Jon,

Thanks for bringing this up, you've attracted a few ideas worth trying. And
also a few self righteous city folk. Personally I believe humans have just
as much right to live in the woods as the deer.

What I've done is use plastic deer fence around my large yard...the deer
pretty much wiped out all my gardens and young fruit trees when they
discovered my area 4 years ago. The plastic deer fence is black and really
seems to blend into the background. I found it on the internet a few years
ago. You have to keep it intact as the deer are good at slipping through
any openings, and if they are trapped inside the yard and get spooked they
can break it when they try to jump over and snag the top. (My fence is only
6 feet high and the company recommended 8 feet high as the deer won't know
what to do when it is that high...my mistake, the deer around here have
springs for legs). I also have used it around smaller spaces such as
gardens.

I'm not sure that anything else will work all the time, deer are really
persistent and they never forget a tasty bud. There is a shed outside and
next to my fence and I once found a deer on top of the shed getting ready to
jump into the yard.

The idea of a horizontal fence sounds like it's worth trying...make it wide
enough so they can't jump over it and raise it off the ground a foot so they
can't walk over it. And maybe a sprinkler that sprayed really hot water.
Double fences would also be really hard to jump over and probably wouldn't
have to be are high as single ones.

The deer seem to ignore that dogs in my neighborhood but how about an
austrailian sheep dog that's trained to chase the deer and nip at their
legs. How about five australian sheep dogs?

Good luck, you are in a war.

John


"Jon Maurer" wrote in message
.. .
Once again this year, one (possible more than one) deer that has made
it's home in our neighborhood had discovered my lillies and other
flowering plants/shrubs and had had a nice meal off the buds and
flowers.

Last year it ate every one of my lilly buds before they flowered; at
least this year most of them had flowered and we'd had weeks of pleasure
from the blooms before they became supper for the deer, but it has also
now eaten all the buds off multiple asters too so I may not see any
color from them this year now.

So, apart from erecting a 6' high electric fence around my entire
property, what is the "never fails" answer to keeping deer away from a
flower-bed but that still allows you to enjoy the pleasure of looking at
the bed directly (I.e. not through chicken-wire, etc,)?

Thanks,

Jon