Are you really happy with a totally shaded house? Sunlight streaming into the house is completely necessary to my well-being. I just wonder whether it would be possible to eliminate some of the trees in your back yard. Sitting outside in your back garden surrounded by beautiful roses and enjoying the sunshine seems like such a life-enhancing experience.

Ingrid

I am really happy with a shaded house. Our lot is set up so that the house is on the edge of woods and the yard is off to the north side. Cutting down trees is not an option as the property line is quite close to the house and if we cut down our trees the neighboring trees would still keep us shaded. We still get plenty of sunlight and in the summer, the shade is a life saver. I spend most of my time outside, I have a vegee garden and a flower garden with a fire pit and seating area in the middle, so I enhance my life out there already. I now just want to add a rose garden somewhere.

chain link has its uses and in some certain places it is necessary as yard fencing. But in the country? Blech! That would be like a barbed wire fence in a city. Not that EITEHR is attractive because they are not. Chain link is for hoodlums and their pit bulls and barbed wire is for critters. Big ones. Still, good luck with finding the perfect country fence.
I imagine iron rail would be pretty bullet proof and wouldn't rot. just give it a coat of Tremclad as needed.

In my sister's neighborhood (Los Altos Hills, Calif), deer fencing is very common. They are using an oversize livestock panel (6' rather than the customary 4 or 5'). They use wood posts (mostly for esthetics) and then add a top rail. It doesn't look too bad, really! In the country, farm or feed stores-- even equipment dealers-- can generally tell you where to order fence materials. Rabbits are repelled by leftover beauty shop hair and by bloodmeal, but unfortunately both look & smell GROSS!

In our back yard, we have 8 foot high black chain link fence. We really like it a lot. It is strong enough that I can train moderate climbers right onto it, though I would put in a separate support for a truly heavy climber. And the black is almost completely invisible, much more so than green fencing. One of our neighbors used green and it stands out like a sore thumb. From a distance you can scarcely see our fence at all.

In the front yard we used wood framed panels with stock wire fencing. Recently at the San Francisco Garden Show I saw a similar fence only with hog wire instead of stock fencing. If I had it to do all over, I would definitely go with the hog wire. It is much sturdier. If any panels need to be replaced, that is what we will use.

JZ - I have used the very heavy, 8' high (it is now 7.5' with some distributors), black netting. It works effectively against deer providing that you keep it up and don't let branches knock it down. It can be obtained from Deer Busters in Maryland or from Benner's in PA. See

http://www.deerbusters.com/

http://www.bennersgardens.com/prod_larger_enclosures.asp

I put the deerbuster product up using 4 x 4 x 10 pressure treated posts every 32' with 1 or 1.25 galvanized conduit pipe at 16' between the posts (I drove or dug both 2' into ground). Both outfits give you directions and/ or video (Benners) to show you how. One critical aspect is to protect the fence with a high tinsel top wire in areas with trees so that branches don't continually knock the fence down. I learned this the hard way. It takes a little planning and effort, but believe me it works. Best, Nick

I have heard that to keep deer out you need to go 8' high, or else they may be able to jump over. And then to keep the critters out that dig, you need to bury the fence 1-2' underground so they can't burrow underneath and get in. Rabbits burrow, don't they?

Around here, fencing put up specifically for deer is the 8 ft plastic mesh. There is a fair amount of variation with the posts. The orchards use metal posts, places that worry about aesthetics go for red cedar logs.

I think I've seen six foot white picket with a strand of wire or two at 8 ft. That would be more expensive than the plastic mesh, of course.

Thanks so much for all the input and ideas. I will look into that deer netting. I know there are feed stores around here, it just did not occur to me to go there for fencing, but it makes sense!! If I start saving now, (or win the lottery) I may be able to start something by fall!!

Feeling encouraged,
Thanks again!
jz

How heavy is your deer pressure? If it is not too bad-the deer are not starving and have plenty of other stuff to snack on you could try what I do. I live in the country so there is plenty of browse. I put up posts in the spring-lately I have been using a hightly visible white post intended to carry an electric fence...has a little built in metal foot. I string fishing line in the early spring as my roses leaf out. The line is esentially invisible. This is the training phase. The deer do not like running into things they cant see. After a few visits they dont come back. I have woods behind my house and I have strung line through the woods behind the beds up here which I leave up but I remove the other. If I get a visit I put it back up-takes just a few minutes. This really works but as I said it will only work if you have other stuff around for them to eat. A starving deer will take chances. For Wabbit--any low fence will do. We have those too but we also have varmits who love rabbit.

patricia

Patricia
We have a family of 6 to 9 deer that come in the night. I think they travel through here on their way to something else. We have had 4 in the last 2 years get hit by cars and die in our yard - gads. There is plenty for them to eat as we are surrounded by woods, but I do know that there are corn fields across the street behind those houses. I found today that they nibbled on a couple of apple trees and a rhodie that are along side the woods, not too far from my proposed rose garden location. I love the idea of redirecting them, but I have seen them in the woods in all directions during the morning and early evening. They come into the yard during the night when we are asleep. Maybe I could try this idea around the apple trees to see if it works. I might worry that the deer could get caught up in the lines, does that ever happen?

I also have a herd that moves around. I have two areas to protect( I have over 500 roses). They nose around and just hit the line cant see it and try a new path. I have never had one tangle in the line or even disturb it-this is a very old trick. I put the line about a foot from the roses. You could use fine string if you are worrried about plastic line. Deer are said to have poor close up vision. I am a weaver and have used all sorts of odd bits of left over warp in the woods. To have them end up dead in your yard-ACK! that would be awful.

patricia

This won't help with the deer, but we have a double loop ornamental wire fence. That's a big fancy name for this old-fashioned type wire. It isn't an issue for us, but I've heard it is effective in keeping out bunnies and such. Oh, and that's MAC last year, she is three times that size now and covered in blooms.

{{gwi:255592}}

Have you considered the great American sport of deer hunting? Seriously, although I have heard of the hair method for rabbits, you would have to pour concrete under the fence to kep animals from digging out. Yes, deer can jump eight foot fences, do can big dogs. I have heard that deer dislike Lady Banks roses and Cherokee roses. Might want to try planting aggressive roses on your fence. Planting Rye Grass in the woods might slow the deer down a bit.

Thank you for the picture redbirds! I quite like that type of fencing.

brhgm - We are surrounded by deer hunters out here! No hunting allowed on our properties though :( We aren't even allowed to "put down" the suffering deer that get hit by cars out here. We have to call the game warden to come take care of it!

I just found this morning that the dear deer chewed down my tulips. I thought they were safe until they got bigger so I had not put up a barrier there yet. oh I am so mad!!!!

I live in the suburbs outside of KC and the deer love my roses and the plants in my shade garden. They have already eaten many of my daffodils. They even get the bird food out of the feeders that hang on the lower branches of my trees. I have found that Liquid Fence does help if I use it every 2 weeks and spray heavily. I spray in the evening. The smell is gone by morning.

I do not have a SERIOUS critter problem, but I have success using solid room "fresheners". Deer have a very strong sense of smell and do not like scents they cannot identify. My uncle had an enormous deer problem and tried every kind of fencing you can imagine. One of his fences actually fenced in several deer which thoroughly destroyed his garden. He has great success using milorganite in his yard.

Kathy

Here is a link that might be useful: Milorganic

We have a five foot tall old fashioned wooden fence surrounding our property with mesh and only rabbits get in our yard, or I imagine that they do since I never see deer in the yard and damage to things is usually minor, thus rabbits.

Max

Fortunately I live in a fairly urban part of my area, but just for "nightmare" sake this pic went around locally in the last few days. It is from a more rural part of my area.

I am sure these folks don't grow roses...lol.

{{gwi:255593}}

and yes it appears they have started to feed them as winter is draggin along far past the point it should have.

cathy

That's almost as scary as Olga and Harry's JB photos. Shudder.

All the roses that I ordered from Vintage this year have been eaten by deer. Never got a chance to see what Oldtimer would look like because they ate the buds. I'm thinking of using a combination of Liquid Fence and something called Wireless Deer Fence which is a post with two AA batteries that will shock the deer. Have any of you used this Wireless Fence? Can you tell me if it really works to keep deer away from rose bushes? Would a combination of Liquid Fence and Wireless Fence work?? Thank you. Margaret

Can you use a shotgun?

Robert

A shotgun might work if you have good aim, a hunting license and it is deer season.

Barbara

Wish I could use a shotgun but discharging a firearm in the city limits would get me arrested. Plus taking deer out of season is frowned on by the DNR. Does anyone have one of those electric fences with two lines, one near the top and one near the bottom that they've rigged electrically to shock the deer? I think they bait it with peanut butter. If anyone out there could tell me how its built I'd be grateful. Thanks. Summer_fashion

If I had your wildlife, and a large lot or acreage, I'd plant a hedgerow of the shorter types of Hybrid Spinosissima such as Stanwell Perpetual, or R. spinosissima, to create a low thorny fence to discourage the little bunny rabbits, around the regular rose garden. Even if the bunnies do eat some of the spinosissma rose foliage, because the roses produce only one bloom cycle, the bush won't need as much foliage to photosynthesize and create blooms every month or two. Behind the row of spinosissima roses, a fence to discourage deer, planted with a row of beautiful thorny Ramblers,on the inside facing the rose garden,which would create a spectacular vista of bloom in early summer, and a wall of foliage through early autumn.
From spring through early autumn, at least your vista would be of roses and foliage, and only in the winter, when you'll probably be spending less time in your garden, would the fence be more visible.

Luxrosa

My deer don't bother the rugosas, spinosissimas, gallicas. Hybrid perps and chinas are also low on their list. Hybrid Teas, most modern floribundas and Lg Fl climbers, and bourbons are top favorites.

There is also now a solar-powered electric fence, which I am contemplating for next year's vegie garden (deer, bunnies and groundhogs having eaten this year's).

I've seen black chain link fence recommended on HGTV so it is acceptable aesthetically to the experts. It does disappear into the background. And anyway, since you are planting a rose garden, it will be covered in roses (deer proof varieties) in a couple of years.

I'm going to suggest something I haven't tried but my fellow assessor uses it in his garden to help feed his 9 children. He says he can't afford to feed the deer or any other critter.

It consists of two wires 6" apart on the ground and hooked up to a electric fence thing. Supposedly animals that are out to nibble are very suspicious of anything foreign and will first sniff it to see if it might be good to eat and/or to check it out. Zap!

Hard to imagine that even a shock such as that would deter them when they could just step over it but Dan claims it works. And it beats an 8' fence anytime!

I haven't had any problem with deer as until lately I had a dog.

I may need to check out some of those "scents" they sell like Cayote? urine.