[Kadelbach]

How do you keep the critters out of your garden?

[wendallb]

Home Depot or one of those places sells what they call rabbit fence. I use it and seems to work well...

[Jandy]

We use various methods. Wood ash from the woodstove sprinkled on beans, beets, anything the deer and rabbit like will stop them. it will, however, slightly burn the leaves because of the lye formation on wet mornings. But most plants come out of it OK. Of course, don't use it on edible greens like lettuce. My husband pees around the edges of the gardens. We use a solar electric fence about 6" or so at the bottom to keep out coons and another round about thigh-high to keep out deer. I also tie blue rags around the top fence. I was told one time by a hunter that the one color a deer can see clearly is blue....? Once the fence has been up a while, we turn off the top one and just run jute around with the blue ties and it seems to keep the deer out.

One of the new things that I really think is working is the product Nite Guard. They are small solar-powered red blinking lights that are supposed to keep pests away. I made scarecrows with cross-pieces attached to metal electric fence posts and put a blue shirt on them and attach the Nite Guards on each side. The trick with deer is to move them about every 3 days. This is the important part. I really do think they are working ... but it could be sheer luck. One never knows with farming! I think if you put them lower they would keep out groundhogs, but one never knows with coon. Electric seems to work with them ... they remember!

[Catspaw]

My biggest problem has been deer eating all my shell beans like a dixie chopper. This year I tried something new.

I have a small plot right in a deer trail. I put a 55 gal barrel at each corner. Attached 10' rebar to each one. Stuck 10 ' rebar at intervals between the barrels. Used deer netting all around.

It has worked.

The theory is.... rebar, while not particularly stable, is cheap and can be removed/moved easily. It provides 7' to 8' post and for the money is alot cheaper than anything I could find to get at least 7' high. Barrels at the corner can be removed/moved easily and provide the stability at the corners. The netting, being black, I beleive is hard for the deer to see at night. When they encounter it, they don't understand it and back off. Any deer can jump 7', but not if they don't know what they are jumping into. I've been told deer have a problem with perspective. If they don't know the jump will be safe, they won't.

So the whole sytem can be easily pulled up and stored for the winter, tilling, cultivating, and even moved to some other plot. I did a 50 x 50 plot for about $100.