all the things I listed above are tried, and work...if the chicken wire is folded over and wired shut in a dome, the deer can't get into it, you just have to make sure to remove it before the plant gets to big. I have found that the critters usually mess with the stuff right after planting, in the early spring when alot of other vegatation has not grown up yet. Once the other veg has caught up they are not so much after your weed...that is not to say that occasionally you won't have one that has been nibbled on by a deer, but if you sprinkle cayenne moderately in a circle around your plant...the deer will not go near it.