What Is the Best Way to Keep Deer Out?

With the warmer months of the year approaching, many homeowners are beginning to plant their dream gardens with the hopes of growing natural, healthy foods for them and their families. After getting your garden set up whether it has raised beds, good old-fashioned tilling, or fruit trees the worst thing to wake up to is everything being eaten, trampled, and destroyed by one of the biggest garden pests of all – deer.

What can you do to combat deer and keep your garden protected from one of the hungriest, jumpiest, and sneakiest garden pests out there?

Deer Repellents

Deer repellents have been used for many years, with predator urine or stronger odors like garlic, onions, rotten eggs, and even vinegar mixtures have been used. But do they work?

Unfortunately, deer are determined. Even with these being applied to the garden to make it as unappealing as possible, all deer will eat anything if they are hungry enough.

While some deer repellents on the market can work, the main issue with them is they do not last! Any rain or just general watering of the garden can wash away the repellent, causing you to reapply the repellent and bringing the costs of keeping your garden deer-free high.

Deer-Resistant Plants

No plant is going to be deer proof, especially if they are hungry and your garden looks good! Some commonly found garden plants such as sage, onions, ginger, garlic, asparagus, and mint are typically considered deer resistant due to their strong odors. Even though these plants give off a strong odor to keep deer from picking at them, your whole garden is not going to be full of these plants and therefore not going to protect the rest of your garden from deer. Even if these plants are prevalent in your garden, if they are out in the open, they will go for it!

There are also a few plants that can be put around your garden to repel deer from the plants inside the garden, however, these are also not fully effective. If the deer can spot what they really want, they can easily push past these and get to your garden.

It’s important to also note that the level of resistance to deer can change depending on the season. For example, during the warm summer months when vegetation is plentiful, deer may not eat a popular screening shrub called arborvitae. During the cold winter months, however, especially with snow ground cover, deer are known to eat arborvitae and damage the plant up to about 5 feet high.

Deer Fences

The best and only way to make sure deer stay out of your garden is a deer fence. Deer are extremely good jumpers and while there are many fence options out there, few meet the qualifications to keep deer out while also being price friendly. Deer also don’t have great eyesight. The more visible a fence is where they can see the top of the fence, the more likely they will be to try and jump it.

Wooden Deer Fences

Wooden deer fences are not the best for deer (very visible) and very costly. Since most deer can jump up to 7ft, it is typically recommended you fence in your garden with a 7.5ft to 8ft fence. Wooden fences not only close off your garden to the deer but can also block the view of the garden from you as well. Wooden fences are also very costly, ranging from $6 to $13 per linear foot and between $14 to $35 per linear foot for the installation.

Split-Rail Fences

Split-rail fences can be visually appealing but have many issues. The gaps between the rails are large, smaller deer may be able to stick their heads through or even squeeze through the gaps depending on the size. Split-rail fences also leave room for other pests to enter and tear up your garden, such as rabbits. Like wooden fences, split rail fences are also expensive. Installation alone might be in the thousands!

Chain Link Fences

Chain link fences can be effective for deer if installed at the correct height, but like wooden fences, are going to cost a lot at $16 to $27 per foot on average at an 8ft height for the materials, and between $1400 to $4000 to install since they require specialized gear to install. In addition, most chain link fences have a very visible top rail. This top rail is a bench mark for deer to use to gauge the height of the fence when they try and jump it.

Critter Fence

The most popular type of fence we sell is for deer prevention in gardens! We have a wide variety of mesh types, depending on the type of deer and number of deer you typically see in your area. Compared to other fences, our fences take the cake in pricing at an average cost of $4 to $6 per linear foot for a 7.5ft polypropylene fence kit and $5 to $6 per linear foot for an 8ft polypropylene fence kit (with our 100ft kits).

Not only are our fences effective at keeping deer out, but they are also meant to be invisible so you can see your garden grow in its full glory!

Our kits will come with everything needed to install your fence, and with it being a do-it-yourself kit it is easy for homeowners to put it together themselves (though we do installations if you want the fence professionally installed!)

In the end, the only thing to really keep deer out is to install a complete fence surrounding your garden at an appropriate height. Check out Critterfence.com for more information on our fence types and protect your garden today!