Stopping those pesky deer from eating my veggies before I do

In Organic / By Mike Wendland / 2 comments

It’s time for drastic action: A deer fence.

Over the years, I’ve tried repellents, planting flowers like marigolds that deer find offensive, detergent and all sorts of natural anti-deer approaches. They don’t work. My raised bed vegetable garden is annually decimated by foraging herds of suburban deer. They even eat the tomato plant leaves, which are supposed to be mildly toxic. And after taking out my plantings of green beans, cucumbers, squash, peas, strawberries and peppers, they go on to mow down our shrubs and flowers out front.

I’ll leave my wife to do battle with the landscape-destroying deer.

But as for me and my veggies, a deer fence is in order.

There’s only one problem: I am the most unhandy handyman in the world. Bar none.

I haven’t a clue how to make a deer fence.

The accompanying picture is what I’d like it to look like. It would be about 30 feet long and 12 feet wide, with some sort of gate opening for me to get inside at both ends. And it needs to be six to eight feet high. These deer can jump!

I’ve seen green metal stakes at Home Depot that would probably work. I think the also sell a metal mesh a bit thicker than chicken wire that would work. The fence would need some reinforcement to keep from sagging. I think they also sell supports for that. And I will need an electric post hole digger to get those metal stakes down deep as the ground outside my planting beds is like concrete.

But how do I make the gates? I’m pretty stymied. I suppose there are small companies that do such work. But who, and for how much?

All I know is that it’s time. It’s almost planting time in my part of Michigan and I know the whitetails are just smacking their little deer lips waiting for my seeds to sprout.

Since I am committed to organically growing as many of my own veggies as I can this year, I would welcome your suggestions. I need a fence. I need help.

Tags: deer fence, featured