Are you ready to finally keep the deer out of your gardens?

I was too, about 8 years ago when I installed 375 square feet of new garden beds behind the garage. We are surrounded by deer in my area, so I needed to find a cost effective way to keep them out of my veggie beds without all the smelly sprays or massive fencing. It has worked 100 percent of the time for the past 4 years!

I used a simple approach that I call a “psychological deer fence” because it aligns with their natural self preservation traits. Let me explain. An adult mule deer can easily clear a seven foot fence. They usually walk up alongside it, size things up, then back up and make a graceful arc and they’re in or out of wherever they choose. But something happens during that “sizing it up” period. The deer are checking out their LANDING ZONE. Their legs are all important. And they won’t jump anything that will jepardize the health of their legs.

So, two things need to happen when you put your fence up.

You will need at least a four foot fence around most gardens to keep dogs out, along with about a two foot height of chicken wire fencing along the bottom to keep rabbits out. Simple so far. But, for deer, you will want to install extra tall posts so that you can string two layers of wire at the five foot and seven foot levels. Just a single row of braided wire at each level, so they see something there. They won’t want to jump through the middle of those two wires. (too cumbersome and dangerous) so they will see the top wire as the hurdle. But, then when they look inside the perimeter at the landing zone, they will see your secret weapon. A single, taught piece of white clothes line strung at about a four and a half foot height, about 3 feet inside the perimeter of the whole garden fence. That stops them cold. They will see it as an unreasonable obstacle to safety and it will prevent them from jumping. I have seen them walk the perimeter of my fence line in the winter and spring, while they eye my cover crops, but they never dare to jump in.

If you already have the short fence and shorter posts, you can simply extend the posts and install the wire and clothes line. The total cost of the wire and clothes line should be around twenty dollars for a permanent answer to deer in the garden!

Here’s a video explaining how it works.       Cheers,    Tom

 Note: I have since updated the fishing line for braided metal wire that lasts much longer. It’s been 8 years now without a single deer in the garden!