Ed, I could make suggestions for a fence but couldn't guarantee that it would keep deer out.
My way of fencing is cattle panels and steel T posts. I assemble it with zip ties so they can be easily cut if needed. The cattle panels are 16' long and about 4 foot tall. I suspect the deer could easily go over it but I have dogs in the yard that are a deterrent to deer.
I'm not sure what would be the best solution but I'm sure you'll get many suggestions.
Good luck with your garden plans too.

to NGA Ed

Welcome to NGA, Ed ( @intheswamp ).

For the tomatoes that you need to get planted -- you could just put individual wire fencing cages around them to keep the deer from getting to them.

For the garden in general, you might want to consider something like this "snow fence" (also used on construction sites a lot), which is pretty inexpensive and seems to be sold everywhere: https://www.homedepot.ca/en/ho...

Rather than fencing the entire garden, you might have better luck fencing off smaller planting areas; deer don't seem to be very inclined to jump over a fence into a small space.

Best of luck with your gardening endeavor! One other thing for you to consider is adding some hybrids to your OP varieties; in my experience, at least, OP vegetables can be more difficult (more prone to disease and so on) and less productive, which can be pretty frustrating.

I get very good results with 6 foot high welded wire.
The farmers supply store hereabouts sells it in hundred foot rolls all day long for $130 tax included....
Personally, I like to string it along the tree line, where it kinda disappears from sight... Plus, it makes it harder for the deer to see it... Takes a bit more wire, but.... Worth it...
I usually purchase 2 rolls at a time, and then save up $ for more later....

Ed, the need for an 8-foot fence is the reason I suggested fencing in smaller, individual planting areas; you could use something 4' tall for that and the deer would be very unlikely to jump into the smaller enclosed areas. (I have a 2-1/2-foot fence around my garden, mainly to keep rabbits and my own dogs out; I also have a lot of different "structures" inside the garden area, trellises around the margins for growing pole beans and such, a "hoop trellis" for growing squash, a 7x15 hoop house, and then a larger greenhouse. Other than occasionally at the very end of the growing season, if I don't get my carrots and beets harvested soon enough, I have no problems with deer -- even though we live in the middle of a cedar swamp and have plenty of them around.)

Not saying you shouldn't do the taller fence around the whole thing, by any means; but the amount of work and expense would be considerably less by doing the smaller areas, at least IMO.

Intheswamp said:
Weedwhacker, I'm thinking aboutf what you're saying about the smaller parcels. If nothing else simply temporarily fence off an area to get the tomatoes and peppers planted in. Other things could be planted and surrounded by large hoops of wire. That way I'd have things growing and not be rushed to finalize my bed/row layout nor the fencing. It would definitely give me more time to agonize over the monstrosity that I'll probably end up erecting. I think you're finally getting through this thick bonehead of mine.

I'm just worried that you're going to spend your entire growing season designing and constructing a fence instead of gardening!

Another easy way to keep the deer (as well as birds, cats, etc.) out of things is to cover it with "floating row cover" (Reemay, Agribond, and lots of other brands). Use garden staples to pin it down every few feet - and, of course, make sure there's enough room under it for the plants to grow freely. This also works great for keeping newly planted seeds from getting washed out of the ground by rain, and can keep things like cabbage butterflies from laying their eggs on the plants. And the white color, flopping in the breeze, seems to be at least somewhat scary to deer.

Ed -- with regard to finding your way back to a thread... go to your profile (click on the icon in the upper right corner), under site preferences make sure you have "watch threads that you start" and "watch threads that you reply to" checked as "yes." Then they should show up on your home page. Also, if you haven't done so, you can customize your home page - scroll down to just above the section where the NGA logo appears. If you need help with any of that, just ask -- no need to struggle with finding stuff!

No, what I meant was that I was on an entirely different website!!!!! (I thought I heard the theme to "The Twilight Zone" playing in the background when I was trying to find the message. )

Ed

Weedwhacker said:Ed -- with regard to finding your way back to a thread... go to your profile (click on the icon in the upper right corner), under site preferences make sure you have "watch threads that you start" and "watch threads that you reply to" checked as "yes." Then they should show up on your home page. Also, if you haven't done so, you can customize your home page - scroll down to just above the section where the NGA logo appears. If you need help with any of that, just ask -- no need to struggle with finding stuff!

I'm not real new here and I still learn things... Sandy!

No, what I meant was that I was on an entirely different website!!!!! (I thought I heard the theme to "The Twilight Zone" playing in the background when I was trying to find the message. )

Ed

Needed that laugh this a.m. Ed ~ Bad storms coming your way if they hadn't already made it. They rolled through here overnite.

Maybe Dave can somehow make all other websites link back to NGA!

Glad you could use the chuckle, Pod. And thanks for the heads'up about the storms. Any damage in the area from them? It looks like they're predicting a couple of inches of rain for tonight along with some high winds. We get kind of jumpy around here now when storms come through that are noted as being strong. April 3rd we had a weak tornado or some type of straight-line wind come through our little town. It really trashed up the downtown area and a couple of residential areas. I had a neighbor's roof come through the bay doors of my little tire shop and a warehouse my family owns was heavily damaged/destroyed from it. Still haven't got things glued back together yet. Thank God, no one was injured in it all!!!

Now, don't get me wrong, I like a good storm...just not a damaging one!!!! It looks like those storms have moved in to far west Mississippi now. I'll be on the lookout for this one...

Ed

I didn't have more than about 6 inches of lightning & thunder with some rain. Three miles away hail wiped out gardens. No tornados here (they were to the north) but lots of wind and deadfall to clean up. I'm glad no major damage ~ stay safe!

Lots of devastation in your state, very sad. Ya'll be safe down there!!! We just had (Monday morning) a storm come through to the south of us with supposedly 60mph winds and small hail...not sure what the outcome of that will be.

Ed

For what it is worth, I have a 6' tall shadow box fence around the entire back yard and the local white tail deer have never jumped it in 30 years. They just don't know what is on the other side.