Planning involves planting only plants which deer do not like to eat. There are some attractive plants in this category, so this might be the right solution, but of course, it all depends on how hungry the deer is. In the winter, when deer are very hungry, nothing but fencing may protect your tender tree trunks. Organic Gardening Magazine deer don t like columbine, beebalm and daffodils for flowers, oleander, juniper for shrubs and pine and spruce for trees. The bad news about fencing is that it can be very expensive to build a fence that is effective against deer.
Deer are notable jumpers and can easily clear fences up to six feet tall.
Your fence will have to be eight to ten feet tall to be of any use. Of course, fences like this are impractical for all but small spaces and this is not the height of fencing commonly sold at your local home center, so you have to buy it from a fencer. There is one thing that is possible with fencing though, a fence that does not go far up, but is wide. Deer hate to jump distances. They like straight up and straight down, but tend to fear the long distance jump.