How To Control Deer And Other Animals In Your Garden

Remember one of the biggest reasons we garden is to grow delicious healthy chemical free produce. If you try hard enough there is usually a more organic approach to dealing with critters in your garden. Spraying chemical's and poisons on your garden can lead to chemicals and poisons leaching into the environment including your own well water. Always research and try an organic solution to your pest problem first. One place to start is Gardens Alive! These folks have a catalog loaded with many organic gardening products. They have found ingenious organic solutions to almost any garden pest you may encounter. I really suggest starting there for answers to your garden pest problems.

Deer, raccoons, rabbits, skunks, moles, dogs, cats have all played a role in damaging my garden. They may cause damage at different levels but it's never a

good thing. Deer were eating my beans and peas and trampling my young plants. Raccoons were eating my sweet corn. They know the very day your sweet corn is ripe. This is no exaggeration, they like sweet corn to be ripe just like we do. Rabbits were eating my greens, especially my lettuce. We all know what moles do. Dogs trampled my garden and cats liked to use the garden as a giant kitty litter box. Notice how I used words in past tense such as ate and trampled. I used the words in past tense because my problem with these garden pests is over. What did I do? I put up an electric fence. This solution is not exactly organic but it is not chemical or poison.  

You probably are wondering how much money it is going to cost to do this. Look at it like this. How much do you spend on your garden every year. Purchasing vegetable plants alone cost us well over $100 per year. Then there is the seeds, the tools and all your other garden equipment. If it costs you $100 to put up an electric fence you are actually saving money. Since you aren't buying plants to feed the animal pests anymore you really are saving. Not to mention all the hard work, labor and thought you put into your garden.

There are some things I would like top tell you about putting up an electric fence.

To keep out rabbits, cats and other small animals you will need to keep a couple wires close to the ground. I have 4 hot wires going around my fence. 2 close to the ground one about midway for dogs and mid size pests and one at the top for the deer. deer can jump an electric fence but they almost seem to sense the electricity because I haven't had a problem since I put up that fence. I do notice deer tracks in the garden once I turn it off for the season.

If you have an extremely high deer population in your area you may have to put up a taller fence. Deer won't jump an 8 foot fence on a 65 degree angle facing away from your garden. It takes some work to build a fence like this but it works great. The poles need extra supports and you will want to use cedar or metal. This fence looks very strange but it is an excellent way of keeping those big garden pests at bay. Once again this is an extreme measure and should be considered if your electric fence fails.

Electric fences are not difficult to install. The directions come in the power supply box. Don't purchase a small cheapo type of power supply. Get a weed burner or you will find yourself taking a weed whip around your garden constantly.

This will cause trouble with your lower wires and end up getting hung up all the time. I use a 10 mile power supply on my 100 foot X 50 foot garden. This may sound like overkill but it works great.