Hi Carol, I can understand how the idea of building permits ever got started--protection of the public!--and the real needs for that in housing and other buildings. But if it gets applied to pergolas, it seems unrelated to public safety. How much do they charge someone for building a pergola? Perhaps the charge is so low that it's a mere nuisance? The main argument for a pergola is that it's very inviting and attractive the year around. I have seen pictures of posts with chain swags in a famous Paris public garden and the roses look fantastic there. As best I can recall, the posts were large pillars and fairly tall, though I cannot find a picture now. The rub would be what it would look like in the winter and early spring if you're not building large (wide) pillars, but are using wooden posts. If you are headed toward a circle of posts, a circle of tepees might look better when uncovered in the winter and early spring. Our first fence was professionally installed and the fence-builder's suggestion was that posts set into a gravel footing hole would work fine. Anything set up as our do-it-yourself building books suggested, with the posts in concrete, would have been noticeably more money so we went for what we could afford at the time, and that was already plenty expensive. That method did work reasonably well, although not quite totally solidly if you pushed against a post. After about 20-25 years the posts had rotted in the ground, though, and my husband had to do the fence posts over again. At one time, our fencing on two sides held thin "farm" wire mesh fencing (6 feet high) and I loved the looks of it, because beyond the fence were beautiful woodsy areas I liked to be able to see and the fencing didn't detract or distract from that view. I think the sections were about 8' each, as you are considering for yours. I'm no expert at all on rabbits, but I wonder whether a fence that is only 3' high would be tall enough. I think, though I'm not positive as to the exact route the rabbit took, that a rabbit here has jumped up to some landscape timbers that were 3' or higher off the ground (to trim way back our Julia Child roses for us). Rabbits love roses. The best way to make sure you have no deer problems is to prevent deer from finding your roses and vegetables in the first place. I'd suggest that you not wait to see what happens, because once hungry deer have a memory of getting food at a certain place, it's much, much more difficult to ever keep them out. There's a book that discusses keeping out deer that's well worth reading now (right now, to help you plan). Your local library ought to have it, but if not, it's relatively inexpensive to buy from Amazon: "Deerproofing Your Yard & Garden" by Rhonda Massingham Hart. Deer aren't kept out by rose hedges, not if jumping them is to a spot they are already familiar with, such as would be the case for them while the roses were growing up. They don't jump into areas they can't see or are unfamiliar with, though. Deer will eat roses, all roses, even very thorny ones, if they are hungry enough. That tends to occur in winter and early spring during some years, but not all. (After a famine, generally caused by more breeding than the land's vegetation can support, the deer don't reproduce well, so the deer population pressure on the land lowers for a few years then; that cycle can mislead you into thinking that you've solved the deer access problem when you haven't.) Your gorgeous front gate with an arch will be wonderful, and so inviting. I've seen many pictures of that being done, and don't think I've ever seen one that looked less than wonderful! Best of luck! Mary Here is a link that might be useful: Phillip Oliver's pictures offer lots of landscaping ideas

Good luck with your gardening :) I know the addictive feeling - its like falling down a rabbit hole and there's so much to learn. Another novice here - started for the first time last year. I used pvc coated chicken fire to fence my small plot on the ground, as well as a small raised garden bed. I took a chance and didn't fence with deer in mind - my primary issue was rabbits - fence was about 2.5 ft or so tall. Worked well enough for the rabbits that I have running around the yard. Although I have seen deer a few times in my front and back yard this winter, so not sure what how it will go. Another thing I can suggest, and may have worked for me - is perimeter planting a bunch of mixed fragrances that the deer don't like - I remember reading somewhere that deer tend to stay away from places where there's a lot of different smells because it makes it harder for them to detect predators - So I planted a perimeter of scallion, garlic, and a few other herbs just inside my garden fence. Wanted to grow them anyway. Relatively low cost, and can't hurt for sure. Other suggestions that I have read and heard that make sense - - hang up a bar of irish spring soap on a string next to the plot, - set up a cheap radio with timer that goes off at a few random times. - I've had a couple of people very seriously recommend sprinkling pet urine or human urine around the the garden fence. Supposed to work really good, but haven't tried that :) - the most reliable way AFAIK is to have 2 fences - one at least 6 ft tall, and another one a couple of feet apart that can be shorter. Supposedly deer don't want to jump a fence if there's 2 layers. This is cost-prohibitive for me. But I've seen this setup in a few fancy backyard gardens. Looking at your pictures, I think best bet for you if you have a lot of deer around is to just set up a 6-7 ft fence - home depot etc sell rolls of deer fence. You can use a couple of uposts or tposts, or even emt conduit. I set up my first fence using u posts, but if I could do it over again, I would use emt conduit hammered into the ground, and slide a PVC sleeve over it. Regardless, good luck with your efforts and Enjoy! Hope you get some good tasting harvest.

For that small a space, you don't want any sort of fence that will obscure sunlight reaching the plants. That means you are more or less restricted to wire fencing. Chicken wire would be the lest expensive and only requires very simple metal supports. And comes in various widths. For deer protection you need one that is quite tall - at least 6'; 8' is better. For a more formal fence, I would look at large wire mesh or hogwire with proper wooden framing.

If the current perimeter wall is in good condition, I actually think I would first consider seeing if the orange vertical stone could be stained gray and, if so, I would forego the expense of removing the perimeter wall and instead invest in creating an amazing modern landscaping design.