So I'm wondering, what you do to keep deer out of your garden?
We've tried the whole urinating around the edge thing without success.
I even tried creating a "sacrifice area," outside the garden, but after they demolished it they just kept on coming.
How high does a fence have to be before deer can't jump it?
How about some sort of motion-sensing alarm to scare them?
Something else?
Any ideas welcome.
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I've also heard of another technique along those lines. You cut down the thorny brush or trees when they are fruiting, lay them down where you want a hedge and let nature take care of the rest. The fruit falls off, seeds itself and the brush act to protect the new seedlings from deer. As the brush decomposes it also nourishes the seedlings. I'm going to use this technique to put in a lot of much needed hedgerows.
Holzer has this receipe for protecting trees, some kind of gunk he makes with bones, elsewhere on these forums you can find more info on that.
maybe there is a way of using this stuff around the garden beds? if so that would be a lot cheaper.
land and liberty at s.w.o.m.p.
www. swompenglish.wordpress.com
Idle dreamer
2 short fences, too close for the deer to clear both. 8 foot (2.4 meter) fences. 4 foot fence with an extension on the top which is string that tips out and is just string.
It depends to some extent on whether other people in the area feed the deer, which makes them very bold.
Of course, around here there are elk. They will go over (or through) your deer protection, if they are so inclined.

Intermountain (Cascades and Coast range) oak savannah, 550 - 600 ft elevation. USDA zone 7a. Arid summers, soggy winters
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Firstly, I like a product called Plantskydd, which is made in Scandinavia, from deer blood. It stinks to high heaven but you only have to apply it once or twice a season. It soaks into woody tissue and scares the deer off. Only catch is you need a few dry days in a row. Not recommended for things like lettuce, spinach, etc. but great for fruit trees, tomatoes, peppers, etc. before they bear fruit. I have used this several years in a row with great success except for last year, when it rained for weeks and weeks. By the time it was dry enough to spray my plants and seeds had mostly died in the ground and I got discouraged, and then the deer got what was left. Bastards.
Also, regarding fences, I have some friends who have used the brush fence idea with great success. Every tree, limb, branch, etc. gets piled in a row along a pre-defined line or border until it is as high as possible. Deer will apparently not jump over something they can't see over (makes sense, dunnit?) and so they do not get into the gardens protected by these fences. These fences, which are typically three or four feet thick, also have the added benefit of providing tons of habitat for various forms of wildlife, including many that predate upon insects that might otherwise be garden pests. Also provides homes for little varmints like mice, etc. but then this is balanced by the arrival of predator birds, who eat them. The philosophy behind this was that the fence replaces the habitat that was lost when you built your house or cleared your land. I think it's a great idea and it works well here in Nova Scotia.
Recently I heard an ad on the radio for wolf urine. I keep meaning to check this out.
I live in a town in Canada that recently implemented a deer cull, thats how serious our deer problem is.
I have 7.5" INVISIBLE deer fence, its much cheaper than the wire wildlife fence, and although I've only had mine up for one year, I've heard accounts of it lasting for upwards of 10 years. It cost me less than $2000 including posts to fence my one acre property.
Also, Toby Hemenway's book 'gaia's garden' discusses nuisance deer, he has a neat way of using perennial sunflowers and a fedge. I also read, I think in that book, that two fences are better than one because of their lack of depth perception.
And it doesn't get any better than dog patrol!
Dreams don't work unless you do
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I have my garden inside my fenced yard, and after I got a little 20 pound terrier the deer stopped coming around. I wish the deer well: the orphaned twins that bedded down in the middle of the garden every night (and then took their breakfast from the vegetables) were precious, but I like to eat the green beans too! And, the big stag looked positively SILLY trotting away from an ankle biter like Buddy, but even though he sleeps inside Buddy got rid of all of the deer!
Two strand electric fence, heck one will work. Now, bait the electric fence to encourage the deer to lick it... peanut butter works well. If you don't think this works, imagine licking an electric fence.
Works great on pest dogs and coyotes if you use bacon, or scraps of meat.
To put peanut butter, make tabs of aluminum foil.
Generally, it takes one lesson, and they will never come near again. Probably think they have been hit by the hammer of Thor or something. lol
Sustainable Plantations and Agroforestry in Costa Rica
Fred Morgan wrote:Not sure if you can implement this but it does work.
Two strand electric fence, heck one will work. Now, bait the electric fence to encourage the deer to lick it... peanut butter works well. If you don't think this works, imagine licking an electric fence.
Works great on pest dogs and coyotes if you use bacon, or scraps of meat.
To put peanut butter, make tabs of aluminum foil.
Generally, it takes one lesson, and they will never come near again. Probably think they have been hit by the hammer of Thor or something. lol
Bears, on the other hand, it only sometimes deters. A friend of mine in VT has lost 5 or 6 hives to bears even with the electric fence bacon trick. They eat the bacon and the bees
Jonathan Fuller wrote:
Bears, on the other hand, it only sometimes deters. A friend of mine in VT has lost 5 or 6 hives to bears even with the electric fence bacon trick. They eat the bacon and the bees
I suggest that he was using a electric fence suitable for sheep, not for bulls. I can't imagine willingly touching with your mouth any electric fence, much less one that will knock you down like those rated for very large livestock.
I personally would be trying the lead type of fence with a bear... if you know what I mean.
Water buffalo down here have to have an electric fence, because they will just walk right through barbed wire like it doesn't exist, snapping off post, breaking the wire, etc. But, electric fence will stop them. But, it isn't the same you use for sheep.
Sustainable Plantations and Agroforestry in Costa Rica
Jay Green wrote:Single strand electric wire about 18-22 in. off the ground...no need to bait it, deer are naturally curious. We've been doing it that way for the past 36 years.
The peanut butter trick gets the raccoons too, who tend to be too smart to just touch an electric fence.
Sustainable Plantations and Agroforestry in Costa Rica
Willy Kerlang wrote:.......
Recently I heard an ad on the radio for wolf urine. I keep meaning to check this out.
I saw wolf urine in a garden centre and thought about it. Later I checked my critter cam and saw this. The camera was in the same position, maybe just bumped a degree or two off.
Note the dates.
The first shot shows the wolf signing a urine treaty with me on a comfrey that I had just planted and "watered" in.


Although I should say that we do have a dog who roams freely around the property. The deer don't seem to give two figs for her.
Anyway I just wanted to put in a plug for the Plantskydd again (and no, I don't work for them, nor do I sell it.) I had some unknown plants growing near my tomatoes, tall and succulent. I had decided to just leave them, because I thought they were interesting and they weren't hurting anything. A deer ate them last night, but completely avoided the numerous tomato plants that were growing less than two feet away. I had sprayed them with Plantskydd a few weeks earlier. It works, it takes two seconds to apply, and that's all you have to do. You guys can do what works for you, but I will never bother with anything else.

Certifiable food forest gardener, free gardening advice offered and accepted. Permaculture is the intersection of environmentalsim and agriculture.
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also I had a gob of extra jerusalem artichokes this year..about a dozen wheelborrow loads...and I put them in my woods, some got buried and some just were on top of the ground bare after the rain, and the deer and other animals, even the birds, are loving them !!! This might work as a deterrant..also I find that if i plant things in the woods edges that the deer really love, they tend to stay closer to the woods..also i put things deer like near the shallows of the pond, and you know they'll be visiting the w ater..so they will eat in the woods and pond FIRST and the gardens later..if they can get to them.
I have fewer losses when I provide an gross amount of food for the wild animals to eat.
Brenda
Bloom where you are planted.
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/
So it doesn't have t be really expensive if you have a woodlot with saplings in it for fencing.
We have a huge deer issue, including a pet deer. We will start working on a fence buried in a (eventually wide and tall) thorn hedge this summer. The plan being that the hedge will eventually provide all manner of good stuff on the inside for us, and on the outside for the deer. Looking at Hawthorns, sea buckthorns, and other stuff, some thorned some not.
Diluted urine, sprayed directly on plants and mulch....obviously not for use on salad crops, can be a moderately effective deterrent. I found this to be about the only thing that would repel the southern armadillo (when I was living in GA), but it also kept deer and rabbits away from the sweet potatoes. But here in CA they were eating green tomatoes....I think for the moisture more than anything, and the piss spray didn't work.
Last fall I had just begun to make trial of motion activated sprinklers....with promising results on the new fall stuff.....the acid test will be if they can suffice to keep them off the tomatoes later this summer!
Alder Burns (adiantum)
So the plants did great, and we didn't see a deer track in the garden the entire season. Our neighbors garden had a lot of problems with them. I think that the faint odor of decaying fish in their sensitive noses just makes them not want to be around. It looked like a raccoon or cat tried to dig a few inches one time, nothing else paid much attention to our garden.
This year we haven't buried any catfish out back and a deer has already topped off a couple of our pepper plants. Does it make a difference? Haven't tested enough to know, If someone has fish skin/guts/bones they would normally throw in their compost and has 2 gardens side by side try it out with one of them. Our initial use of fish remains in the garden provided some of the best tomatoes, peppers, and collards we have ever grown, and no deer in a garden surrounded by woods on all sides.
I was thinking that deer would avoid the area because they can not see a safe escape route once in there.
I have seen lots of deer sign around the perimeter but no deer damage whatsoever. No sign they have actually entered the garden, and no damage even around the outer edges.
I very much suspect that a combination of intense inter-planting, and physical garden shape have combined to create an effective deer barrier.
I live in an area with a major urban deer issue to the point where wolves are now entering suburban areas and hunting them as well as small domestic dogs.
Something else that may have played a part in keeping them off our garden in the fall, at least for a short while was that we butchered a deer about 20 feet from our garden, slightly up the hill a few days before thanksgiving. From what I understand they don't like the smell of blood. Spreading some blood/bone meal around the garden might make a difference.
For a more vegan repellant, I hear they stay away from rosemary. Some kind of spray could probably be made from it. There are some other herbs that they don't like.
I have heard that they have some kind of aversion to human hair. If you have a breed of dog that sheds a lot, they probably won't like its hair either.
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twine in a sunburst pattern. I put stakes in the ground about 4 feet from the fence and strung twine along to
give the two fence effect just talked about.
They got in once last year but this year they have stayed out.
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