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has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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Posted by birdgardner NJ/ 6b (My Page) on Fri, May 21, 04 at 14:09
| We (that is mostly me, because dh is not so handy) plan to install a deer fence. (Booger-heads just nipped off, and spat out, the branches from my apple tree whip, sprayed with deer-off).
Pricing from mastergardening.com, it would cost about 800 dollars for materials, incl. ground anchors and some posts -we have trees in many places.
Have you found a cheaper source for fencing, and do you have any installation suggestions?
Lisa |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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| agggh again. there is no deer resistance forum - "deer resistance" gets you here. any ideas? Lisa |
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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| I live in NE PA and I have deer in my yard every night. I have a 16'w x 24'L x 16w' x 24'L x 6' high fence that cost me about $95. Of course I installed it myself. I bought everything at Home Depot. 6' metal 'T' posts, 4' metal chicken wire and 3"x5"x8' landscaping timbers. Deer have never gone inside it. It's not the most picturesque fence although it does have a rustic look, and the chicken wire has very little physical area and allows maximum sunlight. |
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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| My vegetable garden is enclosed in a 6' high fence internally divided into 4' wide half height fenced rows (long and narrow seems to keep the deer out of it) but the the woodchucks laugh and dig under the 6"x6" timber base. Deer here in NY will easily jump over a 4' fence (my neighbor's) but appear reluctant to jump over a solid fence or a tall hedge (6') that they cannot see through. I an trying to divert them from my yard/hedgerows with monofilament fishing line stretched tight across existing pathways at one foot intervals, to a height of six feet, it seems to be working. I got the idea from this post here at the forum:
Controlling Deer
Posted by: queso z5 NH, USA on Sun, May 9, 04 at 10:15 So far it seems that they don't like to pass something that they cannot see but can feel. Unfortunately, my local herd(s) have stripped most of the understory and like most of the plants that are available in the area. |
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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| Installed the 8' high heavy duty mesh from deerbusters.com, monofilament at top and about `1 from the ground, staked about every 6', and have effectively kept them out, even with several feet of hardpacked snow. It is virtually invisible, except for the posts, where there weren't trees to attach to. |
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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| I picked up 7 rolls (100 ft each) of that plastic black mesh fencing (7ftH) at Home Depot and ran it through the trees around my property. it is invisible. The frontage is not fenced (a test run looked horrible), so we get some deer in the front with occasional browsing right by the house (we are set back about 150 ft) and none in the side or back yards. Good luck |
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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| I found this mesh stuff online but couldn't find it locally. I got it at pasternaktruevalue.com I put it up on top of a wooden fence to keep my cat inside the yard. You could find some wooden stakes orsomething like it and pound them into the ground--maybe secure with a bit of quickcrete into the ground. The mesh is super lightweight and you look right through it. Shouldn't be too difficult to secure it. I used a staplegun but nails and some wire would work too. So far it's really stood up to storms too. I think the mesh pieces are 7' but 100' which I spent about 20 a piece for and the small posts I used were about 3 a piece but you could do better at a lumberyard I'm sure. It would be amazingly simple once you got started with it. You're welcome to email if you'd like. hope this helps! |
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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| I found a couple places online that have good information about deer fences. One concentrates on being invisible. For the actual product you will have to compare prices. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Invisible Deer Fence
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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| just finished installing a perimiter fence around the house,, over 500 yards off deer fencing,,8feet high, don't think they will jump that,,the real trick is to work with the terrain,, keep to the high side so that the deer have less reason or inclanation to jump,, used old fish netting from a net storage place,, paid about 100$,,(canadian),,still have to secure the bottom,, i hear deer will crawl under if really tempted,, have friends who use this method,, and has lasted about six years,, minor tears&holes,, hope you found a solution that works for u. |
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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| Garden fence & deer fencing kits for self installation: |
Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Fence and Deer Fencing
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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| My project is to protect a vegetable garden from deer and rabbits. A couple of years ago I did this combination of light weight netting and some electric wires. it didn'[t work that well as it was only 7', patched together and often I forgot to keep it turned on.. This year I've had another enthusiasm so have tried a fence used by a co-worker. His consists of three low wires, electirifed, 6" apart. Has a big vegetable garden (10 children so as he put it he can't share produce with crritters). So i did almost the same except having most of the posts from the old fence I added a fourth wire nose high. It worked at first but this morning they got to my wife's sun flowers and a bit of the green beans. I was really annoyed as I put a lot of time into that fence. Well turns out the fence was all but dead. You could touch it and nothing. I had been meaning to string trim the weeds but the trimmer refused to keep working. Bought a new one and voila after trimming the voltage on the fence is now over 500 volts (500 is the limit on my meter). That's even higher than when I first put the fence up. I didn't do that thorough job in trimming. Plus I didn't realize that a few weeds would foul up the fence. Another factor besides the weeds touching the fence was expansion from the heat so in a couple of place the low wire was near or touching the ground. I need to keep a watch on that maybe figure out a spring in the system to keep up with the change in length from temp changes. |
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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| For our small garden, a simple 4' plastic mesh fence on lightweight fence posts does the job. Deer can easily jump the fence and deer could crash through without any real issues, but they never have (and we get deer wondering through the area daily at times). I guess if they ever get really hungry, we're in trouble. |
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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I used rebar for a couple of corner posts....keeps everythig out...
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RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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Nicole,
Pets? LOL,
Nice picture.
Hank |
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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| hankg.......no....but they are pretty! :0) I found these iron panels laying on the curb with a "free" sign....looked like a good deer deterent. Might not keep the bears out, but they don't eat my roses anyway!! lol
 |
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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We have about 3 miles of fencing which intent is to keep out deer from the orchard. It consists of the plastic fence found at the nearby farm store that is 7' high. It is attachedto tall posts we could cut from nearby locust trees, or buy and add to to make tall enough (8' post plus treated 2x4),and around the outside of the fence we have put an electric fence located 3' from the main fence and about 2' high. The biggest problem we have had in the past is that deer learn to go under the fence. The electric fence discourages that.The fence charger is high voltage.
However, deer do sometimes get through the fence and seem to go right to the young cherries and eat off the leaves before we can er stop it. So for the cherries we put a cage around each young tree.
The fence is positioned such that the deer stand downhill
from it making the fence essentially taller.
Over the years deer control has been a changing/learning experience. Every thing we try works for a while. Deer pressure is high, but it is less than some nearby areas. Deer off will work, but it takes persistance.Deer have trained themselves to like whatever, you must train them differently. It has taken me 3 weeks to back them off my young raspberries with the smelly stuff. I use cages for the Christmas trees. Here rubbing is the main problem.
Hank |
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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| jim w ny, the new electric fencers aren't bothered so much by weeds. We just got a new one for the cows and overhanging branches are ok. I think. I don't have the nerve to touch it! But the cows stay in just fine. I'm wondering if I might be able to reconfigure it to enclose our perennial garden. |
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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Yikes, I'm glad I don't have to keep the bears out...we have them, but not that close!!
Here are some of my 'fences'........
My husband wanted a open style to not block the view. I used wood leftovers from other projects, except the posts.
If using a open wood fence as I did, you still need to plant plants that the deer don't like by the fence as they will stick their heads in to take a bite or two. I also plan to have a hedge of lavender on this side of the fence....you can see a few plants starting to grow. That is one plant they have never touched....so far....fingers crossed. Here it is looking through the fence
 This is a trellis that doubles as a deer repellent
 Bought leftover fish netting....works great except you have to wire the bottom shut as well or the deer go under. 
You can see it behind the flowers.
 Flora |
RE: has anyone installed their own deer fence?
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| What about rose hedges? I am looking into buying some prickly rose seeds to start mine this year and they grow to 6 feet tall or more, plus they give rose petals, hips and leaves for tea, but you said deer eat your roses? What about a prickly fence hedge? Do you get into espaliering? You can train trees into a fence, but this takes years. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Woven living fence
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