Deer fence and hail-frame materials
Posts, wire, and mesh for an 8-foot CSU deer fence, a 2-foot rabbit fence, and a cattle-panel hail roof over the beds you eat from.
Fence the food, and roof the beds that hail actually ruins.
Colorado State University’s deer fact sheet says the conventional deer-proof fence is 8 feet of woven wire. The mountain vegetable sheet allows that, or two 4-foot fences set 4 feet apart, and a 2-foot fence of 1-inch mesh buried 6 inches for cottontails. A hail roof is not in that fact sheet.
It is the seasonal structure on the hail page: hoops or a cattle panel and hail cloth, not a plastic tarp you fight in the wind. This page turns those specifications into materials you can count. The behavior of the animals is on the wildlife page. Price the receipt at your yard.
An 8-foot fence around a vegetable garden
Assume a rectangle 20 by 30 feet, large enough for a few beds and a path, small enough to build. Perimeter is 100 feet. You need a gate or you will climb it twice and then leave it open.
| Material | For about 100 feet of 8-foot fence | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Posts, 10 feet, so about 2 feet in the ground and 8 feet out | A post every 8 to 10 feet, so 12 to 14, plus brace posts at the gate and corners | A 10-foot post is the usual way to get 8 feet of fence. Confirm the set depth for your wind. |
| Woven wire, 8 feet tall, or a combination of field fence and a top wire | 100 feet plus overlap and a gate return | CSU’s conventional fence is woven wire, not a single decorative strand. |
| 1-inch mesh along the bottom, 2 feet tall | 100 feet | Cattle panels and wide field fence let rabbits through. The mountain sheet’s rabbit fence is this mesh. |
| Gate frame and hardware | 1 | A gate that sags is a gap. |
| Staples or clips | More than you think | The bottom wire has to be tight to the ground or buried. |
The double-fence option, two 4-foot fences 4 feet apart, uses more posts and less height. It can be easier to buy, because 4-foot wire is common, and it takes more ground.
On a small city lot you may not have 4 spare feet all the way around. Then the single 8-foot fence is the one that fits.
Electric wire, if you use it, has to be charged and maintained. CSU describes high-tensile configurations for that. A slack wire is not a fence.
Corner braces matter in wind. A straight run of T-posts will lean on a Wyoming or Front Range site if the corners are not braced or set deeper. Budget the braces. They are not optional hardware.
The rabbit addition
If deer are rare and rabbits are not, skip the 8-foot wire and build the 2-foot fence: 1-inch mesh, 100 feet for the same garden, bottom buried 6 inches. That burial is part of the materials.
You need enough extra mesh to go into the trench, so buy width with the burial included, or buy a wider roll and fold it.
Gilpin County’s note says buried 4 to 8 inches. Six inches matches the mountain sheet.
In snow country the fence has to remain above the drift. A 2-foot fence under a 2-foot drift is a flat wire. Trunk cylinders, quarter-inch cloth, 18 inches above grade, are the winter backup for trees outside the fence. That spec is CSU’s vole fact sheet.
A hail frame over two beds
Two beds, each 4 by 12, can sit under two bent cattle panels or one longer hoop house. A standard cattle panel is 16 feet long and about 50 inches wide. One panel arched over a 4-foot bed covers a length of bed and needs a second panel to cover 12 feet with overlap, depending on how tight you bend it.
Buy two panels per 4-by-12 bed until you have stood in the yard with one and measured the arch you actually got. Stakes or T-posts at the feet keep the arch from walking.
Hail cloth, not clear plastic, is the skin for the summer. Plastic sails and cooks. The cloth has to be wide enough to clip to the frame with a little slack, and it has to be a weave meant to take impact, not a patio shade cloth.
Frost fabric can clip to the same frame on a cold night and come off in the morning. Those are two purchases. The fabrics page separates them.
| Hail-frame line | Two 4-by-12 beds | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Cattle panels, 16 feet | 4, until you measure the arch | Extra is cheaper than a gap in June. |
| T-posts or rebar pins | 8 to 12 | The feet of the arch. |
| Hail cloth | Enough to cover both arches and tie down | Replace it when the sun has made it brittle. |
| Clips or lath screws | A handful per panel | Loose cloth sands the plants. |
| Frost blanket, stored dry | One piece you can throw on | Not the summer roof. |
Do not roof the whole property. Roof the lettuce, the strawberries, and the tomatoes you care about. Leave the grass. The hail page is what to do after a storm: clean cuts, no fertilizer push, water if the soil is dry.
How to compare the two projects
If deer are in the yard every week, the fence saves more food than the hail cloth. If you garden on the Palmer Divide and the deer are occasional, build the hail frame first and a rabbit mesh second, and add the 8-foot wire when you are tired of replacing tulips and beans. Do both if you can. Do them in the order of what ate or shredded the garden last year, not in the order of what looks finished.
A fence around 100 feet is a weekend with a helper and a post driver, or it is a contractor. The materials list is the same either way. Get the wire height and the buried rabbit mesh into the bid so you do not pay for a pretty 6-foot fence that CSU already told you will not hold deer.
Check local rules before you set an 8-foot post on a property line. A fact sheet is not a zoning code. Some cities want the fence inside the setback, or they cap height in a front yard. The food garden in the back is usually the easier place to be legal and useful.
Checklist
- 8-foot woven wire, or two 4-foot fences 4 feet apart, for deer. CSU’s words, not a guess.
- 1-inch mesh, 2 feet above ground, buried about 6 inches, for cottontails.
- Quarter-inch cylinders, 18 inches tall, on trunks outside the fence.
- Cattle panels and hail cloth over the kitchen beds, anchored.
- Braces at corners and a gate that closes.
- Price posts, wire, cloth, and the haul of the heavier roll. The table is the count.
- Build the one that would have saved last June first.
Sources
- CSU Extension, Preventing Deer Damage.
- CSU Extension, Vegetable Gardening in the Mountains.
- CSU Extension, Managing Voles in Colorado.
- CSU CO-Horts, hail season from the Colorado Climate Center, April 15 through September 15, and aftercare.