Building a CHEAP GATE! + Setting up DEER FENCING

Black Deer Fencing Mesh:
https://amzn.to/2mSLWug

On the previous episode, I built a fence around my yard, a necessary step to keep the deer from eating everything in my garden. On this episode I build the front gate and setup deer fencing.

Starting off to build the gate I scavenged extra fence poles I had and cut off the pointed ends. I measured the opening in my fence and started to screw the poles together. These fence poles are quite heavy for a gate so I used metal L brackets to make them more secure. I also drove screws directly into the end of each pole. I attached the fence hardware and brackets to the fence and made sure the gate would swing before finishing putting it together.

Here you can see i put a few willow branches across the fence to act as a 3rd hand to hold the gate up while attaching it. I used a combination of a fence pole on the ground and my foot to prop up the outer fame of the gate while I attached it. After a bunch of knoodling and tinkering I finally had everything lined up and attached the mid beam for support. Getting the first few screws in here is awkward but after that it was easy to attach. As the daylight was dying out I drilled in the gate latch but still had a huge hole in my fence. The next morning you can see my solution, a few willow branches across the gate with some wire worked as a temporary fix to keep them pesky deer out until the gate could be finished.

The final step is to attach the 2 inch boards a few inches apart which I alternated on the front and back of the gate frame itself. I left these boards at their full 7 foot length giving optimal protection against deer jumping in. Deer will jump a 6 foot fence with ease, at 7 feet they’ll look elsewhere especially if they can’t see through the fence. You can the gate nearly complete doesn’t swing that well. My camera dies while filming this but I end up mounting the gate ½ a foot higher so it’ll swing but I found over time the weight of the fence posts used to build the gate caused it to sag downwards making it catch the ground again. Fast forward to today, I rebuilt the gate with a few improvements. No fence posts used except the one attached at the hinges which adds the needed stability. I also ran all the boards sideways so the gate doesn’t look like a prison cell door. The 1 diagonal cross beam adds more support but not a lot weight, I think I’ll add 2 more diagonal boards to complete the look and fill in the gate a bit more but it shouldn’t affect how well it swings.

As for the deer fencing, on top of my galvanized metal fencing I added pieces of will branches as a stable place to attach the deer fencing to. When buying deer fencing buy the black and not white fencing. The black is almost invisible to humans when you glance at it but deer will easily see it. The white fencing sticks out like a sore thumb.