We can typically get 6-7 bushel of corn from plot I grow. Last year the deer decimated it so I decided to put up a fence this year in hopes of keeping them out. For the last 4 weeks, between the all day soaking rain events, I've been working on it. The fenced area is a little shy of 7000sf. 6' "T" posts are the main support for the 3" tall woven wire fence I picked up at an auction 2 years ago. 2x4's that I had cut from hemlock trees I took down are wired to every other post. Locust rails from a split rail fence I removed for a customer are used as corner braces. For about 2/3 of it, 4' tall plastic garden fencing is stapled to the 2x4's for a total height of 7'. Since I ran out of plastic, I used some 4' welded wire fence that was left over from the dog fence we put up a couple years ago. To hang that, I screwed small hooks into the 2x4's and then wired the fence to them. This past weekend we had some pretty wicked storms blow through and I was a bit concerned that my little project wouldn't hold up but it was still there Sunday afternoon. The first pic is before the fence. The second 2 are with the project in the works. On the right side you can see the uprights and barely make out the plastic fence that is only partially attached. The wooden gate is access at the mid-point of the garden. On the left side right in front of the wheelbarrow you can just make out a small platform. That's where the bee hives are going to be placed next week. I haven't taken any pics of the finished product yet. If it ever stops raining I'll get to that. The bottom pic is the lower garden that was taken last year. Total gardening space for this year is just shy of 10,000sf.
Good luck! They cut down a small apple orchard near me(like less than a 1/4 mile away) and the deer have been like locusts in our small village ever since! To the point that hubs and I were having a bit of a fire outback and it was just getting dark and four deer snorted and stomped a bit cuz we were too close to the garden and I think they wanted us to leave.. I got up and went over to them (about 20 yards off) and yelled and they turned and ran. Now if you find that they can jump the 6 foot fence(I have read this but not tried it yet) you can get a few little bamboo poles(in the garden center they come in bundles) and tie them to the top of your poles and then string fishing line in horizontal lines across them from one to another. I have tied the fishing line across where they used to come in the yard and they just stopped going that way and go around to another spot, so this year I am gonna try it all along the side and back yard. The claim is that the deer don't like the feel of it on their faces and will not pass.
Great pics Uncle Joe... is that your compost pile to the left in pic 1? - Mine's that big too!! ... I just bought a new Mill Creek manure spreader PT0 driven, -gettin old and lazy We're going to set up a farm stand this year. My garden area is about 2 acres, we're doubling that this year due to increased demand of local produce. A second greenhouse was just added to the the homestead. Up here in Maine deer will jump 6-7 feet! I never believed it till I saw it myself! I made my 3-wire electric deer fence 8 feet high with a 4th wire close to the top with pieces of rags tied to it -so they'll see there's no way!. 1 electric wire at knee level, one at belly button and one at chin hight. I got junk 10' sign posts from the state highway, bent them back in shape, drove them in 2' and strung them with heavy duty galvanized wire on plastic insulators. A solar-powered fence shocker puts out about 50,000 volts to keep deer and moose in line (and bears out of my beehives).
Hope this works for you Uncle Joe. I have heard the fishing line thing works but have never tried it. The deer haven't bothered us yet.
Did you read that in the latest issue of Countryside Magazine? That's where I saw it. I thought about giving it a try since it would have been soooo much easier but I would need a few thousand yards to go around the whole area with 3-4 strands. Everything I used was stuff I've been gathering for the last couple years so I'm not parting with any cash when cash is in short supply. Three days of rain every week is making it hard to get much work done. Basecamp, It's not compost yet but it's well on its way. It's actually 2 small mountains of wood chips. 1 is a few years old and I use this one to apply a thin layer to the gardens every year. The other is last years. I'll add some horse manure as I turn that one 2-3 times this year and then next spring mix the two together and start a new one. By leaving it a little "chunky" it helps keep the soil aerated.
Countryside Magazine ... I remember them. :flower: The total height of 7' should work. It did for us ... till they knocked it down. (the deer jumping into it. :gaah They are one critter that's hard to keep out of a garden. I hope you have better luck. In the end ... they won. :surrender: And I moved the gadren up to the house without a fence around it and let the outside dogs keep them out. That has worked (knock on wood ) for the past few years.
Heh... I see that nobody else has moose and bear problems Even the moose and bear up here will bulldoze right thru a normal fence like it wasn't there, but they don't like shocks. Great compost pile Uncle Joe... I compost mine a year or 2 in advance too... anything I can get, -bark, chips, stall shavings, manure, leaves, seaweed, garden wastes and kitchen scraps, you name it -- if it rots it's included in the heap. It gets spead it out about a foot deep with the tractor, then I dump barrels of fish, crab and lobster waste from the canneries and sea processing plants on top and rototill it to mix it (while hoding by dose). Then it gets wet down real good, heaped up and covered with black plastic with the edges held down by soil (so the neighbors and my wife don't complain). It's ready by the next year, smells richly organic and pleasant, -chuck full of nitrogen & phosphorus. Tomatoes planted with it jump out of the ground like Jack's beanstalk and produce like crazy, actually everything does very well with it.
