I’m Barbra Bakker and I’ve been gardening in deer country for over 20 years. In that time I have learned through trial and error how to create a deer proof garden.

On this website I share what I’ve learned in the hopes that I can save you some of the frustration and expense that I’ve experienced.

I will tell you upfront that I actually love deer. I just don’t like what they do to my landscape! So I’ve developed ways to enjoy the majesty of deer and still have a beautiful garden.

The photo with the blue door below shows my first deer proof garden. That was my first house and where I learned to garden.

What you see in the photo is just the last in a long series of garden renovations that happened over the 17 years I lived in that house. My first attempts at landscaping were definitely not deer proof!

In 2003 my husband and I left this house and built a new house just one street away. Whereas our first house was on a 1/3 acre lot, our new house is on 8 wooded acres.

Of course, I haven’t landscaped all 8 acres! Our house sits in a clearing that’s about one acre. That in itself has turned out to be a major landscaping endeavour. We finally finished our landscaping last year, so it’s still pretty new. But you can get an idea of what it looks like from the photo below.