Also its hard to see in the pic but I do have a 4' chicken wire fence border. :)

I really can't help you out with your problem. I've had them stand on my back porch eating plants. The only thing i have been able to do is plant a separate area for them so they leave my main garden alone. Though it is easy for me since I have over 50 acres to play with.

I highly recommend the Scarecrow sprinkler. I have used them for 3 or 4 years now and they are very effective. It uses a 9 volt battery which will last about 8 weeks or so. You hook it up to a hose and point it toward your garden. It has a motion activator, so when something (or someone) passes through it's sites, it cuts on, makes a loud clatter, and sprays a very heavy stream of water at the trespasser. If your garden is large, you may need more than one. I can testify that it works. You just have to learn to turn it off when you want to go in the garden and then turn it back on. You can get them online, and I have seen them (rarely) at Walmart.

I had success using lightweight deer netting around a raised bed. It is black and is almost invisible. It also only costs about $15 for a 7'x 100' roll. There is heavier more expensive stuff, but the deer that were after my toms were kept away with the lightweight stuff. They can't see it, but can feel it and will avoid it. Find out just how high you're allowed to put it up. You could use t-posts and maybe paint them black to make them 'disappear'. I had 2"x 2"x 8' stakes pounded down a foot and the netting was tied loosely to the tops and bottoms of the stakes(I didn't need to worry about how they looked so didn't paint or treat them). I kept one bottom corner free to pull aside for entering the area and closed it with a clothespin. There is always a chance a buck will tear the netting with his points but the one buck in our group wasn't around much and kept his distance. It was the does and young that would walk right up to the apartment building that were after my toms.
I added a link to the brand I used. Seems the price has gone up a bit, but I bought mine at Menard's, so maybe you can shop around locally for a better price. Hope this helps and hope you find something that works for you. It's hard to find a nice big mater that's just about ripe with a big bite taken out of it and dropped on the ground.

Here is a link that might be useful: deer block netting

There are also several deer repellants on the market. They have to be applied regularly though. Looks like you could also mount some motion sensor lights nearby and perhaps even one of the sound deterrents. Anything that startles them works for deer.

Dave

last year was my first year of having pumpkins do something. well the deer went after them, and i ended up putting baby powder on them, the deer left them alone after that. but the leaves turned white and the plant still lived and thrived. i also have a dog that will follow me into the garden and lay down, i pull her hair out and let it fly all over to get the sent around

I live in the country. I see a lot of deer fences. One idea is to keep the bottom of the fence (your 4-foot high chicken wire), and put in some posts. These can somewhat thin and flimsy stakes, but make them around 7 or 8 feet high. Tie several horizontal strands of any kind of string around to the posts. You could have one strand at 5 feet, one at 6 feet, and one at 7 feet and another at 8 feet if your posts are that long.

People driving by will only notice the 4-foot chicken wire, and maybe the posts. The horizontal strands above the chicken wire will hopefully not be noticed as much, but should hopefully deter the deer. Also, if you are forced to take it down, you won't be out a bunch of money.

Another idea is a wide fence. If you put a second 4 foot fence outside the first one (with two feet between them), it may be more effective. Supposedly deer don't like to jump over broad obstacles like that. But I'm not sure 4 feet is high enough.

These are just ideas. I can't swear they will work. But they are based on fences I've seen around my house.

(We have an 8-foot tall wire fence designed specifically to keep out deer)

Oh, and someone mentioned the 7-foot black plastic deer fence (thin black plastic mesh). I use that for bird netting over my raised beds when the seedlings are small. It is just about invisible from a distance. So that might work without attracting attention. And again, if you were forced to take it down, it's not like you would have wasted hundreds of dollars.

Good luck!

--McKenzie

A taller fence...60-in x 50-ft Silver Galvanized Steel Perimeter Fence (Lowes). We have tons of deer.

The scarecrow sprinkler worked for me last year.
Keski

The one caveat I have found with the scarecrow sprinkler is when the temperatures drop at night it does not work, so be prepared later in the season if you go that route.

Some additional things we do is keep a gallon milk jug in the bathroom to collect predator urine, dilute it and put around the perimeter of the garden (not on the plants themselves, it will burn them). To aid in the stinky effect, I use fish emulsion periodically to help repel them. I have also concocted mixtures with artemesia, garlic and cayenne and basted fruit trees with it, etc. Good luck.

tishtoshnm .. Are you/family members the predators?

Technically, we do not hunt but, DH is a meat eater so that is cheaper than purchasing predator urine online. It does seem to help with the deer, not so much with the rabbits.

:) If only my urine would deter those damn rabbits. may be I should start eating raw meat :). I moved my garden to containers since rabbits were not letting anything live in my garden. They even eat flowering plants :(

I use liquid fence... I spray around the perimeter of my garden and areas of my yard which are deer access points ... I have been lucky for the last two years with only liquid fence... as my garden is getting bigger I will probably invest in the scarecrow soon. Also pain of liquid fence is you have to keep it up.... if it rains you have to make sure you go back out and respray...

I also plant chilli plants in the front ( I have found chillis with bite markes in them but no bite marks in my toms yet) and this year I am going to try strong smelling herbs.... mint, thyme, rosemary... last year marigolds worked well for me.

"I also plant chilli plants in the front ( I have found chillis with bite markes in them but no bite marks in my toms yet) and this year I am going to try strong smelling herbs.... mint, thyme, rosemary... last year marigolds worked well for me."

Deer won't eat hot pepper fruit, but they do like the foliage. They don't however, like the C. pubescens species as the leaves are fuzzy. So add fuzzy leaved plants to your list. I grew the cherry tomato Velvet Red that has fuzzy leaves one year and they didn't bother it until the toms started to ripen. Then the only damage was broken branches when they went after the toms. The toms of this plant are fuzzy too, but not fuzzy enough to put the deer off.