Upgrading one section of fence and plugging in the deer deterrent seems to have been sufficient to nip last month's deer incursion in the bud.  It's hard to say how much Lucy helps with these problems --- I do sometimes catch her on the game camera barking at the boundaries, but I've also seen deer in the yard with Lucy sound asleep and not noticing.

One of these days I'll write an ebook on the topic, but for now, here's a rundown on the utility of various deer-deterrent techniques.  We've tried everything on this list, and I've organized your options from most to least effective.  I hope the summary helps those of you with high deer pressure.  (Just so you know how high our pressure is --- one neighbor killed 18 deer last fall, I suspect the other neighbor got at least half a dozen, I got 1, Lucy got or found 1, and there are still deer everywhere.)

• Fences --- Moats, especially, are multi-purpose, relatively low-cost ways to keep deer out.  A taller, more solid fence would obviously work even better, but would cost many times more (and wouldn't double as a chicken pasture!).
  
• Deer deterrents --- Mark's deer deterrents are my favorite of the ones I've used, although they wouldn't fly in suburbia.  You really need at least four of these deterrents per acre (probably more, and moved every few weeks) for total protection, but the deterrents gave us perhaps 75% protection even before we erected fences.  Other scare-based deterrents we've used have been worthless for large gardens.
  
• Spot covers --- As a short-term fix while getting a more permanent solution in line, plastic trellis material over especially tasty beds (like strawberries) does work.  Similarly, I've had good luck using one fencepost and some trellis material to make a cage around young trees that are outside our perimeter.
  
• Hunting --- This is really only effective if you're willing to kill deer out of season and to fire at any animals you see in your yard.  Deer are creatures of habit, and I suspect that when we have a repeated incursion, it's the same individuals coming in over and over, so killing that problem deer can make a difference.  You can get a kill permit for shooting deer in your garden out of season, but the permit we got only lasted a short time and didn't feel worth the hassle.
  
• Dogs --- Their utility really depends on the dog.  As I mentioned above, Lucy is sweet, but probably only keeps deer out 15% of the time since she naps most nights and deer are most active in the dark.
  
• Sprays, soap, etc. --- These are completely useless in our climate.  If you have one prize plant and don't live in rainy climate, this might work better for you, but you have to reapply after each rain on all plants you want protected.  Meanwhile, the local standbys of tying smelly bars of soap to a tree or pouring cheap cologne on the ground are completely worthless as well.

Why am I posting about keeping deer out of the garden at the beginning of February when nothing's growing?  This is the time to figure out your campaign for the year, because if a deer gets used to coming into your yard in the winter, it's going to be triply hard to keep it out in the summer.  That's why we ramp up our defenses immediately at the slightest incursion.  Good luck!

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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