Trees and shrubs planted to benefit wildlife need protection. Tips to maximize growth.

September has been a great month for doing many things thanks to nice weather. Those include gardening, farming, sports, hiking, traveling, and of course, birding.

We all know how the weather can drop a couple of notches in the weeks ahead, and we also know how much beauty is coming our way with the foliage changes. Even then, we can have some great foliage and the next day a hefty storm can blow a lot of leaves off in a hurry. All this means that every nice weather day and every awesome foliage day ahead needs to be enjoyed to its fullest.

Here on the farm, I am trying to prepare for winter a little early – mainly because I have a whole bunch of trees and shrubs to get planted. Now is a perfect time to plant things such as trees, shrubs, and even perennials. The rain-soaked ground maintains its moisture better since we no longer have such long blistering hot daytime temperatures. At the same time, the new plantings all still need extra water.

Planting sooner than later helps the plants gets some root growth going before winter. Those roots need to grow into the new soil in which they are planted. A little mulching also helps retain moisture, suppress weeds, and create a little extra insulation for the upcoming winter cold.

I’m planting a variety of trees and shrubs all over the place – for many of them, I’m keeping wildlife in mind. Some will be good berry and nut producers and others will be good pollinator plants. Eventually, as they grow, many of them will provide nesting sites and protection from predators. But in the meantime, these trees and shrubs need to be protected from the deer!

As you know, deer browse on the branches – especially branches with buds. The buck deer also like rubbing their antlers on the straighter, skinnier tree trunks that don’t have many branches. That said, deer will still rub on a small evergreen that has branches as it doesn’t take much effort for them to rub those small branches right off. So, just about every tree and most shrubs need to have a wire fence type cage placed around them.

Over the winter, I generally put up a makeshift wire fence around a good portion of our yard. It does a pretty good job of keeping the deer out. I generally use a 4-foot-tall roll of welded wire with 2x4 openings. I mount it on 6-foot metal T posts of which I only pound about a foot into the ground which leaves 5 feet of post above the ground. I mount the wire about a foot above the ground so that there is a 1-foot opening under the wire.

I use zip ties to hold the wire onto the post and I actually rest the top of the wire on the tops of the T posts. This makes a 5-foot-tall wire using a 4-foot-high roll. 4-foot rolls are easier to acquire, are considerably cheaper, and weigh less, making them more manageable. The spacing of the posts is such that I usually use about 7 posts per 100-foot roll.

I realize that deer can jump over a 5-foot-high fence with no problem. However, that is when they are running. They can also knock down this fence if they really want to. But over the years, I have found that when the deer are just grazing along, the fence simply keeps them out. I don’t think that a deer will jump over a 5-foot-high fence from a standstill – but I may be wrong! So far, it’s not a concern. If I make the fence too solid with deeper posts, etc., taking the fence down in spring is a lot more work as well. During the fall and winter, I check on the fence, making sure that all is ok.

It's still a good idea to keep a little fence around each tree just to be safe – especially around any of the more expensive trees. The trees I plant further out on the farm all get their own wire cage and for many of those I use 5-foot-tall wire. Last fall when I planted a bunch of trees, I didn’t have wire cages ready for a few days, and guess what? They rubbed on them that very night!

Trees and shrubs offer so much more habitat for so many birds. Even birds that nest in the grass like to perch in the trees and also on the wire. Once the trees get better established the wire can be taken down. In several instances, you can take the wire cages down in the summer months. It’s simple to unlatch/unroll them and store them on a flat pile.

More A great start to autumn: Taking stock of acorn, berry production and fall bird arrivals

Even if you only have a couple of new or younger trees in your yard, you should do all you can to protect them. Just because no deer have rubbed on your young trees so far, doesn’t mean that they won’t this winter. It’s a bummer when a nicely established tree gets ruined after a couple of years!

Well, not much bird talk this time around … but we need to do things that will enhance the bird population, and trees and shrubs are a big factor. Take a look around your yard and see if you need to be protecting some of your shrubs before winter gets here. And you may remember my writing about getting rid of wild grapevines that are strangling your trees. Make sure you tackle that before winter.

Finally, get out there and enjoy the fall migration of birds taking place right now! As always, feel free to call or text me with questions or comments at 585-813-2676.

-- Hans Kunze writes a birding column for The Spectator.

This article originally appeared on The Evening Tribune: Trees and shrubs planted to benefit wildlife need protection. Tips to maximize growth.