Cheap Deer Fence: Best Cheap Garden Fencing!

I think every gardener has struggled with pests at some point, and many of us battle the same critters year after year! Recently deer have been the single biggest problem for me (although this was also a really bad year for grasshoppers too!). And cheap garden fencing is hard to find! Today I’d like to share my deer story. You’ll find out what has worked for me (and what hasn’t!) in this list of my tried and true cheap deer fence ideas for your garden!

 

Cheap Deer Fence Ideas for Your Garden

 

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I’ve had deer problems starting with my first garden, which wasn’t fenced at all. The deer would nibble the tips off my tomatoes and did quite a bit of damage to my green beans one year. Still they were manageable.

I actually had a bit of a reprieve from major deer problems for several gardens in a row until my current garden, but I’ll get to that!

My second garden had a low fence that deer could easily clear. It really wasn’t a deer fence at all. There were deer on the property every day. The first season I planted a garden there, I also planted wormwood bushes all around the perimeter. Deer and rabbits don’t like the strong bitter smell of the plant. It actually worked surprisingly well for the four years I gardened there.

My next garden consisted of densely planted raised beds in town, and garden number 4 was on a property with noisy dogs. Thankfully I didn’t have much of a deer problem on either of those properties.

Garden number 5 was the first one where I had to use actual deer fence.

 

Does Cheap Deer Fence Actually Work?

 

In garden number 5 I used the super cheap deer fence found in most garden centers.

 

 

Did it work?

Well, it did the first year I used it.

The first garden I used cheap deer fence for was long and narrow, if I remember correctly it was 75′ long, but only about 12′ wide.

I think the dimensions of this garden are the biggest reason it worked so well. Deer don’t like to be confined in a small space. The garden was so narrow they weren’t comfortable jumping in. And although there were deer all over the property, the garden wasn’t in a high traffic area.

Held up by T posts, with a bright colored ribbon all the way around, the cheap garden fencing held up all season.

The following year I used it again, reusing the same netting for a 10×20′ garden. It did hold up, I think again because the smaller garden size discouraged deer from trying to get in.

Unfortunately, my landlord wanted me to move my garden to a different spot that had more deer traffic. At the same time I expanded to 50’x60′. I did buy new rolls of the same type of cheap deer fence.

It was a disaster! No sooner did my garden start to grow than the deer began hopping over the 7′ deer fence. I attached bamboo stakes to the top of the post and added a bright colored ribbon around the top. Then they started going under! My cheap garden fencing was looking like a disaster!

 

When I used garden stakes to anchor the netting to the ground, my friendly neighborhood deer decided to just charge straight through the cheap deer fence!

Every day I would mend the gaping holes they made in the deer fence, only to find new ones the next morning. My garden was decimated. Pretty much the only thing we were able to harvest was the root vegetables (and even these were missing their tops).

Not a good gardening year!

 

Using a Stronger Plastic Deer Fence

 

 

After my disaster with the cheap deer fence, I had to find something stronger that wouldn’t break the bank. As much as I would love to have a nice “real” deer fence made out of metal wire, it just wasn’t feasible.

I did a lot of research and found this nicer plastic deer fence by Tenax. It is still plastic, but much heavier duty than the cheap stuff I had been using. It has a 500+ lb. breaking point, so even if a deer runs into it it won’t break.

We originally used the 8′ fencing, which is actually a little taller than our posts, but I was worried with how determined our deer are the 6′ version would not have been tall enough. It would probably work fine for a smaller garden area, but the spot we used this fencing on is 70×75′ (yes, I do make my garden bigger every time I have to redo the fencing anyway). Tenax does sell several different sizes of this sturdy plastic fencing and the new roll I got (to expand the garden yet again this year) is the 6′.

 

We used zip ties to attach the fencing to T posts, with wood posts at the corners.

This is our third season of using the cheap deer fence year round, and not a single tear! We’ve really been impressed with this “economy” cheap garden fencing!

 

Using Scraps of Field Wire to Grow Outside the Garden

 

 

Another type of deer fencing we’ve had good luck with is scraps of regular 4-5′ high field wire. The deer can jump it, but in the two seasons we’ve been using it they have not tried.

The secret to getting by with such short fencing is to individually fence tiny areas with a few plants. The pictured area is about 10′ across with winter squash in a few hills in the middle. We have tried and cannot grow winter squash outside the garden without the deer eating the entire plants. This protects the main part of the plant from deer. They will eat any vines that poke through, though!

We set up six of these cheap garden fences this year, all with scraps of field wire that we had laying around. The smaller 2×4 holes are more effective than the 6×6″ stuff since the deer can’t reach through them at all. We still use both sizes. This is a good way to fit in more of space hogging vining crops so they don’t take over the main garden.

We wrap the field wire around into a circle. It would help to put in a couple T posts to better anchor it, but we never have. For the most part a small circle of wire will stand up fine on it’s own.

In the end we found that yes, cheap garden fencing does work!

Find more tips for gardening on a budget here!

Have you found a cheap solution for deer? Share in the comments!