By Geoff Fisher 
When I moved to Reepham Moor eons ago, when the world was young, the only mammal pest in the vegetable garden was rabbits.
They were easily fended off with a chicken-wire fence, 18 inches high, supported on canes, easy to erect and remove, if a bit unsightly.
Then the Muntjac began to appear, wonderful at first, then more and more annoying as prime veg started to disappear.
We soon found that visual scarers like “glitter bangs” were useless. Rags soaked in diesel work, but who wants smelly rags all over the garden?
Fences proliferated and got higher and higher until the veg garden came to resemble an abandoned concentration camp, yet still they got through and losses continued.
Obviously, a completely deer-proof fence around the whole vegetable garden was needed if we were to go on growing vegetables.
So, giving up not being an option, we thought a bit and did some preliminary experiments.
The design criteria were: not too intrusive; as tidy as possible; lightweight; removable; and as economical as possible.
The final design has worked 100% for two years:
Posts: 2 inches by 5 feet, treated and pointed, spaced 6 feet apart. Bore a pilot hole with an augur in an electric drill to take the work out of putting them in. 2½ or 3 inch posts at the corners.
Fencing: 4-foot, green, plastic-coated wire with quite a large rectangular mesh so as not to be too visible, attached to the posts with removable plastic ties. Leave a gap at the bottom for strimming weeds.
Gates as required. Tile splines simply fastened at the corners with angle brackets from the “middle of Lidl”. Put in one diagonal to prevent sagging. Hook-and-band hinges to make gate easily removable. Simple latches.
This design works well on the deer. (Given their success in the wild, beavers might become the next pest.)
Ian Sinclair, The Moor, Reepham
Photo: submitted
Geoff Fisher