Pest protection

For our first 13 years as vegetable gardeners, we never had any trouble with deer. We lost crops to groundhogs, squirrels, and rats at various points, but deer never so much as ventured into the back yard. We assumed in our naivete that the six-foot chain-link fence surrounding the yard was sufficient to keep them out. But last year, we were disabused of that notion, discovering not one, but two deer in our vegetable garden in the space of a month.

After that initial invasion, we started looking into strategies for deterring other cervine intruders. Unfortunately, most of them — deer-resistant plants, deer-repellent sprays, sprinklers, and big, elaborate fences — were either impractical or expensive. But late last summer, we toured the garden of a local guy who's a much more serious gardener than we are, and he showed us how he had modified his chain-link fence to keep out deer by extending its height with a series of horizontal rows of twine strung between tall poles. Since these didn't provide much of a visual barrier, he'd tied some fluttering streamers to each row. That way, a deer wouldn't leap right through the fence because it failed to notice it.

So, this year, as our garden plants started to get big, Brian decided to implement a similar solution in our garden. Since we already had the clear fishing line we'd used for our DIY deer fence in the front yard (which, incidentally, seems to be working so far), he decided to use that instead of twine, relying on the streamers to make it visible to the deer. (For the front yard fence, having it be invisible was the point, since the deer would walk right up to it without realizing it was there and get spooked. But in the garden, what they'd see is a short garden fence that they could easily leap over. We wanted to create something that looked like a taller barrier to deter them from jumping, even if it wouldn't really be strong enough to keep out a determined doe.)

To extend the height of the existing fence posts, we picked up a set of long plastic "plant stakes" from the Ocean State Job Lot for $2.75 each. Brian figured we'd need six, one for each corner and two to go in the centers of the longer sides of the fence, but he got one extra just for good measure. He attached them either by wiring them to the existing fence or threading them through it. 

Then, with me helping to hold the line taut, he ran fishing line from pole to pole, wrapping it and tying it round each one. By the time he was done, there were three rows of fishing line about two feet apart, extending the height of the existing fence from three feet to nine. (They extend across the top of the garden gate as well, but Brian just ducks his head to get under them, and I'm just short enough that I don't need to.)

The only element that's not quite finished yet is the streamers. The material for these needs to be lightweight so it won't cause the fence to sag, but also waterproof so it won't disintegrate in the rain. We experimented with bits of ribbon from our gift-wrapping bag and some silvery tinsel strands that blew into our yard from who-knows-where, but we didn't have enough of either to do the entire fence. 

I have a notion that maybe we can get the material we need by cutting strips out of the plastic bags our weekly ad circulars come in. They're light enough, and the material won't look any worse than anything else once it's cut up; the question is whether we can find a way to cut it neatly. But it doesn't cost us anything to try, since the bags are free and we don't need them for anything else. So it's certainly an ecofrugal solution.

Of course, we don't know yet how effective this makeshift fence will actually be at keeping out deer. Since the incident last summer, we haven't actually seen any in our back yard, so it may not get put to the test for a while. But if our shiny new deer fence turns out to be unnecessary because there aren't any more deer to deter, that's a win in my book.