Deer seem to
have ‘discovered’ our gardens last fall and this winter. It is very annoying and whilst they cannot do
much damage at this time of year we do not want them to make a habit of
visiting.
When we first
move here and contemplated gardens I suggested that the garden area should be
ringed with deer defenses. Kathy pointed
out that if we fenced the deer out we were fencing ourselves in. We wanted to be able to explore and enjoy the
rest of our property and I agreed. We
have never totally surrounded ourselves with deer fencing.
The first
thing we did was to put the eight-foot high plastic mesh fence around an area
behind the garage where we intended storing the plants and shrubs waiting to go
into the as yet uncultivated gardens. We
stapled and sometimes tied the netting to the trunks of available trees. We then used the same type of fencing along
the lot line fairly close to the back of the house. Deer have never come through or over these
fences all the time they have been installed.
They simply walk around them.
But, they were very nervous that they are walking into a trap and did so
very infrequently.
The problems
with this plastic netting are many.
Branches fall on it and drag it down, snow collects on it and breaks it
and the cold makes it brittle. It can be fairly easily fixed but the real
problem for us is that it is so expensive and we could not afford to use it
everywhere we wanted a fence.
Once we had
dug and planted the two top terraces we decided that we needed to keep the deer
out. In a heavily wooded area it is
fairly easy to make an effective deer fence by wrapping fishing line around the
tree trunks and running it from tree to tree.
The method that worked for
me is to first mark the route of the fence.
I tied colored tape around the trees that I want to form the ‘fence
posts’. The trees have to be big and
strong enough not to bend in the wind, but the trunks have to be thin enough to
enable your arms to go around them in a bear hug. They also need to be free of branches from
the ground to about eight feet high.
If there is a
gap of more than about 15 feet between trees you will need to put a fence post
of some type in the middle of the gap.
Tie the fishing line around a tree trunk. Walk to the next tree, wrap it around the
trunk and walk to the next tree. After a
while turn around and walk back with the line at a different height.
My advice is
not to go more than three or four trees away before changing the height of the
line up or down and going back towards the first tree, wrapping the line around
each tree as you go. By zigzagging back
and forth at irregular heights you will eventually achieve four or five lines
of fishing line between each pair of trees the lowest as near to the ground as
you can get and the highest as high as you can reach and at least 7 feet. Over the years I have added more and more
line to this defense and in places there are as many as twenty strands between
trees but it is still almost impossible to see.
I don’t think
deer have ever jumped over this fence but they have scrambled under it and
across it when a fallen branch has damaged it.
The fence
consists of tripods made from three similar lengths of fallen branch tied
together at the apex and with the legs stretched apart far enough to make it
stable. The tripods are placed between
six and ten feet apart and other branches tied to the uprights at ankle and
waist height are used to link them. I tied the horizontal timbers to the
uprights with a variety of Boy Scout lashings, plastic cable ties and long
screws. A final substantial branch
connects the apex of each tripod to the apex of the next.
The first
fence of this type I saw was about four feet high and three feet deep but I
decided that the deer in Michigan are wimps and that my fence would be much
bigger. After all you get an awful lot
of fallen timber in 13 acres of wood. I
also had plenty of fallen wood to back fill the fence both vertically and
horizontally. I ended up with a fence
that was between five and seven feet high and three and for feet wide at the
base. It looks a little stark in the
winter but as soon as the trees and undergrowth leaf out in the spring it will
not be so noticeable.
But does it
stop the deer? Nope. They walk straight through it. Well they did. Various snowfalls this winter have allowed me
to find the spots where they are able to penetrate and block them with more and
more bits of fallen branch. My most
recent look around has revealed very little encroachment into the protected
area of our woods.
Hopefully the
combination of the three types of deer fencing whilst not keeping the area
enclosed totally free from deer will deter them from making a habit of visiting
us and eating our precious plants.
