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Battling Bambi - Page 7

© Marge Talt

Fencing is also the most expensive option, at least initially. Depending on where you live, your local building or development codes may restrict what you can do. Extremely rocky or hilly terrain may preclude fencing. Deer fencing of any kind, like all fencing, requires continual observation and maintenance. You also have to have gates - including at any driveways unless you are in a position to install cattle guards in the drive - and those gates have to remain closed at all times that they are not actually in use. Deer have nothing better to do with their time but patrol fenced areas, searching for any weakness or gap that will permit entry.

When you think fencing, keep in mind that deer can jump eight feet (2.4m) vertically from a standing start (they don't often do this, but they can). They can also jump fifteen feet (4.5m) horizontally and have been known to clear thirty feet on occasion (9m). Therefore, any visually open fence you erect needs to be a minimum of eight feet (2.4m) high.

If your local codes prohibit fences of this height, you can use two sections of shorter fencing (at least five feet [1.5m] high and more is better) spaced about six feet (1.8m) apart. At a running start, a deer could clear this, but in most instances they won't try to jump it because of fear of getting trapped. If you angle the fencing out, away from the garden, that also helps because it appears to be more of a barrier to the deer.

A mature deer stands about three to three and a half feet (90-105 cm.) tall at the shoulder. They can crane their necks up to about five feet (1.5m). While they are known to stand on their hind legs to reach some tasty morsel, normally anything higher than five or six feet (1.5-1.8m) creates a barrier that requires some effort for them to cross. If they can't see over it or it looks to them like it's more imposing than it is, it will tend to deter them during their normal wandering. They will take the path of least resistance unless there's something that impels them to invest extra energy to surmount an obstacle. Hunger, of course, is a great impeller. A five or six foot fence that they can see through will not stop a deer unless they cannot see a safe landing spot on the other side.

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