A double wide cattle guard works to keep deer out without a physical gate. The fence should come in right at the midpoint so that the deer would need to leap the entire double span to get in. At the farm where I work, this has worked for years. The deer have only gotten in through breaks in the fence, never by the driveway. If deer pressure is high, the black plastic deer mesh does not work all that reliably- bucks can rip it open easily with their antlers. We have 6' metal field fencing with an additional high wire above it.

Having recently put in an automatic gate at the driveway's entrance, I've discovered many options for letting guests in.

If you can get electricity down to your gate no problem then you can put in a control panel that's at car window height with a keypad for guests to open the gate. You could have a wireless system voice - they press a button, your phone rings, you decide to let them in, press a code on your phone- the gate opens. This is expensive.

If you can get electricity and the phone line down to the gate, you can have the same system but not wireless for the phone, thus cheaper.

You could also have just a weight sensor in the driveway that signals the gate to open when a vehicle stops on it.

All these options need a manual override for when the power goes out.

Plus your gate would have to be high enough to deter the deer.

We put in an underground phoneline voicebox keypad double gate with substantial stone covered gateposts(each gate post has an electrical outlet for Xmas lite cords) and Lights on each post. Big $$ bite...ouch!!

The more you do, the more it costs. But if you can afford to pay to cover all the eventualities and possibilities at first try, it is cheaper over the long haul.

You have to decide what's more cost effective- fence and gate or a few deer munched plants.

We are on a farm where the gate is 400 metres from the house and not visible from it either. Needless to say, it wasn't installed to deter the deer.

I have found that ''our'' deer have their preferred route through the garden and also have their preferred munchies- oenothera is quite favoured. Planting some of the stuff they really like along their preferred route that they know is there seems to guide them through the garden and keep them off the other paths.

I've also heard that electric fence helps. Like cows, they'll investigate first with their snouts, get the shock and keep away. Cow electric fences are only about 30 inches high, which if they wanted to they could jump over effortlessly. But once they get the shock, they're not interested in getting close enough to try to jump.

What's funny about cows too is that the mental image of theelectric fence stays in their minds even after the fence has been removed. Some will have to be herded around different routes even if an electric fence has been completely removed because they KNOW that there's a line there they cannot cross even if they can't see it anymore.

I've been wondering if this would work for deer too.

... Don

Benner's sells polypro deer fencing and driveway gates with a couple of entry options, including a keypad, and a trip wand. Unfortunately, they are a bit pricy, their website is a nightmare to navigate, prices may vary depending on which page you are on, in my experience advertised specials are not honored unless you challenge them on it, and finally, also in my experience, when you have a problem with their product (such as the frame for the access gate being too wide for the gate itself) forget trying to get through to their customer service hotline. I left several messages describing the problem and never received a call back. I used one of their fencing kits to build a yard for my chickens. I'd like to use their products to fence the perimeter of my 5 acre property, but I'm not sure I'm up for the aggravation.

Here is a link that might be useful: Benner's Gardens

I want to thank you for your thoughtful responses. I'd love the cattle guard because of the lack of mechanics necessary but I don't think that will be an option for us. I have looked at the Benner's fence and it is interesting about the buck damage -- never thought of that!! Trolleymolly, it sounds like you like the product but are disappointed in the company service? I would be too -- all of these products are expensive and you deserve response to your concerns. Bboy, I showed your response to my DH to remind him that the little devils can stoop to wiggle! Giardianervin, your letter has really made me think. You must live near Ladysmith, almost a neighbour. Did someone local do your installation? Perhaps it would be good for me to talk to an installer and find out what their recommendations are? Thanks to all.

Hi Dotty,
Before proceeding with the wire mesh, please check with the Wildlife Recovery Centre out by Parksville. Deer get entangled in some kinds of wire mesh and the rescue is not pleasant for man or beast. We have solved the deer problem by only fencing the "veggie" garden (which also has roses growing in it!). The rest gets an occasional prune, and when it gets too bad, I spray on a bit of deer guard which deters quite well and only needs to be reapplied to the new growth.
Good luck!

I also deal with deer by putting fences around my garden area only. While deer can jump over fences up to 8' they can't jump over even a 4' fence when there is no open ground for a landing, so my rose garden is surrounded by a 4' fence and is solid beds and paths, and they don't get in. This next spring I am putting fences around all my vegetable beds as the damage increased last year, for the first time they stripped leaves off my pole beans, ate the tops of some tomato plants which I thought were poison and ate a squash. I put temporary 4' welded wire fences around the beds last year but this year I am putting in heavy t-posts and attaching chicken wire to them and having some kind of gate on each bed. I can't afford to put fencing around our 2 acres and deal with driveways, etc.

Another thing I do is put 4' wire circles around individual plants. Last summer some new trees with 4' circles were having the branches above the wire pulled down and stripped and I had to attach a 2' circle of wire on top to protect them. I also tried making circles around plants with bamboo poles I grow and running wire around each pole and on to the next in a spiral to make a circle instead of using wire fencing to save on cost, and they seem to work fine.

OH, the lengths we have to go to keep the little darlings in their place!!! I appreciate each and every answer and can see the merit in them all. I am also wondering about using an electric fence around the perennial garden area. We did this once before and had it on a timer so it was on automatically every night. I think it did deter them and they changed their route through the garden. Perhaps this plus a couple of Scarecrows will be better than a full enclosure.

This winter I had an adult doe bound over a 6 foot fence and through two strands of barbed wire like none of it was there. On another occasion a smaller individual wriggled through some coarse wire mesh to get away from me. That was certainly wild. Later the same evening two of them were back, unless it was two others that looked just like the previous three (this I doubt).

Bambi, party of three, your table is ready.

We've moved in on them and presented them with novel foods. Results not unexpected.

You should have seen the time I charged a deer with a wheelbarrow. You would have thought it was on springs- sprong sprong sprong all over the place and off into the distance. They do seem to melt right through barbed wire instead of jumping over it, I can't figure that one out.

For a page with drawings and directions...

Here is a link that might be useful: WDFW -- Landscaping for Wildlife

Dotty, I wish I could say I was almost your neighbour, but I live in Langley on the mainland.
We phoned around to quite a few companies for the gate installation. Remember that the driveway is 400m long. Every company we phoned said they would come over to see the site and give a quote.The company we picked was the only guy who said he would stop by and actually drove up to the house to talk to us. The other sales reps stopped by, unbeknownst to us, looked at the end of the driveway and phoned later saying that yes, they could put a gate in. They had been told the driveway was long, come up to the house to let us know you've arrived. Some people just play at work I guess.

This winter, I went to Lee Valley Tools and got an automatic deer scare that is a sprinkler with a motion sensor run by a 9 volt battery. It hooks to a garden hose. I'm guessing it will work on them a couple times and they will learn that going ''there'' gets them wet and then you move it to a new spot. It works day or night which would mean being aware of it as you stroll down the path nonchalantly only to be blasted with cold water while admiring your own garden... or worse, your guests, though I can think of a few people I would ask to come for a stroll and innocently profess having totally forgotten about that contraption.

Here is a link that might be useful: deer scare

Giardiniervin: yes, we have used the Scarecrow in the past and it certainly works as a deterent. Isn't it awful about workmen? We too have the problem of them not showing up or coming and looking and scratching their beards and we never hear from them again. I think they are mostly interested in the easy jobs and we never seem to have anything easy! Our driveway is also several hundred meters long butwe only have an area around the house landscaped (in a manner of speaking because the deer decimate everything there). The project is still under discussion -- the fence man hasn't shown up yet. We have had 2 appointments so far!

The company we went with is called GateTec. I don't know if they have an Island rep. They use top of the line Italian technology and besides doing gates themselves, provide the motors and service 80 % of the gates in the province. Italy is supposedly the acme of gate technology. I can say that having been in Italy plenty, that yes, gates are everywhere there. However, the asthetic is totally different. The Italians prefer a style they call ''modern''. As an Angloculture person, to be polite, I would call it industrial, to be honest- institutional, as in prison or insane asylum. Whenever I visited Italians, I always felt I was entering someplace where it might be difficult getting out of.

Fortunately that's just the gate style which has nothing to do with the gate control technology.