Protect your garden from deer with only a 4' fence!

Are you looking for a permanent solution to keep deer out of your garden?
Take a look and see what we have done to keep deer out of our garden. A 4 foot chicken wire fence did the trick for us. Our garden is now safe from deer without us spending a fortune building a fence.

[@sparkywatts3072]

I'm glad it worked for you. I'm an avid hunter and gardener and never had problems with deer until I moved to my current location. I live in a small town in a mountain valley and a six foot fence will NOT keep the deer out. Deer will always go for the most nutritious and easiest food. There lives depend on it. Over generations these rural deer learn where the best/easiest food, water and cover is and even which dogs to look out for. I've watched deer jump higher and farther than most people can believe but only when they are extremely scared. I'm happy to hear a four foot fence will work in some cases. Consider yourself lucky because in many instances it wont.

[@triciatrigg]

I’m in suburbia where deer jump our four foot chain link fence like it’s nothing.

[@NightowlProductionsGroup]

Don't knock it unless you've tried it. So far, it works on city deer, suburban deer, country deer, and wilderness deer. The Nightowl seashell method. I just credit by name the inventor. Thanks. Nightowl. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXPCdK13rdh0iK8

[@MichaelJosephJr934]

YOU ARE SPOT ON! I'm in a bunch of garden groups and it drives me nuts when a gardener has a deer issue and they are told they need a 8 foot fence. That's just unheard of! I have a four foot welded wire fence and a heavy deer population and never had a jumper. First off deer will not jump into a sketchy crowded area where the landing is not wide open. They also don't like thin wired fence because it's difficult for them to see it clearly. If you have a flat wide open garden with wide open landings then Yes you'd need to get creative. In that case I'd simply do a double fence about 3 feet apart and simple plant all pollinating crops in that area. Good Luck.

[@angelapoch]

Canadian Deer easily jump our 6' fence, regularly!!! I've even had one that dug under the fence! Yes, I WATCHED her paw then wiggle her under the fence. The two layer 3D fence worked for a few years then a few learned they could easily clear it. So back to building an 8' fence!!! But I'd never give up living in the East Kootenays of BC!

[@Twilight2146-s4p]

Circumstances change. If the deer find enough to eat that they like outside the fence they would be more likely not to jump the fence. My father had a 6 foot fence and the deer wanted what was in the garden, so they jumped it.

[@emptynestgardens9057]

So glad I just happened across your channel as your garden looks beautiful!! New sub here hoping to see a tour ☺️. I have rabbits and use landscape staples to keep the bottom of the chicken wire tight to the ground. They are placed about every 12 - 18 inches.

[@orrfamily641]

I assume you have white tail deer in your area. Around here ranchers use 50" wire with two strands of barb-wire spaced 4" and deer both kinds (Mule and white tail) clear them as do the Moose and Elk. So we get pretty creative with motion lights, high frequency screamers, electric fencing and fishing line spaced 3 feet before the main fence. LOL but the two critters that always get in are squirrels and raccoons but they don't seem to like the stuff we plant generally. They like to let us know they were there.

[@michellemiller2747]

Lay your chicken wire about 12 inches out onto the ground and then have it bend and go up your fence a small bit. See if that helps the rabbits to not dig under it.

[@grampsinsl5232]

Deer eat the buds off of our day lilies, so we put up stakes and surrounded the plants on all sides and overhead with bird netting. That worked perfectly for keeping the deer out, but there was one huge drawback - snakes would get caught in the mesh, and we do NOT like snakes! There's a service that will come and remove them but it's extremely expensive. So this year we're going to try the chicken wire or something with a larger hole size, and hope that lets the snakes come and go without being trapped.

[@NightowlProductionsGroup]

A locked-in prisoner in your own garden. How sad. I took the buck by the horns - so's to speak. I placed a 4-ft. wide, 3-inch deep, walking path of small seashells "around" my garden and that has been working incredibly fine. Deer don't like seashell flooring - the sharp shells get in between their narrow little toes which is not only discomforting, it also gives them no footing to jump your fence if you have one. They just don't like stepping on deep soft layers of little shells. I got the idea while making a nature documentary. I observed that deer "never" walk on the shell beaches we have here in Georgia. Ever! No matter how hungry. It got me thinking. I set out my design by putting a narrow shell beach down around my own garden. Also, I sprinkled some dry deer repellent over the seashells knowing that individual shells would "cup-hold" the mixture in place for weeks. Voila! The end design is totally organic and also aesthetically BEAUTIFUL - for any garden. Brilliant, I know. You're welcome. I will do a documentary on this "shellpath deer design" of mine at some point, but, for now, I wanted to share this with you. If you try this technique, and it works for you, please just credit me, "NightOwl Productions," in acknowledgment as your original source. Happy planting, fellow gardeners! (My apologies to any deer who might be reading this out there with sensitive feet...)

[@YouCanToday]

Genius ! Wow!

[@jim-od8pv]

Would a 4 foot double fence be better 4 feet apart?

[@YouCanToday]

Yes, I believe that should work even better! I’ve seen a farmer protecting his crops using this technique. Two shorter fences were separated and that didn’t give deer a clear spot to jump into.

[@Banannaspot]

There is no sure landing visible inside your fence which may be helping.

[@davidmantooth1285]

Thank you. This year something at every ear of corn in the garden (I suspect deer). I had no fence, but am considering a dense to next year. I don't want to go through a lot of expense.

[@Buzzy1960]

Raccoons love corn

[@davidmantooth1285]

Buzzy1960Buzzy1960 I had thought of raccoons. There was a lot of damage to the stalks as if something was hanging on to them. A deer would eat the corn but I don't know if they would cause so much damage to the plant. Some ears were totally eaten while others were missing the corn leaving the cob.

[@laurawyant6181]

BTW, in the past we have watched our (outside) cats climb the corn stocks to eat corn, as they had aquired a taste for it. Pretty amusing to watch their struggles...

[@scouter6926]

Vancouver Island deer have no diffulty in clearing a seven foot fence. I increased the height to 11 feet. Worked well until the deer figured out what I had missed. A few feet from one corner was a steep, upward slope The top of the slope in line with 11' wire mesh fence was all the deer needed to leap into the garden. I had to shoo them out, crack a beer and try not to cry to total destruction of my flowers, my fruit tree clowns, veg, etc. A four foot fence may will work in conjunction with a couple outdoor dogs, the type that dislike deer, patroling the gaden perimeter inside the wire! Which, between a foot of buried wire and dogs will stop the occasionally buny that digs deeper to get into what surely they think of as the promised land.

[@mroakarm]

Search 3D deer fence...it works

[@NightowlProductionsGroup]

My seashell technique keeps them from jumping the fence. My dog fence, which came with the house, is only 5 foot high. Like I say, in the description of the video, dear, won't step on the small seashells, and therefore can't get a footing to jump over the fence. The seashells Protect my veggie garden. We have dozens of deer coming through because we live on the edge of a wildlife refuge. You can see by this video, that they have every opportunity to jump the fence and eat my garden. But they don't, and they won't. I hope you try this technique. It works. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXPCdK13rdh0iK8

[@Yahodynka]

Our deer jumps over 6' fence easy. I wish we had your deer.

[@factfulness-perleth7764]

Nice. I will try the 4 feet chicken fence.

[@GetSwedenborg]

Ive watched them jump into my garden right over my 4 foot fence! A 4 foot fence is a waste of money.

[@slicedcheese5393]

Glad it works for you but I feel like you have just been lucky so far. We have a 6ft fenced in yard and the deer jump it regularly.

[@davidmantooth1285]

What would be the difference between the damage caused by dear vs raccoons? This year there was alot of damage to the stalks. Some ears were totally eaten, corn and cob while some ears just had the corn eaten, leaving the cob.

[@moreperfectgifts4808]

I would love your theory to be true but that is not the case where we live. Hungry deer will take a chance and jump in if they want the food

[@georgeduarte8627]

You said you have hostas on the other side of the fence is that a bush?

[@veronicaselz5764]

H from Colorado! Great video!! After all this time do you still recommend this type of fencing for deer? We have herds of up to 30 deer roaming our pastures daily. My garden right now has 5 foot wire fencing but ive expanded my garden and to cut costs using this would be great. Does it work? If you're still battling rabbits you could always put wire lath along the bottom of the fence at a ninety degree angle🙂 Thanks again for the tips

[@YouCanToday]

Hello! yes, the fence still works. I think that the theory that one of our viewers expressed is accurate though. The deer don't jump over the 4 foot fence because they don't see a clear landing spot. The inside of our fence has a row of black raspberry bushes, sea buckthorn berry bushes and some evergreens growing along it. I think that contributes to the deer not jumping the fence as well. The rabbits are still an issue although not as bad as they have been.

[@carmenlamanna5391]

@@YouCanToday Let me add my 2 cents here. I've been doing something similar for the last 10-12 years. What I do is fence in individual crops that deer like. I plant four rows of corn and fence that in, I use 4 ft plastic fence because it's easy to work with. Do tomatoes same way. 2 rows of tomatoes 30 in apart and fence them in. So my fence around tomatoes might be 6ft wide. I have yet to see a deer jump into these narrow spaces. I live in W Pa where there is plenty of deer.

[@santhiyag1650]

thank u very much

[@YouCanToday]

Thanks for watching!

[@livingtherufflife]

We have a 4 ft chainlink fence & the deer never come into our yard/garden. However the rabbits and ground hogs get in our garden even with a second chicken wire fence around the vegetable garden!

[@YouCanToday]

Groundhogs and rabbits are a different problem. They squeeze into any hole it seems and dig to make space to get through.

[@michelepurdy5468]

I have a 5 ft. fence surrounding my 5 acres. Every day I see 10 to 12 deer in my yard. They jump the fence. Is it because the space is too open?

[@tlbstickman]

Maybe you have a rare breed of instinctless deer?

[@rebeccamasters3943]

I just watched another KZbin video on this and he suggested exactly that. If the space is fenced and small, the deer won't want to jump into it. The channel was Garden Fundamentals.

[@YouCanToday]

HAs worked like a charm for us so far. Our yard is 1/2 acre and very planted in.

[@slickchick5811]

Put some slats in so they can't feel comfortable jumping into the unknown.

[@amandasanchez6160]

4 feet is definitely not high enough for our deer. I watched them clear 5ft like it was nothing.

[@ourv9603]

4foot? Our black tail deer here on the West Coast can easily jump a 6foot fence. And you wont believe how high a fence the Elk can clear with one single bound. Our county is stink with wild blackberries and each September all the deer & all the elk have purple lips. !

[@YouCanToday]

wow! That's crazy! We don't have elk here in our immediate area

[@Buzzy1960]

[@xBettyjo]

Four feet is not enough where I live.

[@pegsol3834]

You did not explain why they don't come in

[@milliewilkins2823]

They have no pl a ce to land in her garden ....could be a reason. It's too dense for them

[@JA-jm8bk]

My 4' fence does NOT keep deer out of my ornamental garden. Give it more tie, they'll jump over that fence.

[@WideAwake24]

No. The deer here will jump a 7 foot fence to eat my garden. We did 8 ft. Seemed to work

[@YouCanToday]

I guess the fenced in area makes a difference with what height works.

[@ronaldfreitas3566]

It keeps rabbits out also.

[@YouCanToday]

to a degree. Our yard is uneven so until we get the fence secured at the bottom the rabbits will hope in. But the chicken wire definitely will keep rabbits out.

[@darrelmurphy4930]

I respectfully disagree. Our garden is enclosed and the deer still find a way in.