I'm located along the bluffs of the Kansas River & needlessly to say I've battled varmits tooth & nail for 35 years. My garden is only 1200 sq ft & my tallest strand (electric fence, 110) is prolly 4', The deer could step over it, but for some strange reason they don't want any part of that fence. Now don't get me started on coons..........

After much combing the 'net I decided on an electric fence to keep deer out of my garden, but you should read up on fencing to deter deer. I seem to recall it needs to be stronger current than for containing horses, and if you can put it up before they ever find your garden it might work better (I understand that cat is out of that bag). Following someone else's explanation, I set my fence up in late winter, a bit before planting started, then baited it with peanut butter on strips of aluminium foil. Baiting ensures contact between the animal's sensitive nose and the hot wire, which in turn ensures that a lesson is learned and not soon forgotten. So far, no deer have been in the garden, and the first few days I put it up I found a few skid marks heading away from my garden, so I think it worked. I recently rebaited it to make sure the lesson remains for this year. My feedstore guy didn't think it would work either. Especially a single strand 3 ft high.

Groundhogs I use my dog to deter.

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to go ahead and do it.

It is essential that there be good grounding, and multiple strands, the lowest a few inches above soil, to deter animals high and low. This means thorough weedwhacking around the perimeter, multiple times a year. In one of my gardens I removed the top soil under the fence, and laid plastic and gravel.

Best grounding is achieved by digging around the perimeter and burying a wire connected to ground, directly below the hot strands. My fence works beautifully when the soil is moist, but fails occasionally with dry soil, so this spring I will bury the wire. You can smear the peanut butter directly on the wire.

You can alternate hot wires with grounded wires as you go up the poles. The wires should be fairly close together near the ground, maybe the 1st hot wire 4" up, then a ground wire 4" above that, then a hot wire 4" higher, then a ground 12" up, then a hot wire 12" up, etc. until you get to at least 4' up. You can always add additional wires higher if your posts are tall enough and something goes over. Keeping the ground clear near the wire and keeping it moistwill give the fence the punch you need. Metal poles work great as you can just wrap the ground wires around the metal poles to ground them, and each pole acts as a ground to earth to help insure you have a good ground connection. This worked well for me to get the deer out of the corn--they hit it the first night and broke the wires because they had been going into the corn, but after that they left it completely alone. Definitely get the fence up before the critters have a chance to get in the garden and find something they like--keeping them from developing the habit works much better than breaking them of the habit.

Another option is to get a roll of 48" electric netting. I've used it the last few years and had no deer problems. It also tends to keep the cats out until the cantaloupe start ripening.

Not sure how you deal with ground squirrels--maybe a cat? Terrier? Decon mouse baits covered to keep dogs/cats out of them but accessible to the squirrels?

I put up 30" netting and it kept out deer, groundhogs, and raccoons all season for the past two years. We are near both farms and forest.

But this fall the fence was accidentally disconnected for a couple of weeks while I was away. Even after I reconnected it, the deer or a groundhog found their way in and ate the remaining kale and carrots. If it happens again this spring, I'll have to increase the height and/or buy a more powerful energizer.

Here is a link that might be useful: Electric garden fences

All deer are different, but ours would laugh at that fence...sorry, just being truthful. We have seven wires on our horse fence and two are electric. The deer jump over, slide under and climb through it, every day. They even taught one of my horses how to do it...and he had great fun, sneaking into the summer pasture, one winter. Finally, he got big enough to not fit through!

The best advice I've seen is to get an 8' deer fence or maybe try two 4' fences that are a few feet apart. Good luck on the electric wire...some people swear that it works...but it wouldn't work here!

Best of luck with your garden, this year :)

Lavender_lass, what you are talking about is the reason why I suggested that the OP read up on how to properly use electric fencing to deter deer. The baiting of the fence so that the first contact made is a sharp zap to a tender area is very important. Otherwise the combination of the deer's coat and hooves insulate them from the bulk of the current and no real lesson is learned. Also the amount of electricity used for deer deterant is stronger than conventionally used for horse containment. It is a little different. But yes, the two sets of fences is what I planne to turn to next if my single strand failed to work. I have a herd of 20 deer that frequent the edges of my property.

An interesting side story about the difference a little insulation will make... Last year I was creating the garden and got tired of turning the fencer on and off, so would just go under the wire. It was spring, and cool, so I was wearing sneakers and a fleece vest. I never felt the fence at all, so it became quite the habit... Until the first day that it was warm and I was bare foot and wearing just a tee shirt. As I went under the fence that time the current made the muscles in my back seize and in my legs as well, so one second I am sliding under the fence as usual and the next I am flat on my face in the mud wondering what the heck just happened. Respect the fence.

Thanks for the replies. I going to TSC tommorrow to see what they stock. Anyone have any good ideas where to get the stuff cheap? Mail order or whatever.

A large winery in Wis uses electric also but they only have it on during growing season. I was told that baiting is the most important part of the fence protecting crops.
I do not need electric (yet) but baiting seems to be the road to success.

Well I ordered a 12KV 6 joule unit from Ace Hardware Superstore. It will be here in the next day or so. I will keep everyone posted on how well it works or doesn't work.

My uncle swears it works tremendously for him. He says it's a good idea to smear a little peanut butter in the wire so they get a good idea right off the bat what that wire means. The day he takes the fence down, they do come back in and clean up the leftovers, usually in one night.

I got a solar powered fence for the groundhogs (works) and I put up a bug zapper for the deer which usually come out at nite here. Codding moths (apple pest) get zapped at nite and the sound scares off the deer. But my garden is not within earshot of the neighbors so be aware of that. Check craigslist for a cheap zapper, the older the louder ;)

I love love love mine, I also have it run around my chicken run, and I have got wildlife galore. I think now I could just have a 'clunk clunk' noise I would be o.k. but I am not brave enough to try, Our charger is good for 10 miles, and with three strands around my whole garden I have 400 ft. It puts out a goooood whallop. It is easy enough to put a gate in, and weedeating I tuck the bottom strand up one row of insulators. I like using the really wide tape.
Oh it works on neighbors too. :)

Oh, good idea about how to handle the lower strand when weed trimming. I haven't yet installed one partly because I kept thinking "how am I going to keep that clear from weeds without whacking it by accident?" Also, the dog is pretty vigorous about pursuing small interlopers, and she probably would eat them and they know it. I don't see too many of those since she came on the scene.

When I started setting out new things in the garden this year I rebaited the fence, but no gratifying skids marks away from it. I think deer have good memories.

nygardener, if you are kinda handy, you can modify the charger that you have really cheap.

Unplug, open the case and find the capacitor. It will be round or oval shaped. Stick a screwdriver across the 2 leads to discharge, they can hold power for a long time.

Take it out and take it to an electronics store like R.S. and ask them for a higher capacity replacement. Then reinstall the new one.

I have modified several this way and saved big bucks!

I had the exact same problem with the deers. I tried so many things and nothing worked from placing carrier bags around the perimeter to placing empty bottles of cola over stick. This worked at first as it scared them away but then they came back. I finally talked to a friend who bought an electric fence for livestock to keep deers away and it did the trick for them. I decided to buy the electric fence for deers and that solved the problem. What i did is built fence with an electric wire at the top.
The brand is from Fi-shock and they have many kinds of electric fences for deers.

Here is a link that might be useful: electric deer fence