Watching deer in an open field is such a beautiful sight. However, if you love gardening and live in a place where the population of deer is abundant, then this means trouble for your plants. The deer see your plants and landscape as a “free for all to eat”, and with a variety of options to choose from. For them, it’s like having a free access to a fine restaurant any time of the day or night. This is the reason why you should consider building a deer fence.
Humans and deer share some common interests together, as both love the beautiful landscapes and eat several plants in common. The ideal food source of deer has some tasty shrubs, plenty of grass and surrounded by trees. You might picture this as your garden right?
In some areas, there are only a few hunters or predators of deer, which result in uncontrolled population. They also became the real problem for gardeners because even if foods are abundant in the wilds, they still consider your hostas, tulips or garden peas as delectable treats worth searching. So if you don’t have a deer fence installed and their food source turned scared, the hungry deer with just eat about any growing plants in your garden.
Building a garden fence is the most effective and permanent anti-deer solution that you can do. It is a valuable and sturdy investment that can handle any deer related problems that you have. By building a deer fence around your garden or yard, you are saving yourselves from a lot of heartaches.
How to build and choose the right deer fence
Adult deer can jump very high and pass through a fence, this is the reason why you need to choose at least 7 feet tall garden fence. There are two choices that you can make and there are the lightweight fence which is a temporary protection for growing plants, and the heavy-duty deer fence that is built to last for a long period of time.
The deer can either jump or go under the garden fence, so it is best to securely stake the metal posts of the deer fence all the way to the ground. For more protection or for severe deer problems, you can add another fence few feet away from the main fence. The deer can easily be discouraged by this strategy because they have poor depth perception.
Deer in general do not like to enter small and confined areas. So if you only have a little garden, it is fine to just install a 4-foot high garden fence.
A deer fence not only protects your plants from deer but also from other herbivores such as rabbits, ground hogs, skunks etc. without hurting them. This is a good thing for we don’t want to hurt these wild life creatures.
For severe problems, you can try installing an electric shock to your deer fence. However, the best way to discourage them from entering your garden and getting close to your plants is by setting the depth (two layers of fences) built with proper dimensions.
To weight it all up, a deer fence could give you long lasting protection against deer and other type of animals, plus, they are environment friendly and can even add style to your garden.