When I moved into my house, I had a nice vision of a garden bed that I wanted in the front - until the deer ate everything I planted! I ended up with a completely different garden. This is an old story of mine, and the same thing happened to a lot of other gardeners like me.
I think we are actually in *their* yard. ( don't take it seriously )
In this article, I will tell you all the effective ways to keep the deer out of your garden.
I have tested most of the methods I am going to mention here, and some have been tested by my friends and relatives.
Note: I know there are some deer-resistant plants that people often talk about on the internet. But, in my personal experience, deer eat everything that you will grow if they are hungry enough. So, I will talk less about the deer-resistant plants here. If you are still interested in knowing, you may check this article: Deer Resistant Plants for Zone 6
My hedges of sage, lemon balm, lavender, catnip, and peppers all failed to stop them from coming and munching around. I was certain the peppers would teach them not go for stuff, but NOPE.
Till now, the most successful method to keep deer out of your garden is fencing. Using a fence is the most effective method and is widely used by gardeners.
But fencing is not cheap. It costs a lot if you want to build it strongly. (Thinking of budget)
I will talk about how to stop deer from entering your garden with or without using a fence.
Do not forget to check the "WITHOUT Fence" section.
Let's start with the fence.
How to Deter Deer from Your Garden using a Fence
Physical barriers beat sprays every time.
You can go with any of these:
- Physical Fencing (Most Reliable Solution)
- Electric Fence (Highly Effective, and it never fails)
Physical fencing to stop deer from entering your garden
Chicken wire fence zip-tied to 8 ft T posts. If you have raised beds, you can get away with a 6 ft fence if it’s tightly wrapped around the garden (no more than 3 ft from the edges of the beds).
Deer won’t jump a fence if they don’t have a clear place to land. This has worked for me for the last 4 years; we have HELLA deer.
A fence with nowhere to land if they think about jumping. They won’t leap if they don’t see somewhere safe to land.
I cannot put up an 8’ fence, so I don’t keep deer out of my garden. My vegetable garden is fenced with a 6’ fence, but the area is about 12 square feet, and the beds inside are close together.
The deer don’t see anywhere to land inside the fence, so they leave it alone. The only deer I ever saw in there was after my wife left the gate open.
As for the perennials, shrubs, etc. I have learned over time what they prefer to eat and what they generally won’t eat. The struggle is real.
If you have bamboo, you can try this:
A 7-foot deer netting fence with metal poles and some bamboo would work well. Even 6 feet is fine—no issues here!
Keep the fence close to beds (within ~3 ft) so deer don’t have space to land.
Another budget-friendly way is to use a fishing line fence. You can also use a strong string if you wish. (You can search on the Youtube on this)
Electric Fence (Highly Effective)
Everything I tried failed, until I put up a solar-charged electric fence staggered two feet apart (one two feet tall and the other three feet tall).
Deer can’t judge the distance and can’t slip under. No soap shaving, deer repellent, coyote urine, etc., worked until the fence went up.
Also, the ONLY plants they didn’t eat were yuccas, daffodils, and irises. Everything else got munched on sooner or later.
If you want to upgrade it a step higher, go for Solar powered electric fence! (Using it for years!!!) It will keep the power on constantly.
Power cuts or dead batteries = fence becomes useless.
Check voltage regularly. Do you know that if grass/weeds touch the wire, it will reduce shock strength?
Do not forget to check if weeds are touching the wire. If they touch, trim.
First contact must shock properly, or deer may ignore it later.
Keep the deer out of your garden without using a fence
This is the most interesting part for me. This is a collection of methods that my relatives, friends, and I use to deter deer from our gardens.
I noted the feedback from each of them, and I will share the effective methods here.
Irish Spring Soap to deter deer
Break up a bar of Irish Spring Soap in a 5-gallon bucket, fill with water, and stir it up every chance you get until it dissolves.
Then, put in a pump-up sprayer and spray the plants and around them! Also seems to help with some bugs.
You actually may not even need to use an entire bar because it does get a little thick when fully dissolved. Give it a try? It seemed to work for me last year.
Motion sensor sprinklers
My aunt has been using motion sensor sprinklers for a long time just to get rid of deer in her garden.
It works well for her.
I love this method as it does not involve chemicals, and Sudden water spray + noise + movement startles deer.
Note: It can trigger from wind, pets, or people (you may get wet 😄)
Try to change the spray angle/position once a week. Deer may slowly adapt if the spray angle/position never changes.
Place near entry points or paths deer usually use.
- Fence = physical barrier
- Sprinkler = psychological scare
For a home garden like yours, a motion sprinkler + deer net fence combo will work very effectively.
Tall marigolds
I’m not convinced that deer-resistant plants really work. But one of my friends said this when I asked about what she does to deter deer:
"Tall Marigolds! They work for me! They grow to about three feet tall. You can also use Liquid Deer Fence Spray."
Some other methods that you may try
You can also try some other methods, like:
Solar-powered ultrasonic devices. Those have been successful for my father. They don't come anywhere near my home garden now. He got the devices from Amazon.
Dogs happened to work for a lot of gardeners (especially the German Shepherd)
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