There have always been deer in our locality and neighborhood - along with coyotes, black bears, racoons, the occasional bobcat, neighbors' stray dogs & cats, and (down the road a mile) a few elk.
About four years ago, the deer were getting into our place way too much - got though our rail fence into our larger food garden, plus were eating at our fruit trees and destroying quite a number of the ornamental shrubs my wife had planted. In fact everyone in the neighborhood was complaining about the increase in deer problems. People who had tried electric fence strands did not generally seem to feel this worked very well to keep the deer out, in our area. Possibly it works with some varieties of deer, elsewhere.
We put up a new fence encircling half of our property, encompassing all of our food-growing and decorative areas, including our pond. The strong fencing wire is six and a half feet high. It's kept the deer out. I realize that, theoretically, an adult deer can jump over a fence of the height of ours - but my observation of thelocal deer (two species) suggests they only do so if their adrenalin is running very high. In other words, they will not attempt to jump over it in order to get in, becuase they're not being chased at that time.
Problem is, bears can climb over it to get at ripending corn, fruit, squash, carrots. I guess we're now going to run an electric strand to keep them out. Expenses never end!
If she chooses to move the garden away from the corner fence where she currently has it (she's struggling with it there anyway due to the shade from a large tree that has grown up over the years), then it will be easier for her. If she leaves it in the corner by the chain link fence, it will be slightly more difficult, but I thinks till doable to electrify it.
