Do the deer come that close to the house?

An electric fence would do the trick, although it's a bit close to the path and you might accidentally zap yourself.....

Linda

Deer won't be your primary problem with that space/location. A couple of motion detector flood lights will very likely put an end to that issue.

Dave

Where are you located? Around here, groundhogs will happily eat that space.

Agree, motion sensing lights, saw some solar ones at Lowe's (no wiring) for cheap. How close will deer come to eat your stuff? When my mom was too old to go out and garden anymore, we fixed some containers on the front porch so she could go out and "garden." The floor of the porch was five steps above ground level, the deer cleaned out all the containers AND left proof who did it-scat-on the porch! This was not in "suburbia" but on our farm with hundreds of acres of deer browse surrounding. I think they are just very cunningly evil. I'd advocate "lead poisoning" but that doesn't work. :-(

Are rabbits a problem? If so some type of wire mesh fence (1" square or 1"x2") will work.

Someone once called this behavior 'hit and run posting'. :-)

Sorry, I'm definitely reading them all, but now I'm focused on growing the seeds indoors for now The fence won't do much good if they don't survive and I really want to grow them from seed. I put the plants in simple pots with Scott's Moisture Control Soil. Apparently I'm being told this wasn't the best choice (I'm a newbie after all). If I wanted to get a new pot going with some tomato seeds, what would you recommend in regards to soil. I've read about adding other things to it like peat moss, but then others say not to. Thanks!

David, this is probably blasphemy, but I use those compressed burpee soil pellets intended specifically for seeds for my veges. I always get enough for the garden.

Deer, oh yeah. They come right up next to the house to eat my day lilies.

"what would you recommend in regards to soil"

The simplest is to just buy a bag of any basic seed starting mix. Numerous brands available. Otherwise many just use Miracle Grow Soil-less potting mix. What you do NOT want is the MG Garden Soil or any brand with the moisture control in it.

As for brand names - Scotts is one to avoid IMO because of its quality control issues and because that add too much dirt to what is supposed to be a soil-less mix. Same goes for some of the Kellogg's brand mixes. They get consistent bad reviews.

You want a basic blend of peat and perlite. Use next winter to learn all about soil mixes and the ones that are good and those that are bad. It takes research and you don't have time to learn it all now..

Dave

To fence an area that small, you could start with T-posts and plastic mesh deer fencing. The advantage to this would be it gives you a chance to evaluate how well things do in this spot before investing a lot of money in a fence.

We have an excessive amount of deer and groundhogs, I came up with this as the most cost effective way to deal with the 2..

The bottom of the fence is built up to extend height and prevent the ground hogs from slipping under or climbing over. Also attached siding to any bottom skirt plates which could be an issue. Final height is about 5 and a 1/2 feet to prevent creatures jumping/climbing over it. Never had a breach yet. Fence is about 6 years old.

A smaller contraption I made just for cucumbers, roughly 10x6 with hinged top doors for access.

peak at the inside

link to my vegetable gardening series if you want to see more.