Does anyone else get deer in their garden and if you do....

[Plink]

...how do you keep them out of your vegetable patch?! I know we need fencing but I'm not sure how high or how sturdy. We also have lots of rabbits. I'm assuming chicken wire round the bottom of whatever fencing we have but will it need to be sunk into the ground? Any advice welcome

I've just taken on an allotment and, apparently, we have deer in the area though I haven't actually seen them yet. We've put up a rabbit fence but the deer will be able to jump over it so we've been told to run string between the fence, ie from one side of the plot to the other which puts them off as they don't want to get tangled up (plus it scares the birds)

I've also bought some deer deterent in the garden centre. You put it in a watering can and water over the plants, it smells funny to the deer and puts them off (is ok to use on edibles) and we've put tree protectors around our newly planted fruit trees.

Whether it works though - only time will tell!

Good idea about the string, I've read that deer have poor eyesight so I guess the string would confuse them.
I didn't know you could get deterrent though, will investigate that at local garden centre. Thanks.
Good Luck

We have deer but they never seem to do any damage to the plants. Rabbits, on the other hand...! The best deterrant I ever had was a cat - we counted up how many he dragged home one summer and he had caught over 100.

Chicken wire is the way to go if you have a problem but it will need to be buried in order to be effective. Good luck

Deer need 6 foot high fencing to keep them out, so I'd try alternatives first!

not many deer where I live.

Human hair in an old pair of tights tied to strategic fencing sometimes works, also if you are anywhere near a zoo or wildlife park, get hold of some lion poo. (Dragging up old forestry lectures from college)

We've friends who emigrated to Canada and discovered they got deer in the garden. The local approach (which seems very effective, is to have a normal 3ft-sh fence (I think there's featured chickenwire) and then to run a line of cord above head hight. The low fence stopped them wandering and the cord discouraged jumping. The low fence also wasn't desperately robust - there was plenty of space for the deer to go else where so they didn't need major persuasion to stay out.