A little known fact about deer is that although they are good jumpers, they don’t like to jump wide and high at the same time. Gardeners can take advantage of this by building a double fence. Homegrown Gardens explains how this is done:
The key is to build two parallel fences, about four feet tall, and place them about four feet apart. This way, the deer trying to jump into your garden won’t try for fear of getting stuck in the gap. Planting between the fences will create even more of a visual barrier, further discouraging the deer, try a vine or a climbing rose. Prevent the deer from crawling underneath by using a picket fence for the outside barrier, or pin a wire fence to the ground with landscape staples.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Greetings!
We have been selling our Garden Protection Fence units for over 3 years now. We are very successful with the systems because they are effective, blend in with the yard(green), strong, have a doorway, and are very affordable ($269 – $309 + Shipping).
They are, in fact, 4 feet tall. The key to our success is Deer are very reluctant to jump into such a confined area such as 8′ x 12′ which is a quite adequate size for a family vegetable garden. More info may be found on our Website listed above.
Good Growing!
Bob Hannigan
Founder
Good article!
Thanks for your site. I’m enjoying it. Of course, I’m supposed to be working on
my blog, but it’s Spring and so hard to stick to business. RE the fence:
I want to bury the bottom of outside fence about a foot to keep out smaller
critters. The article says that landscape clips is enough.
Do you think the latter, which is easier for sure, is just as effective?
Fortunately, the black snakes keep the rabbit population down some (it’s
relative — there’s no parallel “black snake” for the deer) but I could see
either the big or small critters determinedly working at those landscape pins.
I’m also plagued by moles & voles. The moles have been decreasing since I
started using milky spore a few years ago. I don’t want to eradicate them since
they do take care of many grubs. I saw fewer Japanese beetles last year (my
fault — I put up those lures a few seasons back and attracted every J.B. in
the county. Never again). I picked off a # of them last year, but of course
they mate all the day long, so who knows how many eggs they managed to lay
first. Having sex while they eat the foliage…gag. I know more about J.B.
habits than I ever wanted to.
Anyway, the moles and voles have eaten all the tulip bulbs. Some had been in
the same place for twenty years. I bought some stuff to soak them in that was
supposed to make them unattractive to whatever rodent is eating them. Didn’t
work.
Back to the drawing board.
I have a 50 x 50 ft vegetable garden and I deer proffed it years ago using the following. First I put up a 2 ft. wire fence around it. Then, from my bamboo patch I cut 7 foot poles and wove the bottoms of them into the wire fence about 6 in. apart in an upright position After that, I took long bamboo poles, some of which were over 25 ft. long, and placed them horizonially by weaving them in and out through the top of the upright poles. Here and there I would tie the horizonal poles to the upright poles to prevent them from working downward. I made a 7 ft. bamboo garden gate also. Now and then I replace some of the old and weaken poles. One time a deer found a broken pole and squeezed into my garden but did little damage. I believe that they are afraid to try and jump the fence since they might not be able to get out. My neighbors get a kick out of my fence as it reminds them of an old western stockade. I also use the bamboo to support pepper, tomatoe, cukes, dahlias, grape and rose trellis and you name it. Also, the local hardware store sells my bamboo for pole bean supports, etc. and I use it for kindling when making fire in my woodstove in the winter. Bamboo is a very versatile plant but you don’t dare let it get out of control….Clair
Thanks for much for your comment Clair. Your fence sounds terrific and I’d love to show a photo of it. Do you have one or two you could send me?
Barbra: I don’t have a photo, but I’ll take some. But, first of all I plan on doing some mending to the fence. I’ve had it up for years and I want to replace some of the bamboo. Also, we had a bad winter and it didn’t help matters either. Be that as it may, no deer have been in the garden to eat my sugar peas. I didn’t mention this before, but the 2 ft. fence I put up first to weave the poles through, has small mesh at the bottom that also keep out the rabbits and groundhogs……..Do you want me to send the photos by mail or email? … Clair
P.S This might interest you also. My garden was invaded by oodles of voles that were chewing up all my root crops and well as my dahlia roots.. And last summer using mouse traps that I sat by the vole’s holes and covered with flower pots, II caught 44 voles, 11 moles and 8 field mice. First I put peanut butter on the traps. That worked but the ants would find the traps and eat it. So, I thought, well the voles just loved my potatoes last year, so I used small cubes of potatoes as bait. I had 6 traps and sometimes I would catch as many at 8 varmints a day! So far I haven’t seen any signs of vole holes in the garden this year. This is interesting also, since moles are carnivorous they would eat some of the voles I caught. And by them inspecting the traps for voles (they don’t like potatoes!) they would get caught first!
What was the URL for Bob Hannigan’s web site?
For anyone who wants to contact Bob Hannigan about his Garden Protection Fence units, his website is GardenDefender.com