Deer Fencing for Raised Beds

Raised beds are the best-value fencing project there is. The perimeter is short, the value inside is high, and the bed frame gives you something solid to fix to.

Height is measured from the ground, not the bed

The most common mistake. A deer standing beside a 2-foot raised bed jumps from ground level, so a 4-foot fence on top of the bed is a 6-foot obstacle from where the deer is standing, but only if you measure from the ground.

Work in total height above grade. Six feet of total height handles most garden situations for a small enclosure, because deer are reluctant to jump into a confined space they cannot see a landing in.

That reluctance is why raised beds get away with less height than a perimeter fence needs. Minnesota Extension asks for 8 feet on larger areas but records micro-exclosures of 8 by 16 feet excluding deer at only 50 inches.

Three approaches

Hoop and netting. PVC or metal hoops over the bed with netting draped and clipped to the frame. Cheapest, fastest, removable for harvest. Also excludes birds and cabbage white butterflies.

Weakness: netting sags onto plants and deer will graze through it where it touches. Keep it taut and clear of foliage.

Corner posts and mesh. Four to six posts bolted to the bed frame, mesh stretched between them, mesh top or open. More permanent and much easier to work in than hoops.

Weakness: an open top invites determined deer. Add a top layer if you have real pressure.

Fully enclosed cage. A framed structure with a door. Most expensive and by a distance the most effective. It also excludes rabbits, groundhogs and birds simultaneously.

Worth it for a bed you rely on for food.

Fixing to the frame

Bolt posts to the outside of the bed frame rather than driving them into the soil inside. Driving posts inside the bed disturbs root zones and makes the bed harder to turn over each season.

Do not forget the bottom

Deer are not the only problem at bed height. Rabbits and groundhogs walk straight in through anything with a gap at the base — Penn State's groundhog guidance is to bury the lower edge of the fence 12 inches, with the bottom 6 inches turned outward. Run the mesh down to the top of the frame and fix it continuously. A 3-inch gap all the way round is an open door for everything smaller than a deer, and UC IPM puts the mesh needed to keep young rabbits out at no larger than an inch.

Access

Whatever you build, you will be in this bed twice a week all summer. A structure that requires dismantling to harvest gets left open, and an enclosure left open is not an enclosure.

Build a hinged panel or a proper door from the start.

Comparing the three

What to buy

• Hoops. Half inch PVC is cheap and sags under wet netting, which puts the net on the plants and lets deer graze straight through it. Half inch EMT conduit or 9 gauge galvanised wire holds its shape. Space hoops 3 to 4 ft apart.
• Netting. Deer netting runs about a 1.75 inch mesh. Drop to three quarters of an inch and the same net excludes birds, which is most of the value of covering a vegetable bed at all.
• Posts. Two by two cedar, or 1 3/8 inch galvanised top rail if you want it to outlive the bed. Either is enough at this span.
• Fixings. Carriage bolts through the bed frame, 5/16 inch, with a washer on the inside. Deck screws into the end grain of a bed that spends every summer wet will pull out, and they always pull out in August with a full crop inside.
• Total height. Six feet above grade, measured from the soil the deer stands on rather than from the top of the bed.

Spend the money on the door rather than on a heavier mesh. Every one of these gets opened twice a week from May onwards, and the enclosure that is awkward to open is the one that ends up propped open.