Deer are getting into the garden. Thankfully, they haven’t done any noticeable damage (yet). They did some pretty awful stuff to the apple trees last year, so I’m working on a project that I’ve been planning/thinking about for quite some time.
It’s called The Citadel; it’s essentially a combination of a chicken moat and animal wintering buildings placed around the garden/orchard for the purpose of deterring deer and other animals from causing trouble.
The wall of The Citadel is made from repurposed T Posts, lined with 3′ chicken wire and a couple of strands of electric fence. The purpose is not to keep predators out; the purpose is to keep nuisance animals out and to keep chickens in. This should serve to help against deer (electric lines) and rabbits (chicken wire). We don’t tend to have a lot of predators during the day; I’ve seen fox on the field edges but not near the garden.
I’ll try to put together some images soon, to give an idea of what is happening. However, at this time, the south, east, and west sides of the garden/orchard will have Citadel wall around them with chickens roaming inside. With the already present garden fence, this new fencing should stop deer due to their poor depth perception. If the fence doesn’t work as-is, I’ll end up upgrading to welded wire and that should keep the south/east/west fence protected.
For the north, I will be building what I call The Chalet; our animal wintering buildings. This will a) put buildings in place against the fence, making it less desirable for an animal to try to jump the fence and b) it will keep large animals nearby, deterring animals from approaching the garden on the north side.
I think this will work well, but I’ll need to work on it as I go through the summer. Right now, I have enough supplies to cover the east, and half of the south fence.
This may end up being moot once we’ve surrounded the property with field fencing, but even then it’ll be useful against small critters, keeping domestics out, and keeping chickens in.