North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Alan Haigh" <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Whenever I have a deer that decides my 6' fence is worth the leap to get into my veg. garden I drive in some stakes a couple of feet in front of the fence and run a single strand of heavy mono filament nylon deep sea fishing line about 3' above the ground on the stakes.  I buy line that is too strong for me to break with my hands- sometimes you can get it used.  The stakes don't have to be very strong, I use 2"X2" pressure treated pieces about 6' tall before driving.  I realize that these stakes don't fulfil any aesthetic requirement but mono-filament is almost invisible so at least that would be a good replacement for barbed wire.  The deer absolutely hate it because it is hard to see and trips them up.

 

I have a small nursery on a clients estate in Westchester, NY which is visible from their multi-million dollar home.  I protect my trees with a black plastic fence supported by raw Virginia cedar posts.  The fence is practically invisible from their house and they let me use the property because they think the fruit trees are beautiful. 

 

They also approve of the fence which is about 7' tall, obviously because they can barely see it.  I protect the bottom of the plastic fence with a couple feet of black plastic coated galv. steel chicken wire buried a few inches into the ground and have never had coons or deer bust their way in.  Of course the coons can climb in.  I have protected nursery trees in heavy deer pressure areas this way for many years but never more than half an acre or so.