We are moving to WV next year and understand the deer are by far the biggest garden pest there. Most locals fence their enire gardens with 8ft high fences. I have also heard that deer, and other critters, hate walking on anything they fell will entrap them, so a 4ft wide border of fencing laid a few inches off the ground was suggested. Does this seem practical to anyone ?

I think that the 10' fencing works best...with barb wire on top! Tee hee. No, I never had that problem, but my daughter has on her 10 acre patch of land. They are going to fence it in next year (lack of funds this year), because the tin plates banging around and the shredded Irish Spring soap only works for awhile in the garden. I'd love to hear what others have to say.

My 80 year old brother-in-law lives in northern Wisconsin and he tells me that he laid chicken wire (2" welded wire, I think) around his garden and also around his apple trees to deter the deer. It would be cheaper than a fence, I think.

I live next door to WV, meaning it is within 5 miles of here. DEER ARE A PEST! What part are you moving to? If you are going to be in the mountains... Good Luck. I would go with a 10 ft fence. I live in city limits that are very similar to Huntington, WV. (next big city here) The darn things jumped my 4 ft fence to feast on my tomatoes (see another post) they haven't bothered my 5 ft fenced in area.. They are city deer after all. Plus I have twine over top of the biggest garden.

I am learning and folks are finally telling me that the deer have preferences when it comes to veggies. They love tomatoes, beans and in my experience.. pepper plants. They didn't bother the squash plants, cucumber vines, and only nibbled at the potato vines. They don't seem to eat corn stalks.. but the ears of corn are subject to deer and raccoons, you can fence the deer out, but the raccoons just climb over and laugh rubbing their fat bellies!

Good luck moving to WV.. Beware of all of the nuisiance laws they have in WV!

They will definitely go in a small boxed in area with a short fence, they are not, contrary to what I once read, intimidated by little spaces. I'm going to go quite a bit higher with mine. Most people here who have a short fence add a plastic mesh fence to it to raise it up.

If you want to know more about deer, I might have Mildred pay you a visit.

M

We will be south west of Lewisburg, Alderson actually. Any more feedback on fence laid horizonally?

Any more ideas please?

We use a 6' high fence and have not had any trouble with the neighborhood hoods!

We have quite a few deer here and fortunately they have stayed away from my vegetable garden. I only have a short fence up (4 ft) with about 1 foot of wire fencing extending along the ground around it. But they love to eat my hosta and tulips and crocus and....well, you get it. I guess I've given them enough diversions that they don't actually make it to the vegetables. Now the woodchucks they've been having a great time in the vegies.

Welcome to the Alleghenies. I live in western PA where the deer realy roam. You can't have a garden here without a fence to keep the deer and racoons out. Years ago I bought polyproylene fencing. It comes in 7'x100', and runs around $30. I have 350 feet of it around my garden. I ripped in half on my table saw 2X4s, sharppened the ends, started a hole with a post bar, and pounded them in with a sledge about 8' apart. Tie the fence on the poles with string. I also hang the orange balier twine and alum. pie plates from the fence. Deer are not a problem. Groundhogs and racoons still can be though, so I use tent spikes in between the post so they can't get under the fence. Just goggle polypropylene fence and you will find a bunch of sources.

Some folks in this area have nice 4'-5' post-&-rail fencing around their gardens, but then put tall thin 8' posts at the corners to attach deer netting to. The netting is virtually invisible, & they take it down once the gardening season is over.

From the experts:

Deer: Laying chicken wire flat on the ground or using electric fencing may keep deer away if more lethal means of herd reduction are to be avoided. One participant found that baiting the fence with peanut butter smeared on pieces of tinfoil wrapped around an electric wire at about 29 inches from the ground was effective. Human hair and dried blood were noted as techniques that may work on some deer for a time.

http://rodaleinstitute.org/20080730/nf2

quote:

Originally posted by MaggieZ:
They will definitely go in a small boxed in area with a short fence, they are not, contrary to what I once read, intimidated by little spaces.

I don't know who told you that small spaces don't work. I have as many as 12 deer roam through my yard and they will eat my tomatoes and peppers to the ground unless I put up my 4-foot chain link fence around them. I just never go more than about 3-feet wide and no more than 8'feet long and the deer will then stay out of the area.

They will lean up on the fence and eat the tops of the taller tomatoes but never jump inside the fence to eat the tomatoes to the ground or touch the peppers.

So far my best defense has been an electric fence that is about 6 feet high. I used 4" PVC, 7 feet tall after setting in 18" hole. I bought stirrup fence posts and placed those about 10-12 feet apart and started stringing wire. I have a solar box purchased 3 or 4 years ago online. The cost of the materials was not terribly expensive and it will last a long time. So far this has worked for the deer and the smaller critters. You can buy a D-cell battery box but not sure how much power that has. I did use a fence made of fishing line before I bought the electric materials, and actually that worked until the end of summer when the deer made a mad dash across the road into the fishing line breaking the line. But for 3 years running, the electric fence has worked well for me. You can tie all kinds of stuff on there to move around in the wind, I do it mostly to remind me its there. I have gotten popped at night a few times when I've been out not paying too much attention to it, so it's pretty well marked now. I have my tomatoes in containers, 7-gallon pots, and they are behind my house closest to the kitchen. They will have to go behind the electric fence next year because this year, the groundhogs did a number on them. This was not a tomato canning year. I should have known better than not to fence them in.