Yes, because there are so many deer in this neighborhood that anything edible gets stripped bare. Our garden has a 6-foot fence, which is nothing for a deer to jump, normally, but we also stretch a sun screen across it and the garden boxes may discourage them.

The 8 sunchokes we planted last year filled a 4ft x 8 ft garden box with tubers. I pickled a good amount of them, and we've planted more this year.