Deer-proof Fence for the Garden

Now that this garden is getting going it’s time to protect its precious contents!

We are putting up the same sort of fencing we had at our previous farm, hopefully with some improvements to make it more durable.

We first purchased 10 ft sections of 3/4 inch and 1 inch electrical metal tubing.  The 1 inch conduit is cut into 2 ft lengths with an angle grinder with a thin cutting wheel.  The wood shown above will be used for construction of the gate.

Below you can see a useful tool we purchased for installation of some of the posts for our sheep fencing.  It has helped make this garden fence project much easier compared to our last attempt in CT!  It works like a T post driver, but instead creates a hole.  Beside it is the 1 inch diameter piece that will serve as a sleeve to accept and hold the 10 ft 3/4 inch post.

Here We have the posts and sleeves in their approximate position along the back of the garden, waiting to be installed.  The large post in the grass will be part of the sheep fencing – no space wasted!  High tensile wire will be brought to that post from the system in the background at the far end of the garden where you can see the gate.  We need the deer fencing to supplement this electric fence, as the deer would still be able to jump over the electric fencing from the sheep side.

Here Roy is ready to start digging the hole to accept the 1 inch diameter sleeve.

The sleeve will accumulate a core of dirt inside.  Use a piece of wood so that your hammer doesn’t damage the top of the sleeve when you pound.  You will then have to pull the sleeve back out and remove the dirt core.  This may need to be done a couple of times before you can finally position the sleeve.

Below shows the dirt core that must be removed to create the hole.

The sleeve is pounded down into place, and the 10 ft post is easily slid into the sleeve.

An improvement this time around is that corners will have 2 adjacent posts for added strength when the fence is connected to the posts.

Here it is!  One side is complete!  A gate will be installed close to the center of this side.  We will also have a place where we can easily open up the fence large enough for the tractor to get back in for rototilling next year.

Lastly will come the actual deer netting.  We will install 7 ft deer netting with cable ties on these posts.  Just a note – there are different qualities of this netting.  Buy the cheap stuff, and you’ll be replacing it more frequently.  We have found that bunnies still find their way through the deer netting, so we will probably put chicken wire on the outside of that at the base for added protection.  The blueberries will be within this fencing, but I somehow think it will NOT be enough protection should the local bears discover them some day!  But that will be another story!