I have been looking into deer net fencing to go around the perimeter of our garden. There are all kinds of weights, meshes, heights and prices. Does anyone out there have any recommendations and have they tried these products? Really appreciate any and all answers. I need it pretty darn quick.
Has anyone ever tried Deer X netting to fence out the pests?
i tried it on the corn and the broccoli.. kept out the skunks, coons, an all birds except finch size. but squirrels found their way into the corn, albeit i found that i wasn't securing it all that well - just some rocks on the corners... it helped reduce the damage, we got to eat 1/4 of the corn crop for the first time...squirrels got the rest. netting again this year... 2 layers on the corn this time.. ....hmmm
Yes, I use netting on everything in the raised beds, but it's a pain to harvest and tend the plants. The fencing I mean goes clear around the garden and is attached to posts, etc. There would be a gate to get inside. Thank goodness we don't have squirrels.
I got it from lowes - cheap.. what are you keeping out? sounds like you have a good story to tell.
jj---I have an on-going story about deer in my garden. I have raised beds and have been making little mini fences around each and every one for a couple of years. What a pain to tend the plants and to harvest, though. Kind of hard on ones old back cantilevering the body like that and reaching either over or under the netting. So, I thought, how nice to just walk in and plant, weed and pick. However, DH has decided to try to plug their main hole behind the laurel hedge. Easier and cheaper, so we will see. I will give him one chance. LOL Just kidding. We try to work together.
So, you didn't tell me how you like the net fence.
We finally broke down and put a real fence around our garden, six feet high with serious wire and posts. I use the mesh netting draped over the rhododendrons I'm trying to grow in the woods. Too bad I waited until they had eaten most of the buds off, though. Right now we have brand new hens in the garden, and I've put deer netting over the raised bed of salad greens, to keep the chickens out. Soon the chickens will leave the garden enclosure, but hopefully they will have done the weeding for me.
I have a friend that built a net inclosure for his ten or twelve blue berry bushes. His is the small one half inch hole type. This will be his fifth year and It is holding up well and keeping the birds out. An occasional hole shows up. He cuts a patch if it is a big hole or ties the hole shut with mason's cord. His posts are rough cut five quarter hemlock spiked and driven in to hold the net. Stones hold down the bottom edges. Over top he uses mason's cord and drapes the netting over it all tied on with cord. It is high enough that he can walk in a corner he has tied shut. He is real pleased with the structure and lasting qualities.
OMG I love hens. I have three, yes, only three, but they can scratch like crazy. Yours are beautiful. So is your fence. Hens will eat seedlings, scratch around bigger plants, but seem to leave mature plants alone. Also, I have learned that they don't like to be in the sun.
They do more damage on a cloudy day.
Well, you may be right. A real fence would be great!
Thank you, Doc. I never thought about mending the net that way. Very good idea. Your friend is very inventive.
We have our garden surrounded partially with a shadowbox wooden fence and partially with the standard livestock wire fencing with the smaller mesh at the bottom. But for deer my husband added a strand of electric fence, placed about three feet outside the other fence, just where the deer would have to set up to jump. That seems to do it. We saw a doe in our yard nibbling thoughtfully at our small flowering quince bush the other morning, and they also come into our large pasture, but they don't get in the garden.
Another thing that I've seen people use around here is a split rail fence slanted so the top rail is further out than the bottom rail, maybe by three or four feet. The deer won't jump that because they can't land clear on the inside.
Our garden fence keeps out rabbits, too, but not turtles. They love the strawberries!
Deer can if they wish easily clear a ten foot fence. We had horses and saw deer run right through an electric fence. If they do not crash lesser fences it is that they have lots of other choices outside the fence. If everyone had six foot fences they would jump them all.
That may be so, but when we first put up the electric strand a deer tried to jump the fence, hit the electric wire, and fell back. We heard the thump and then a lot of very loud, distressed breathing which went on for a while. They never came back, at least to our garden. They are in the fields and up and down our driveway; we see tracks all the time. Our garden abuts the driveway and the field. So something is working. The point of the electric fence is that it is located where a deer sets up to jump. We don't rely on a single strand with no other fencing to keep them out.
What you have just reported will work when you are the only fenced in area. They simply walk around the route of least resistance. In some cases a three foot fence works when only one garden is fenced closeby.
The reason many surburban back yards can not use the electric fence is because it is first a major liabilty our girl friend "Sweet Sue" would love to deal with and secondly against the local laws to do so.
The deep breathing you heard was from a deer that may have nosed the wire got burnt, did not understand, ran off a few yards and created that sound. That sound is a deer trying to get what it does not understand to move or otherwise reveal itself. The thump you heard was the same deer or a family member of that group stomping with a front foot. Stomping is another way to force the unknown to move and to alert all deer in the area of unknown possible danger. When deer fall they make very little if any sound unless they fall into or onto something that makes noise. They also produce a snorting sound which most of the time follows the stomping and throaty raspy sound and preceeds or is at the same alerting instance of running off to cover. This means they have figured things out or just the opposite have not and they take cover from an unknown event in their home range. To those who do not know the deer sounds and habits your event would be would sound just as you described it.
Deer do not always do all and sometimes do none of the above. Deer are nocturnal. They are more difficult to fool at night than during daylight hours. If they are not scared or hear a sound common to the area they may just quietly walk away without alerting sounds.
That is very interesting about the deer. I have no experience to date with them, although they are in the area they are only seen in the front yard or road traveling field to field. I like the netting.. was easy to put up, not as unsightly as the criter netting with the tight weave.. however my issues are with critters, mainly squirrels in corn and skunks in broccoli and cabbage. My brother in law does use the deer netting for deer, and apparently they will nose the netting to get to the goods if it is too loose, however both he and i swear by it as we only have 7 - 800 sq ft each - no room for high losses to wildlife. I am going to switch to critter netting this year for the corn.
good luck
-joe-
What a timely thread--just this morning I caught a squirrel digging in my container of lettuce seeds. They haven't even sprouted yet, and already the critters are after them! I responded by putting a layer of 'hardware cloth'-- which is actually a sturdy wire fencing with 1/2 inch spacing--over the container and securing it with rocks around the edges. Now I'm concerned the lettuce won't get enough sun.
I planted green beans and sugar snap peas yesterday. Guess tonight after work I'll have to fence them in too!
I sprinkle hot pepper spice from the dollar store when i seed .. learned that a few years back when all my lilliy either disappeared or scattered in the beds.. i lost a whole 4x4 bed of leaf lettuce two weeks back as they were sprouting.. forgot the pepper. has anyone tried the 5/8 to 1.25 netting.. will it be too much of a hassle to pull out of the garden in the fall as opposed to the larger deer net the squirrels are getting through?