Unless you use spiral wraps, I would put hardware screen enclosures around the trunks. It is a pain to work with and makes it hard to weed or mow around the trees, however. If you use spirals, be sure to remove them come spring so borers don't hide beneath them.

Please see link below to access some good info from St. Lawrence Nursery (on screening for fruit trees)

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.sln.potsdam.ny.us/how-to-plant.html#Screening

Also, deer can jump a 6 foot fence. There are some simple stategies that can be employed to make a 6 foot fence more effective, like installing another, shorter fence in front of the taller fence - a few feet away from, and parallel to, the taller fence (deer can jump high, but not long and high). The topic of deer fencing was a topic of discussion in a gardenweb/homesteading forum. See link below

Here is a link that might be useful: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/homest/msg020140202385.html

Thanks for the information. Can't wait for spring to start working outside.

I wouldn't use the St. Lawrence nursery for info. I immediately saw quite a bit of misinformation in the link material. Their logic is also skewered with organic orthodoxy.

They suggest hardware cloth is better than plastic spirals because the spirals can girdle trees if left on for several seasons as if hardware clothe couldn't do the same. The spirals are much easier to use than hardware cloth, even if you factor in removing them in early spring.

I've used them on thousands of trees and don't even remove them until they start to break unless I see a problem and only once have I had a problem with a tree starting to be girdled and that was a site I only visit once a year and probably failed to inspect the spiral my previous visit. I removed it and the tree is fine now several seasons later.

I agree that it is generally worth removing them during the growing season for the reason northwoods mentions, I just don't generally get around to it and only rarely suffer from borer injury as a result.