those branches off like popsicle sticks.

J Long wrote:I have 42 ft of perimeter.  Yeah I have rabbits and groundhogs too.  We have about every thing here but bear, and this in a city.  I live fairly close to a large park system and the property backs up to a utility easement which is essentially a wildlife conduit from the park and river.

In past attempts a low skirting of chicken wire has kept out rabbits, but a groundhog will get right over that. It's the deer that have shown to be most destructive because what they might miss eating gets trampled.

I saw posts where someone built a structure integrated with boxes and that is what I'm going to attempt with the right enclosure material.

This is what I ended up building to keep the critters away.

floyd1440 wrote:

J Long wrote:I have 42 ft of perimeter.  Yeah I have rabbits and groundhogs too.  We have about every thing here but bear, and this in a city.  I live fairly close to a large park system and the property backs up to a utility easement which is essentially a wildlife conduit from the park and river.

In past attempts a low skirting of chicken wire has kept out rabbits, but a groundhog will get right over that. It's the deer that have shown to be most destructive because what they might miss eating gets trampled.

I saw posts where someone built a structure integrated with boxes and that is what I'm going to attempt with the right enclosure material.

This is what I ended up building to keep the critters away.

That's pretty ambitious!  What is the brand of netting you used?

That's pretty ambitious!  What is the brand of netting you used?

I will have to take a closer look at it tomorrow but it is just black plastic deer netting.  I think I got it at Home Depot.  Have watched them walk into it and they don't like it but had to put 36" chicken wire on the bottom to keep the rabbit out

camprn wrote:Is it just deer you are trying to keep out or other critters as well, like woodchuck and  rabbit? How long is your perimeter?
Sheep fencing would do better rather than chicken fence, if deer are the problem. Another thing to consider is you may not want holes small enough to trap other wild life.

One of the problems with finer black netting is that the animal may not see it until it's too late and they are entangled. I can see a stag trotting off with 50' of netting caught on its horns. We are familiar with stories of birds caught in netting. Does anyone who uses "invisible" black netting tie fluttering ribbons on it?

sanderson wrote:

camprn wrote:Is it just deer you are trying to keep out or other critters as well, like woodchuck and  rabbit? How long is your perimeter?
Sheep fencing would do better rather than chicken fence, if deer are the problem. Another thing to consider is you may not want holes small enough to trap other wild life.

One of the problems with finer black netting is that the animal may not see it until it's too late and they are entangled.  I can see a stag trotting off with 50' of netting caught on its horns.  We are familiar with stories of birds caught in netting.  Does anyone who uses "invisible" black netting tie fluttering ribbons on it?

I have a lot of bucks roaming through my yard and they haven't snagged the plastic netting yet

I have the netting up on one side of my yard.
Last night in the snow I see deer prints in one area, quite a lot..
I also have a tear/slice in the net in that area.
Looks to me as if one tangled in the net and just tore off a bit..
A deer can possibly become tangled in it, however, netting isn't going to stop a deer..
Deter yes, not stop..
I'm considering setting up a game cam/motion detector or even a night vision web cam that can record all night on my hard drive.
By the way, one night I counted 15 laying down on my lawn about 30 feet from our family room window.
I sat one night in the fall, nice evening and a buck came within 10 feet of me. I was in the dark, behind a light.
He looked at me, then decided to work on the pears that were laying on the ground.
I shot him in the rump with a pellet gun, he jumped 10 feet in the air and took off..
If I wasn't living in town he'd a been dead meat..Their destruction here is unbelievable.

That's true Jimmy, especially here in the winter.  They can clean out a nursery of their young trees in a week.  They strip young branches off by the carload because there's no grass for them to eat.

Although deer can leap 8 feet high or so, actually their depth perception is not good.  Two low fences a few feet apart seems to work well too.  You can google Double fencing for Deer and get more info. There is an extension service in that same google search that recommends it also.

llama momma wrote:Although deer can leap 8 feet high or so, actually their depth perception is not good.  Two low fences a few feet apart seems to work well too.  You can google Double fencing for Deer and get more info. There is an extension service in that same google search that recommends it also.

MOMMA
Now that's a topic I need to look into, I'd prefer 2 low fences as opposed to 1 high...thanks

JimmyC   I look forward to seeing what you end up with.  Some people grow things between those two fences.  Others swear by letting chickens run between the 2 fences surrounding the garden resulted in less bugs inside their garden. 

Hmm.   There I go again probably spending too much time googling

Keeping in mind that this comes from the Hamptons, I found a nice solution:

http://www.gardenista.com/posts/the-landscape-designer-is-in-elegant-deer-fencing-hamptons-edition

Of course, I don't have that much money, but it provides good protection & some stability for trellising...

One thing I suggest to my students with deer problems is to use a 10' x 10' dog kennel.



Here's a DIY project from CLOVER & THYME

sfg4uKim wrote:One thing I suggest to my students with deer problems is to use a 10' x 10' dog kennel.



Here's a DIY project from CLOVER & THYME

The deer in our area sometimes challenges dogs, I have a friend who witnessed a buck chasing a dog.
We live in a town of 30,000 and I've counted 15 deer one fall lying on my lawn.
Of course I also have 2 apple and 1 pear tree