It seems that the old proverb, "Good fences make good neighbors," could also apply to the relationship between humans and a certain endearing, but exasperating, member of the animal kingdom.

"It's been three years since we built a big fence, and we've not had a deer in our garden," Janet Scherbenske of Rapid City said, adding quickly, "knock on wood."

Janet and her husband, Marlow, have a vegetable garden in the backyard of their southwest Rapid City home.

"We knew from our previous house that a chain-link fence didn't stop them. They jump pretty high," Janet said. "And home remedies didn't seem to work."

The couple opted for a fence with 6-foot-high wooden posts with wire and a gate.

"It's been very successful," she said.

Lon VanDeusen, manager of the cemetery and parks division for the Rapid City Department of Parks and Recreation, agreed that fences help to shield the city's beautiful flower gardens as well.

"A lot of our rose beds, especially in front of the (parks) office and in the cemetery, had a lot of trouble with deer," he said. "We put up metal fence posts and black netting over it. That works extremely well."

A taller post is put in the middle of the rose bed to create a tent-link effect and is sealed all the way around. Sometimes, though, that causes a problem for the birds, VanDeusen said.

"When they go searching for worms, they try to fly out and have a heck of a time," he said.

Young trees are protected with plastic guards and wire to keep bucks from rubbing their antlers against them, VanDeusen said.

"They just love those little saplings," he said. "Sometimes, after planting some young trees, if we say we're going back tomorrow to protect them, it's too late. Just make sure that when you plant the trees, you have protection for them."

If you don't want the hassle of removing fencing and netting to cultivate your garden, there are concoctions that have some effect, VanDeusen said.

He has used the Liquid Fence deer repellent at his home. It works well, "but it makes me sick to apply it. It's putrid," VanDeusen said, laughing. "After it dries, you don't notice it, but if it's wet, it smells. Deer don't mess around with anything that has that on it."

In the end, though, physical barriers are the best thing, VanDeusen said.

"Deer are fine, but they can be very destructive," he said.

Bill Keck, Pennington County Extension educator, doesn't hesitate when asked what people should do about protecting their gardens from deer.

"Erect a 6-foot fence," he said. "If you have a vegetable garden, the bottom line - from people who have used a rotten-egg concoction as home remedy - is that you have to fence it. For a flower garden, you can put up a less obtrusive type of fencing with some netting."

Keck practices what he preaches with his backyard garden.

"I have a solid wooden fence that is 40-inches tall, and the deer don't even come to my garden," he said. "I grow everything that the deer would love - beans, peas, broccoli - but they don't hop that fence."

Keck's garden is 20 feet by 40 feet, but with a smaller garden - say, 10 feet by 10 feet - "you can probably get by with a 4-foot fence. They don't want to hop into a small area."

Deer aren't picky about what they munch on, which presents a challenge for gardeners, Keck said.

"I don't know of too many plants that they refuse eat," he said. "Nobody has every told me that they've eaten their daffodils, but that's about it. Tulips are an ice-cream plant to them, and if they are hungry enough, they'll eat marigolds. My comment to homeowners is, fence them out. That's it."

Celeste Calvitto is a freelance writer from Rapid City.