I GARDENED WITH THE DEER FOR NEARLY A DECADE, and then I said no more. I’d sprayed, sachet-ed, blood-mealed and Milorganite-d myself into a meltdown; I just couldn’t wrap or pen or hang aluminum pie-plate mobiles or otherwise defend individual plants any longer. After all, the deer would just eat whatever wasn’t “protected,” indiscriminate feeders who were happy to move on to the next course as the previous runs out. So I finally fenced.
Fencing is the only real deer-proofing method there is (assuming your fence is the right construction for your location and animal population, and is well-maintained). No other tactic offers complete control, keeping deer out of the garden.
Even “deerproof” plants had proved deer-resistant at best, and besides, the garden-design limitations such lists impose provide insufferable restriction for someone like me, who can’t resist a hot plant. I’m as much as omnivore as were the deer; we just couldn’t cohabitate peacefully.
The garden’s backbone—its woody plants—were being disfigured. Forget the occasional hosta stripped of its leaves (above); ugly, yes, but it sent up new growth relatively fast. The deer damage to woody plants I’d invested money and then time in (waiting for them to go from $30 youngsters to a real part of the landscape) was mounting fast. Some viburnums, in particular, had taken multiple hits and were beyond corrective-pruning rehab, as were many hollies—two of my favorite genera of shrubs.
The cost exceeded the actual plant-specific losses, too: All those half-effective potions and gadgets, and the time it took to use them, were pricey.
And finally, one day, I looked out the window and realized this: I garden largely to enjoy viewing the landscape I have created, not to view a bunch of vulnerable specimens each encased in their own private cages, like a military encampment of impromptu tents and tee-pees pitched here and there in a time of battle. It was a sad sight. Enough.
Fences That Work
First in my exploration, I turned to scientists and agricultural experts (not garden-product marketers), always my preferred first step. To choose a style of fence that will work for your garden locale, you need information about the local deer species, their habits, and their capabilities (read: how high can they jump, and how low will they go).
Managing deer in a suburban environment can vary greatly from doing so in a rural one; hilly terrain and flat land each has its challenges. And so on. A comprehensive book just published by Neil Soderstrom, “Deer-Resistant Landscaping,” walks you through how to analyze your situation on all these fronts; suggests numerous plants that offer resistance, and covers 20 other animal pests and many anti-deer tactics other than fencing. I can speak only from my own experience; the book didn’t exist when I was experimenting here myself.
Great resources for location-specific insights: your cooperative extension (find yours); a nearby botanical garden or conservation organization (I relied initially on information from nearby Cary Institute of Ecocsystems Studies at first); or agricultural organizations like this one that compiles information that is product-agnostic, like this one.
I quickly learned that fence could be of several classes and complexities:
- electrified or not (the former generally being cheaper because less material is involved; wire’s cheaper than other fencing);
- slanted (the so-called New Zealand design) or vertical;
- made of materials ranging from board to wire strands to high-strength polypropylene mesh (above, shown reinforced with high-tensile wire), to woven wire (bottom photo);
- temporary (seasonal) or permanent, with both versions existing of most of the above kinds;
- requiring professional installation or at least expertise and equipment like a post-hole digger (a nearby, fenced-in tree farm helped me find a capable contractor); or in other cases more DIY;
- that cost per foot can vary from very little to very large.
I also learned a few more things, some of them the hard way:
- No matter how tall your fence is, what you do at ground level to exclude the deer is just as important. Deer are happy to do the limbo anytime and wriggle on in, particularly fawns.
It wasn’t until years later, on a trip to the hillside Northern California of salvia expert Betsy Clebsch, that I learned how two rows of low fencing situated parallel to each other will also work: specifically, two 4′ tall fences spaced 5′ apart.
The gap between is too wide for jumping (and deer hate entering an enclosed space, anyhow, that “reads” as if they might get trapped), but the gap’s big enough for your wheelbarrow and mower (or you can plant it, a garden ringing the garden).
This is a great solution for small gardens or areas near the house where a tall fence would be unsightly, creating a space like the old-fashioned dooryard garden, but with two rows of fence. A more impromptu, agricultural-application two-fence method can be found here. One caveat: If you have heavy deer pressure, plan to put low fences up quickly, all at once. Don’t let the animals get accustomed to a piece here or there, and adapt; change their pattern of movement once only, for good.
My Own Fencing Adventures
My property is bordered on three sides by state parkland and forest, so I was able to make good use of the natural treeline as part camouflage and part support for my fence. That really influenced my choice of a high mesh barrier.
On the front boundary (top photo), where I did not wish to have the caged-in look of a very high fence, I adapted Betsy’s system, using a modified double fence. I used 6-foot posts between each piece of picket fencing (detail, left), and strung the poly mesh reinforced with high-tensile wire (not electrified) to reinforce the top. Outside that layer, a three-strand trip wire on low posts forms the “other” fence (below).
My own fence journey has had two major phases: First, after that initial research, I used polypropylene mesh from Benner’s Gardens, the go-to guys for serious gardeners 15 years ago, and still very much today. I got very good, but not complete, control from this 7.5-foot material for about six years, until one too many animal had run into it or limb had fallen on it. Not the Benners’ fault, though.
I failed to reinforce the mesh with several strands of high-tensile wire running horizontally through the top, bottom and middle. Today, in one spot where I use this system (above), I have it properly reinforced, as in the photo above (and also flapped and pinned down at ground level with earth staples to prevent invasions from below, as I always did according to their directions).
Once the poly had done its service, I switched to woven wire (below), a very heavy 8-foot-tall metal material. Sliding farm gates on rollers span both my driveways (above): ugly, yes, but not as ugly as what the deer would do to me. Nobody’s been in since; well, nobody except the frogboys, but they don’t eat much in the way of shrubbery, just the occasional mouse or chipmunk.
the skunks vs. margaret, round 1 
gardening with bear (and other late arrivals) 
giant pussy willow: salix chaenomeloides 
Thanks for showing how you deer-proofed your garden. I would like to do something to keep deer out of my front yard eventually, but we’re in a suburban neighborhood and I can’t see fencing it to the necessary height. Plus we have a circular driveway, so that makes it even harder. At least the fenced back yard is deer-proof. I would go nuts if I had them in the front *and* the back.
Margaret,
I am so glad I found your WAY TO GARDEN! Wherever you find a gardener, whether tending a window box in an apartment dwelling or a large acreage in a rural area, you will find some common ground and a WAY TO SPEAK. But you will find as much disagreement as agreement, and that is where the fun begins!
Despite having lyme disease twice, I still havent taken the plunge with the deer fencing. I can live with the deer, but the moles and the voles and the lily beetles – now I am seeing red!!!
Love your web site!
Great post here. This summer my mother and I were planning on deer-proofing her Bellingham, WA property, and this write-up will be extremely useful.
Quick note — Was initially shocked to learn that frogs occasionally eat mice and chipmunks. Then I just assumed this was the work of the mischievous English language comma. I came full circle in this thought-process when I clicked on the final embedded link. This is very surprising!
I gardening with the deer in the hamlet of Rosemont, NJ for five years. They regularly traveled through the edge of our property. I rarely had any deer damage. Then I moved four miles away into a wooded area, and found all the plants I thought were “deer proof” were happily munched by the local deer population. I, like you, finally did the scientific research, and chose an 8-foot wire mesh fence. Two years later I’ve had no incursions. I think that’s because my fence abuts forest, and the tangles of tree limbs and twigs confuse the deers’ ability to judge jumping heights. At least, that’s what my research tells me (keeping my fingers crossed).
Welcome, Jayne. Hopefully you have found my mole patrol post from last year (I think I use more mousetraps than your average household, let’s just say). I am glad you have found us and hope you will be a regular. Happy spring (and tell those deer of your to BEHAVE).
@Pam: You are patient to deal with them anywhere, but at least you have the backyard. I love the “dooryard garden” type of double low fence for creating a little sanctuary in front of the house, but it doesn’t work on all terrains or with all houses. Did you and Austin survive another SXSW?
@Jonith: Yes, indeed, bullfrogs are shocking in their eating habits. Apparently they will even eat birds. Imagine my surprise the day I saw that mouse caught and took that photo. Ugh, but also nature at work.
@James: Glad to have you in the ranks of the 8-foot mesh fence types. I haven’t had one deer inside the place since, and I think it’s probably eight years now. Yes, technically they can leap over it, but as you say it depends on what’s on the other side (whether they can get a running start) and mine sounds like yours, plus it’s very un-level.
Margaret,
Great story!
As one who must garden with deer, I am always interested in what gardeners are using for solutions.
I agree that fencing is the best deterrent. However, a gardener (like me) who lives in a neighborhood of strict covenants isn’t allowed to fence the property line with the kind of fence that is deer proof.
We can only use three board fence here and the deer go over and under and through.
My cottage garden fence next to the house wasn’t in the covenants, but I got by with Jerith aluminum by including it as part of my blueprints for architectural review.
I’m not in a city neighborhood either. I’m in a neighborhood of “rural” property of 4+ acres per lot on the setting of a former dairy farm. Moving isn’t an option.
So, I must garden with deer resistant plants. Yes, I miss hostas, viburnums, camellias and all the other wonderful choices that gardener’s crave. I just have no alternative. I have not resorted to deer repellants at all because I know it is too expensive and gambling. In almost 4 years of being here, my outer garden has been a success.
Bunnies are my new enemy! They found my cottage garden this winter and I have bought rabbit repellant!
Cameron
Great post! Sometimes you do what you have to do when it comes to keeping critters out. This is humane and hopefully once installed, you’re finished with the problem. I bet you’re excited about planting something now that’s not so “deer proof”.
Welcome, Gardening 4 Life. Yes, almost eight years now without deer and I grow anything and everything. Only rabbits and woodchucks and moles/voles to combat in an ongoing manner. See you soon again I hope.
Happy one year anniversary!
I always wondered how you handled the deer issue. After 20 years of being an avid gardener in Tenafly I finally gave up because of the deer. Town restrictions did not allow any effective fencing. Moved to the city and I really miss my garden. I live vicariously thru your website. Thanks!
Thanks! Lots of good info. Our deer are jumping our chain link so I need to somehow make it higher. This will be a good solution for the back- I’m putting in some veggie beds now so i’m even more determined! I don’t know what to do about the front… Tonka trucks in front of the bulbs used to scare them away. Not anymore!
I have had lots of luck with Deer Resistant Landscaping out of Michigan. Fences too. We are those rare gardeners who like deer andrabbits in Minnesota. My english friends have taught me to embrace all and plant natives that are not an easy target. Life is too short to stress over plants who are attractive to wildlife. My neighbors are constantly telling me they are going to train the deer to not eat their hostas.
Why plant hostas when there is lambs ears.
Got any suggestions for wild boar? They’re our adversaries.
Last spring I planted a row of small holly bushes. They were doing very well until this winter, when the deer chomped off every leaf not covered by the snow. I was surprised to learn that deer will eat holly. Given the leaf spines, holly certainly provides them with roughage, to say the least!
You mentioned corrective pruning to address deer damage. Any suggestions for dealing with my holly? There are still leaves at the bottom of the bushes, where the snow covered them. But every upper branch is bare. Will the leaves grow back?
Welcome, RKenigsberg; you sound like you are much more flexible and patient than I am in such matters. :) Good for you. Hope you will visit again soon.
Welcome, Peter. Normally holly will send out another set of leaves, but it will look like hell for quite awhile. Keep eye eye on it for signs of buds breaking. I would not cut back woody tissue unless it was brittle (and obviously dead) and until after I had given it some time to recover and break from dormant buds. Hope to see you soon again.
@Kathejo: Wild WHAT? Oh, my. My metal fence would do against anything, I think (even keeps the bear out, or has so far), but boar? Yikes.
@Cameron: Are you not permitted two parallel low fences such as pickets or post and rail, but with mesh pinned on the back on the outer row? Town ordinances may not restrict the additional protection that a flap of polypropylene mesh affixed to the lower portion then draped on and pinned to the ground provides.
@Zehav: Thanks for the good wishes.
@JGH: Sounds like some high pole with a wire or mesh strung from it might give you the extra protection. I am crossing my fingers for you in your plight. :)
We started a rural garden about 2 yrs ago and brought along a Walker coonhound (one of 4 rescue dogs). She won’t hunt but she surely runs and barks (she may be on a campaign to deafen the gophers!). We are sure she is the reason we don’t have deer, elk, bear or lions visiting too closely anymore. She stays in most nights and if the barking becomes unbearable to us, one gunshot brings her home in a flash. So far her presence has kept deer out of the new orchard we have planted. Two strands of electric wire, placed low to the ground, kept raccoons out of the corn; and I am hoping a solar powered electric fence will keep bears out of the bee yard. Now I just have to solve the problem of keeping chickens out of the vegetable garden.
Thank-You so much for the information. I’m about to install a double row deer fence around a 1.5 acre area on my property, and the extra resources and photos have helped a lot. I’m also working sections of 5′ reed fence into my design. For the last year it has worked very well protecting my “plants in waiting”, and my veggie garden from the herds of deer that we have.
Welcome, Lisabeth. Good luck with those chickens…oh, my, are they inclined to go wherever they well please. I love the tales of all your animal-control tactics, and thank you for them. Hope to see you soon again, welcoming spring with us.
THanks for the advice on the holly. I’ll watch for the buds and pray! This winter the deer chomped on so many new shrubs, including a very nice euonymus bush and (I was warned about this) a hedge of yew. But all of the above were free (a long story!) so I couldn’t resist trying to see if they’d survive.
We live in NYC but have a house in Northern Columbia County, so we’ll be sure to attend the Open Gardens day in August to see your garden in person. (The photos you posted from 2008 were really beautiful!)
My new cottage is in a very congested place, I am hoping not to have any deer interactions this year, as I have collided with them in the past.
Good luck to all keeping them out!!!
Thanks for sharing the deer-proofing tactics, we’re always looking for new insights into the machinations of the deer brain. We live in a deer-infested part of Victoria, British Columbia, and had many years of battling deer also (your recounting of blood meal, tin-foil plates etc brings back memories!). When I decided to start growing more food, I bit the bullet and opted to fence the back-yard. Basically, our approach is that the front yard is fair game for the deer, so we stick to things we have had success with (aromatic herbs, narcissus, rhodos, daylilies), and put the things we want to ensure don’t get nibbled in the back yard. We opted for the metal deer fencing with 2″ x 4″ mesh, attached with nail-in-staples to 4×4 pressure treated posts. it’s 6′ high, which we find is high enough to deter the deer from jumping over. There are other yards for them to move onto. We did find, however, that you need to fence everything at the same time, as they will go up and down the perimeter until they find an opening. Once they have discovered the openings are gone, they seem to move to new territory.
Good luck to you — I know there is nothing more devastating than waking up one morning to discover the carnage they can inflict!
A friend just pointed me to this to your site today. Thanks for the tip about the second row fence. I have a 5 foot chain link that I’m trying very hard to hide behind a lot of plants. Till this past winter, this has pretty much kept the dear out of that area…well, that and my 3 dogs. This winter all the azaleas look like the ones in the unfenced front yard and I wonder if I’ll see a bloom at all. They also ate 3 of 4 sides of a Golden Euonymous and my acuba is a skeleton of its former self. Normally I love the deer and am quite forgiving of the occasional hosta or lily loss ….as long as they left the back yard alone. The moles and voles (and my dogs digging after them) have all gone particularly crazy over this past winter and decimated so many plants I was almost in tears. I began gardening for wildlife about 5 years ago, but not this wild!
Welcome, Linda; yes, the two-part fence is one of the more attractive solutions. I like the rolls of reed and bamboo materials, too, but haven’t used the here. See you soon again.
Welcome, Janice. I agree: If you are putting up fence, put it up fast. Don’t let them figure out what’s up, and ways around it. See you soon again, I hope.
Welcome, DJ. Take a walk on the wild side, huh? Oh, my. Sorry for your losses. I do hope we will see you again and that some of the tactics suggested will help.
Oh, knock on wood because there haven’t been any deer yet – but I would give up my right arm for a way to keep the resident ground hog or wood-chuck or whatever it is out of my garden. Besides mowing down the vegetable garden and herb garden several times, he also ate all my marigolds (marigolds?!!) and stole my fiancee’s flip flop and hid it (to be fair I suppose, the flip flop was first thrown at him in a fit of despair as he munched our tomatoes)
Oh dear. I don’t look forward to that again.
I might get an apossum fence for here in Lincoln (the apossum capital of the world).
The deer ate part of my new rose bush this year! (the only thing I had not wrapped with wire fencing to keep them away – the wrapping works well for me).
Any suggestions on reviving it? do i just cut away the dead parts?
I live on The North Shore of Chicago where EVERYTHING is highly controlled. I would dearly (;-D) love to fence out the deer but cannot. My solution and it has been 100% is a “Wireless Deer Fence”. It’s a plastic post with a yummy scent on the end which lures the deer and then zaps them in the nose when they touch it. (I have touched it and it’s not a lethal dose, but I’m sure it’s painful on the nose.) I use it on the foundation plantings around the house, so the house is the “back” of the fence. Evidently they learn to stay away when they see the little posts. I use deer netting around the tomato/annual/rose garden in the summer. Once the plants come up it’s nearly invisible and nothing the neighbors can complain about. And since we are the only ones on the street who have any flowers in the summer, I doubt they would anyway!
You’d think being in such a populated area that we wouldn’t have many varmints, but we have quite a herd of deer who pass through the yard at least twice a day. I saw a possum the other night -and- a coyote this afternoon!
We have not had much Deer Damage for two years now until this winter. lots of deer traffic and a lot of damage. They must have had a bad winter also. Last year I grew “Deer Trees”. That’s what you get when you cut down a large tree and leave the stump to grow again. The Deer love the nice fresh leaves and do not seem to care about our gardens.
Will be cutting back the Deer Trees again this spring to see if I can get them to try again, the root systems soon exhaust and stop trying to grow new trees. Pine, spruce and the like do not work. No New deer trees this year have not cut down any large trees.
Expect I will have to Fence off some of the raised beds, have all the stuff to do it . Worked last time they attached
my veggies.
We have a few thousand acres around us that are Town Forests and other wood and wet lands. Can’t control what goes on out there. Whatever works best under your circumstances is what you have to do.
John
Very useful, since I just realized that the deer are the reason my rosa rubrifolia doesn’t bloom much, and that there will be no azalea flowers this spring. Arggh. Last year they nearly killed the evergreen shrubs, but I fenced them off individually, so they moved on to new things. We didn’t have deer. We had coyotes and hunters, but the hunters shoot the coyotes, and every year there are fewer of both and more deer. The picket fence in front, plastic mesh in back looks like an affordable solution and will also restrain snowmobilers.
I live in southern central rural Texas. After living down here for the last seven years I had almost given up between the deer, bugs and drought conditions every other year. The more “native” I go with my garden the better it is. I stopped trying to fight the conditions and am trying to only buy local native type plants. We have fenced in our veggie garden though its the only way to get produce. My husband built it himself and even made a fabulous gate. We have seven acres I’m not sure we will ever fence in the entire property. I like your blog wonderful information.
Welcome, Kathleen. Thanks for the great information about your successes with natives (and a vegetable garden fence). See you soon again, I hope (and thank you also for the nice compliment).
I was wondering if you’d had any problems with your mesh fence deteriorating? I spoke with a local gardener, and he said that after 5 yrs there are some issues with that. I was also wondering if it’s ok to do one large area at a time. (1/4 – 1/2 acre) The cost to do acres is quite a bit.
@Linda: The better-quality net has resistance to deteriorating by comparison to lighter-weight versions, with longer life and less damage by light and wear. I upgraded to the woven wire, but have one area that’s been using the same netting (reinforced with the high-tensile wire as I explained) and it’s going on 7 years without a hint of any damage. Again, it’s the top-quality mesh (thicker, and with UV0-resistance I think).
I have seen a few posts on deer fencing but this is by far the most informative. I have built a good bit of fences to stop deer and all of them have done their job. I do notice that many people overlook 8ft + solid fences as a deterrent as well. I have found that most deer will not jump over something if they can’t see the other side. Obviously the materials for a solid fence is more expensive than a wire of plastic mesh though.
Welcome, Beautiful Fences. My front fence is OK, not beautiful, but effective and OK to look at. Effective was what I was aiming for…and no deer since I put it up. I think with solid fences you can get away with lower than 8 feet, since they cannot see over as you say. See you soon again.
As usual, you provide insightful commentary on a gardening dilemma. Over 30 years we’ve seen a gradual increase in the level of deer damage. The first fruit trees we grew here were textbook easy to start. Now trying to renew the orchard I find that I can’t get past the deer snacking on the tender shoots. This year I finally bit the bullet and put Benner fabric around the last opening on the vegetable garden — what a difference! I’ve always enjoyed the bucolic vision of the deer grazing in the pasture in the evenings but now this week I noticed the first deer damage on a lily in the yard proper so I can see that it’s only a matter of time before we face the same damage that others describe here. I can’t imagine what it’s going to cost to fence in 7 acres but that seems like the only long term solution.
So nice to see your good work. The niece of a friend led a group through Martha’s garden in Bedford…so, through that, I found you.
Sam and I enjoyed your piece on deer fencing. We are experts, as we do the landscaping and maintenance on a ten acre property out here, where deer are an enormous problem.
Hope you are well. Love, Sam and Bunny
Welcome, Bunny. How nice to see my old friend here. Deer are not welcome here, as you can see. Since the big fence went in, I have not had one invasion. The garden is all grown up and it is a joy to finally live in it 7 days a week after all these years of part time. So much to catch up on!
I live on Martha’s Vineyard, where can I go for fencing
Welcome, Carlin. I asked at a local tree farm, a regular farm, and also at a garden center – all of them had some part of their place fenced – to inquire what fencing supplier locally they use. That’s how I got the name, which turned out also to be in the Yellow Pages under fencing. Actually, in two of the instances, the installer’s name was on little metal signs attached to the fence here and there as well, like a little calling card. But if there’s a tree farm or a plant nursery that grows some things themselves they should know.
Lyme disease is a killer. I have a friend in the 4th year of the deathrowes of it. Whether you are in a community with conenants, restrictions, etc. you need to be very agressive with the restrictors about the need to remove deer from populated areas. There is now a DNA test for the Lyme virus itself, however, once you have been given antibiotics for it the virus goes into hiding, it is not killed, and once your immune system goes down (from flu, colds, poor diet (like around Christmas holidays!) the Lyme will resurface. It comes back as so many different types of symptoms that it may not be recognized until it has severly attacked the body and laid it waste.
See if you can get your county/state gov. to give you birthcontrol materials for the deer if nothing else. Guinea hens will keep an acre free of ticks a year, but I’m sure they will not be allowed!
The citizenry have got to get active in controlling the deer population as the frequency and deaths from Lyme are increasing. Doctors are not very up on it unfortunately, except perhaps in CT where it seems to have orginated.
Please take this disease seriously. You have a right to protect your property and family from a virus that is a killer. Govts. have got to be forced into action. N1H1 is nothing compared to what Lyme is going to be in a very few years now, and there will be no vaccine for it.
Welcome, Tish. You are correct; Lyme is a serious illness, and often misdiagnosed and misunderstood. Thanks for the reminder.
I was thinking of some material that deer hated to walk on, to stop them in their tracks! Probably sharp stones wouldn’t work but what about oyster shells? Or a kind of ‘cattle grid’ made by placing large areas of chain link fencing a few inches above the ground? I’m desperate, as you can tell!
Welcome, Susan. Yes, cattle grids and prison-like chain link on the ground and so forth might work…but where are you putting all this? Doesn’t sound easy to incorporate into a landscape visually. What is the area in need of protection? Tell me more.
One of my greatest pleasures in gardening is conversation with other gardeners – which you seem to have in ‘spades’! Congratulations on a wonderful site.
For additional fencing solutions (esp. the lady with the wild boars) try Premier Fencing. We started with them because not only do we have deer we also keep dairy goats.
The older I got the further I got from back to the land and the closer I got to true gardening (after all goats=manure=compost=gardening). Wherein I found that my true passion was trees….by that time I had been gardening for fifty years, and I now understand that it is never too late to plant a tree.
Check out my article on ‘Bambi 123′ in the blog attached to Sage Gardeners. I wrote it as an introduction to co-existing with deer for those residents new to country living.
Recently I have adopted something close to your method with picket fencing around the house but as far as the woven fencing goes….what has been the effect of the fastenings on the trees?
Regards,
Toni
@Toni: Technically, you’d not want to put the fence or wore up against the trunk (the tree grows right over it, consuming the wire, by the way) but I wasn’t watching during the whole installation so some are like that. The fastenings don’t see to cause any harm; it’s the large strands of wire and such I’d definitely do differently (though not one tree has seemed to care of the ones that got such inconsiderate treatment; as I say they seem to have just swallowed up the wire).