This Is the Only Effective Way to Keep Deer Out of Your Garden.

Of all the garden pests, deer can be one of the most annoying. They don’t care if you sprinkle coffee grounds between the rows of tomatoes or hang shiny strips of tape around the perimeter. They will immediately jump in, eat all your beans and immediately jump back out. I live in a place where roaming deer herds are just a fact of life, and veteran gardeners laugh at the cute newcomer attempts to drive them off effortlessly. Guys, you need a fence.

How to build a fence to keep deer away

According to Cornell’s Cooperative Extension (and common sense, if you’ve ever seen how high deer can jump), a simple fence to keep deer out of a garden needs to be at least eight feet high. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be a particularly strong fence. The mesh used for the snow fence works just fine. You can also find deer netting , which oddly enough comes in 7ft rolls, but you can make it work with creative solutions like using 8ft poles and rope around the top.

How to make a shorter fence work

If you only need to protect a small garden bed, you can protect the fence from deer by installing a ceiling. Surround the bed with a three-foot fence (or any height you like) and then secure the net on top.

You can also scare off deer with an open-top fence 5 feet high or higher. They will jump if they are motivated, but the smaller the garden, the less likely they are to want to jump over the fence only to find themselves in a tight space that will be difficult to jump out of.

And, finally, as rural gardeners have long known, there is another option for installing an electric fence. Here’s how Cornell’s extension author describes one of his favorite settings:

Peanut butter-coated multi-band electric livestock fencing can be effective for home gardens and small nurseries or horticultural crops up to 40 [acres]. This simple temporary fence works best under slight deer pressure in summer and fall. The polytape fence apparently attracts deer with its bright color and peanut butter smell. Deer make nose contact with the fence as they approach, get hit hard, and quickly learn to avoid such fenced areas. Polytape fences are portable, have an expected lifespan of over 15 years, and can be installed at prices ranging from $0.10 to $0.25 per foot.

Use repellents

Deer repellants are a thing, but they are not magical and you probably don’t want to use them on edible plants like garden vegetables. Repellents like Liquid Fence taste and smell terrible for deer. They don’t actually scare off deer so much as they make your plants unappetizing.

However, these repellents can be good at deterring deer from eating decorative flowers, especially those that are not in the area you want to fence off. And if you’re looking for other ways to keep deer from eating your plants, check out these flowers , which aren’t exactly safe for deer – no – but deer seem to be less interested in eating.