How tall should a garden fence be?

[Sunny & the 5 egg layers]

I am thinking about starting a garden this spring and was wondering how tall the fence should be? I want the fence to keep deer and other critters out of my garden.

Thanks in advance.

 

[wsmoak]

I am using 5' tall Red Brand Deer and Orchard fence. http://www.redbrand.com/Products/DeerWildlifeFence/DeerOrchard.aspx

The deer (and we have plenty) have not bothered the garden at all. If they had, my next step would be to put electric tape 2-3' out from the wire, making a 3-dimensional fence. But there is plenty of other food for them -- I feed them corn way on the *other* side of the property.

The year before, I simply had deer netting on some t-posts, and a couple strands of electric wire (at about 6" and 4') to discourage anything from wandering in. That actually worked fine, but the grass and weeds were difficult to keep out of it.

-Wendy

 

[hoodat]

Slanting the fence outward helps. Deer walk right up to a fence before they jump and they won't jump if there's something overhead. that's provided they aren't spooked. In that case they make a running jump.

 

[RidgebackRanch]

What breed of dog is that in your adorable avatar pic? A Ridgeback maybe?

 

[M.sue]

We don't have our garden fenced in. We want to see deer but of course don't want them in the garden so my husband planted a large section of our property with alfalfa. The deer just hang out there. The fences I've seen around are usually about 5 ft. tall.

 

[lighthawk]

A local drug manufacturing facillity (Pfizer, formerly Upjohn) is totally surrounded with Eight foot high chain link with barbed wire at the top. Driving by I have often seen deer inside the enclosure and in numerous places you can see deer hair on the barbed wire where they have jumped the fence. Trust me if they WANT in they will GET in. Some say human hair around the garden will repel them and there are other deer repellants commercially available. I would be more concerned with keeping rabbits and smaller critters out. My garden is surrounded with two foot of chicken wire. There was only one time that a deer got in, munched a few of my pepper plants then never came back. Racoons have pulled down my corn stalks on numerous occaisions when they found their way under the fence. Good luck.

 

[peteyfoozer]

We put up an 8' fence and it didn't even slow them down. THe LGD's did though! So actually, I guess they are LGGD's. (Livestock &Garden Guardian Dogs)

 

[catjac1975]

Our biggest problem is with woodchucks. Our garden is a fortress. Anything less makes all our work for nothing. We use green coated heavy fencing,6'. We dig a 18" to 2 foot trench, bury the fencing add greencoated chicken wire to 48" . So it is above and below ground. The fencing has 2X4 square openings which a large woodchuck can easily fit through. We use the heavy wire to keep out deer and the chicken wire to keep out woodchucks. Our garden is about 80X80 so it was a big undertaking. This is the second time we have done this in 34 years. It should last longer than we do. This will only deter the deer -they can jump anything with ease. There is netting that you can buy that is fairly inexpensive and very tall. Bunnies and woodchucks wood eat everything if we did not have this fence. Electric fencing would be and easier and cheaper alternative, but would have to be replaced every few years. A dog would be an excellent deterrent.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I made my fence 10 feet tall. The bottom 5 feet is the "no-dig" kennel fencing from Lowe's. It works pretty well to keep things out, but one gate is the weak point as far as rabbits and groundhogs. That's the equipment gate. My people gate is pretty secure.

Above the 5' fencing, I put brace wire at 6', 8', and 10' heights. It has stopped the deer so far and they were pretty bad before I put up the fence.

The other option I researched was the three dimensional fence. According to what I read, deer can either jump high or wide, but not both. Tilting the top back like someone mentioned is a pretty standard method, but so is using three strands of electric wire. One fairly close to ground level, one up higher, and one back two or three feet so they bump into one of the elecrtified wires before they jump.

Before building the fence I tried a few other things, such as dog hair, pepper spray, and Irish Spring soap. Since the deer did not visit every day, it is hard to tell how effective they really were, but over time, they did not work. Sometimes they just wait for a rain. Sometimes they didn't wait that long.

Before the fence, I had them visit the sweet potatoes so I carved up a bar of Irish Spring soap and scattered it on the ground throughout the sweet potatoes. They came back two nights later and finished off the sweet potatoes. I know some people really feel the Irish Spring works for them, and it might, but it sure did not work for me in this application.

 

[OldGuy43]

Mine's 4' tall with a strand of electric fence at the top and another about 8" off the ground. Seems to work for me.