Your garden is beautiful! I live in an area with many deer, and have used a fence around my garden since I started it 5-6 years ago. It's worked for me.
It's an expense at first but then you have it for years.
Good luck!

Beautiful garden!

A deer fence is really the only way. For my 30' Ã 50' garden, 6' is enough; if you fence in your whole yard, 8' or even 10' is better.

If you have a trapping supply store near you, see about getting some coyote urine. Squirt this around your garden and it will make the deer think that there is a coyote around and they should leave the area. Get the real dark urine as it is stronger with more yote smell to it.

I put up an invisible deer fence this year, I got tired of the deer helping themselves to the salad bar. The posts are visible though but they're dark green so it doesnt look that bad. The fencing is totally invisible except when you're right up on it.

It was inexpensive too. I think I spent a couple hundred max for a 1000 sq foot garden. That included all the posts and a roll of polypropolene fencing. It's like nylon. It stands about 6 feet tall.

I've been using the motion activated sprinkler.
I think it's the noise more than the water that
scares them away. It's pricey, ($50), but what
is your garden worth?

There are two basic currents of thought on this issue: those who prefer the 6000V electric fence, and those who prefer the 8000V (actually, I am not sure of the voltage of my own, it must be less. I tried it and it is not so strong). Note that my electric fence is OFF 99% of the time. I reactivate if there is a break in. But the experience is terrifying enough for them that after one encounter they stay away for years. That hods true for groundhogs, deer and squirrel (the rabbits can't get up the fence, and the raccoons don't bother my plants so long as I don't grow corn).

It is best to have the wire at the top of a chainlink fence, if it is just a bunch of wires they occasionally run through it in the winter and ruin it. My fence cost 20 dollars at an agricultural supply store, plus you have to buy wire and wire supports. Do not fool yourself that you can do without it, you can not, and you just trained them to come back for desserts.

Get a dog :)

We live at the base of a mountain, deer are running through here all the time. I've not had any problems with them so far because I have a wonderful Australian Shepherd/Border Collie pup that runs them off. She's a lifesaver!

I have no i-deer!, but I have a mummy and her young one in my garden everynight this week! it may have been longer but that is since my son spotted them from his bedroom window, and I have been keeping a lookout, they come in, the little one peruses my veg patch, which is alittle pathetic I think the soil is poor! and poops at the side of it (very kind of him/her or maybe wanting to improve the soil for me next year so it will have something worth eating?), then seems to take pitty on my attemps and moves off to mum and eats the wide variety in the flower cum overgrown weed patch!
as I have a better bit of veg garden in raised beds I have covered these in bird netting and hope that the unpleasentness of a mouthful of nylon will put them off, here's hoping!

A good dog will help very much.

The layout of your place concerning the nearest woods is significant. There have been some deer across and down the road in a woods and they also live in two other woods near me. I have seen them on my side a couple times and a couple young ones wandered in the field close to my road. I ran them off and that helps too.

We have some deer in our area, we enjoy seeing a couple out in the yard every now and then. We have not had any problem with them bothering the gardens. Our yard is not overly groomed, there are some areas around the edges, near woods that are left more natural. The deer eat there and don't seem to be that interested in coming close to get near the garden. I do have a small fence around my vegetable garden, more to keep rabbits, my cat and neighborhood dogs out, I don't think it would really keep the deer from eating if they really wanted to, but so far they have not caused any trouble.

Good gardening, Mary

I have a stake that has one of my husbands nasty tee shirt that he's logged all day in .Seems to keep them away as long as i remember to change it after a rain.

I found some deer netting at Lowe's, it's 7'x100'. I use it to drape over my veggies and flowers. It looks just like bird netting but is long instead of being square. It is green and blends in so you can't see it unless you are right in front of it.

Another thing you can do is to make up a deer repellent from water, eggs and garlic. Spray it around and the deer don't like the smell. Also, blood meal helps to repel deer as they think something was killed there.

I have a dark deer netting around my garden supported by t-posts. Its 7 foot, but the man down the road put it up to just a 5 foot heigth. Haven't had any problems either in the garden or with any of my veggies in containers outside the fencing.

The drunk across the road just told me today that last year while my husband and I were away, he and his family took 5 deer from the front of our property and, of course, ate them all this past year. Now I'm trying to figure out whether he poached in June while we were in Florida for two weeks or in August while we were in Wyoming, S. Dakota and Montana for two weeks. Either way, we've told him before "no hunting on our property" and I know deer season doesn't start until either late November or early December, so he was out of season either way. Next time we leave, I'll ask the neighbors to call the police and DNR if they hear any gunshots from our place.

I have a 6 foot fence of 2+4 welded wire with posts and wire could be done for 50 bucks or less
My neighbors apple trees seem to keep them out of the garden (:

Very nice garden by the way

Thank you so much for your responses everyone. Each and every word is so helpful to me, and i just soak them up.

A few specific replies:

Makete, would you believe there are coyotes in the woods around me? Although i never see them together, the deer and the coyotes both share the same paths, so i'm not entirely sure a scent mark would cause the deer enough dismay to keep them away. But i do remember when there was a bunch of coyote fur around one of my apple trees, and that tree remained entirely unmolested for some time. So you've definitely given me food for thought ... while it's easy to convince hubby to pee around the edibles, the coyotes might not be so compliant ... :)

Heather, no i-deer! I LOVE that! And i also love your suggestion about the bird netting, because i happen to have extra from when i decided i had to protect the strawberries from pecking beaks. Although it may not be as permanent solution as some of the other excellent suggestions here, it's on hand so i might as well give it a try.

Wayne, your observation is keen. There are woods on both sides of me, and the deer move through my field on a fairly regular basis. I know i should chase them even when they're not being naughty, but i just can't seem to bring myself to do that unless they're being destructive. I actually find them to be so beautiful, with their odd combination of frailty and force, the goofy ears and swatting tails. So i don't mind sharing - to a point! Why oh why won't they respect my rules?

Caavonlady, i tried your mix! I used water, eggs, garlic, Tabasco, and hot pepper because it's what i had on hand and poured it around the beds. I also shaved Irish Spring soap around the beds, so hopefully, the mix of deterrents will provide a little more incentive for them to move elsewhere should they return.

For those of you who have found netting and posts to be successful, thank you for the encouragement there. I think that's the route i'm eventually going to move towards, because these deterrent approaches are just too sporadic in their effectiveness.

Meanwhile, i've cleaned up the damage and top dressed the newly empty squares with compost to help them recover from their trauma. :) And i'm actually pretty happy at the moment, because i have all kinds of space now to play with another wave of seeds. So ... all seems well with the world.

Thank you again for your support and suggestions everyone. I really do deeply appreciate it.

I didn't read through the entire thread, but I've lived in the country all my life with deer, rabbits, pheasants, squirrels, raccoons, etc.... a long time ago, an old farmer told my dad and I to put Irish Springs soap around the garden because the smell will deter animals from eating your plants. Well, we tried it and haven't had a single issue since. I've recommended this method to the rest of my family and some have said it doesn't work. I will say that the rest of my family lives in the city, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not? Maybe city animals have put up with so much pollution and pesticides that they are immune to the simple fragrance? Not sure?

I've watched rabbits walk through my garden and not touch a thing. I cut one bar into quarters and place small pans of the soap at each corner of the garden, and then one pan of soap quarters in the middle of each outer edge. I have no factual and/or scientific basis for recommending Irish Springs, but I'll just say that I don't have a single issue with animals eating my plants. Good luck!