Deer.. Bad idea for a fence?

[Gardener123]

Thinking about using those 8 foot green fence rails to build a 7' high fence. With the wire of course.. I know deer can jump a 6' high fence easily.... Not sure if they can jump an 8 foot fence.

I was thinking maybe I could keep the height at 7' - with 1' of the green post in the ground - and possibly covering the top with wire fencing... Or maybe 6' high with the green post being 2' in the ground..... Still covering the top with fencing wire.

What I don't want is to come outside and find a deer on top of the fence, and the deer being injured. I don't know if they would recognize the top having fencing on it.

I have a neighbor who swears that she needs 9 foot high fencing to keep the deer out... And that is what she has.... I don't want to go that high.

Is my idea about having fencing on the top a bad idea?

[PaulF]

For several years I fought the deer and then decided to fence the entire garden (50'X50') using that black netting deer fence. It really didn't cost all that much. Mine is seven feet tall and seems to work OK. The posts was the biggest expense. I used the six foot posts and then wired a two foot 1"X1" length of lumber to the post for an extender. One thing I did was to tie strips of white rags at deer eye level every four feet and a few at the top of the fence all around. I have heard, and it seems to work, deer can't see the black netting but do see the rags and rather than jump the fence go around and look for other things to munch on.

I would say try without the extension first: it can always be added if necessary.

[slackercruster]

OP, you should be safe at 7 feet. I watched deer stand still right in front of my 4 footer and hop over it without taking a step.

On the other hand they never jump my 4 footer that has T posts in it for stakes. I guess they are worried about being impaled.

[sweetiepie]

I have a five foot fence made out of poultry netting and t-posts but I also have two strands of electric wire around the outside of my orchard to keep the deer out. I had 150 deer in my yard the winter before this one. It kept them out but they started eating all my other trees in the yard including evergreens and that is too much to fence so I got a dog and he has done wonders. No deer at all but that is his job so he stays outside full time.

[tomf]

Try this link, they have a number of deer fencing. The fence they sell is hard to see and the deer can not tell how high it is so they do not jump it. You put some white cloth strips here and there so they know it is there and do not run into it.

I put in posts about every 20 feet, you can see it does not show up very much; this is kind of nice.
Here is a photo of my garden with the deer fence around it.


https://www.critterfence.com/deer-fence-kits

[Gardener123]

OK, I went and bought those 8' high green fence posts, and netting.... hopefully that will be good enough. My wife is less than thrilled at this idea.

We have 3 dogs who run around a lot during the day ( we have invisible fencing so they never stray ) and I think what is happening is that the deer are ( last year ) eating my plants in the wee hours of the morning.

[rainbowgardener]

yup, dawn and dusk are prime deer feeding times.