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I’ve only been planting a garden for a few years now, but we live in a rural area where deer like to get to my crops before I do. Sometimes tomato plants get chewed to the ground before they even get a chance to blossom. One of my relatives passed on a tip to keep deer out of my garden and I can now say 100% positive that it works well. (and no, this tip doesn’t involve a double-barrel 12gauge)

I have a relatively small garden, probably 30′x20′ or so and was an easy target for deer in the area. My granddad told me to try caution tape. He told me to drive a stake in each corner of the garden, and put a “fence” of caution tape around the edge of my plants. I thought it might keep some things away, but deer are persistent. I tried it anyway. This is the third year I’ll be ceremonially banding my garden with it.

The past two years I have used it and haven’t had a single hoof-print in my garden. Last year I had one tomato plant with a branch hanging outside the tape and it was nibbled back almost to the tape. Nothing inside the “fence” was touched. Evidently, the ribbon flips enough in the breeze to make the deer uncomfortable with jumping or going under it. It seems to catch a little light during the day and I guess the noise of it at night helps.

Give it a try and let me know what you find. Let me know if there are other simple ways to keep animals from harvesting your crops.