How to Protect Your Garden From Animals

Scarecrows and owl decoys can prevent birds from stealing from your garden.

Pests like deer, rabbits, birds and gophers can ruin a beautiful garden and steal your vegetables and fruit that you worked so hard to grow. Basic barriers and deterrents help protect your hard work without harming your plants or the animals. Research which pests live in your area and which ones are causing the most problems in your garden and use the barriers and deterrents that work best against them.

Things You'll Need

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Instructions

1. Place a piece of wire mesh the same dimensions of your garden under the garden bed to prevent burrowing animals from eating the roots of your plants. Dig down 3 feet into your garden bed and remove all the soil. Place the wire mesh in the hole and bury it using the soil you removed.

2. Build a fence underground to discourage burrowing animals from digging tunnels into your garden. Dig four connecting trenches around your garden about 3 feet deep. Sink four chain link fences about the same width and depth as the trenches into the ground and bury them.

3. Build a fence above the ground. Place four metal posts around the border of your garden. Attach mesh netting, at least 2 feet tall, to each metal post to completely secure the garden. This will prevent deer, squirrels and other foraging animals from wandering into your garden.

4. Cover plants and bushes with mesh netting to deter deer and birds from eating them. Place the netting over each garden row and secure it to the ground to prevent animals from crawling underneath the net. Adjust the netting weekly to allow the plants to grow bigger without getting tangled in the net.

5. Place scarecrows or an owl decoy in your garden to deter birds from landing in the garden. The scarecrow and owl decoy will scare the birds and make them think it is not safe to land in the garden.

6. Grow plants that animal pests don't like. This will prevent them from entering your garden to begin with. Squirrels don't like herbs such as lavender or sage. Deer don't like plants such as lavender, basil, marigolds, irises and calendulas.

7. Hang pieces of reflective tape over your garden or around the border of your garden to keep birds away. Attach the reflective tape to the garden posts and hang them over the garden rows or hang the tape on the fence. When the tape moves in the wind, the movement and light reflection will scare away the birds.

8. Hang small shards of mirrors or reflective compact discs in your garden. Hang these shiny, reflective surfaces from clear nylon string on your garden posts or on large plants so that they will move and swing in the breeze. The sudden flashes of light will scare off animals like deer and birds. Move the mirrors or compact discs to different locations around the garden so the animals don't get accustomed to the sight of them.

References

• Farmer's Almanac: How to Keep Pests Out of Your Garden, Naturally.
• "101 Commonsense Gardening Tips"; Deborah Sweeton; Michael Sweeton; 2002
• Happy Paws Haven, Inc.: Humane Ways To Keep Animals Out of The Garden