Garden guardian?

[AngryQuailFarms]

I am attempting to find a critter to help watch our ~1/3 acre garden come spring. It is fenced in with about 3' high chain link fence and a tight fitting gate. I would like to know of an animal I can put in this pen at night that will help repell deer and other vegetation eating animals from the garden, but can think of nothing that would do the job without eating the garden itself or being vulnerable to nighttime predators. This particular varmint may not exist, but I am open to suggestions, or out of the box ideas.

 

[AlienChick]

As long as the area is fenced in, a guardian dog would work. However, a dog would probably enjoy digging through the garden as well.

We have about a third acre of veggie garden that we surrounded with electric netting to keep the deer, rabbits raccoons etc out. It also kept the chickens out. The netting was not very high any any of those animals could have just leaped over, but I think they did not come into my garden once they investigated the net with their nose and got shocked. They just went over to my neighbor's garden that was not protected.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Gardens don't derive benefits from free-ranging like chickens do, so I really think improved fencing and containment would be your best option. The only reason I want critter protection for my livestock as opposed to fencing, is to allow for less confinement.

Several animals would work (and you could us a combination to combat deer vs. slugs, but you'd still probably need to update you fencing to keep said critters in the garden area.

 

[AngryQuailFarms]

Thanks for the responses I'll have to look in to the electronic netting, and we have looked into a higher fence, guess we'll just see what the time/budget allows come spring time.