I found this site while doing a search about hedgerows.
We have grown Asian pears on our small commercial orchard for more than 20 years in Virginia. The deer situation reached to be a disaster with the loss of 40 % of our crop to deer in 2010.
We decided to install a living fence/hedgerow as regular fencing will not keep deer out of croplands. Standard "anti deer" fencing systems are ineffective and very expensive to build and maintain. We now have 4,900 feet of hedgerow that has reduced the damage drastically. The hedgerow was started with brush, our prunings and some older trees from orchard to construct a dead hedge. At the edge of the dead hedge we planted small rugosa rose seedlings and wild pear trees every 30 inches. The hedge has protected the seedlings from damage during the these first few years and we expect the living fence to take over the exclusion as it matures. Whitetail deer can jump high but not wide.
Our experience to date indicates that 4-5 feet tall and 4-5 feet wide works super well.
We pass this on to anyone that wants to have a low cost fencing system that works.
