I've been using the same method Steve does. That large opening makes it easy to reach in to prune or whatever. Big roll costs about $120 but I fenced approx 25 trees with it so it seems reasonable. I bought mine at Home Depot. Lowes has the same wire but it seems to be galvanized (won't rust) but the roll costs about 40 bucks more. I know most of you will cringe but I live in a heavily populated area very near the actual city and have the locally rare luxury of a garden that backs up onto a steep hillside that is too steep to easily build upon. We actually like the deer when they visit and can tell most of them apart. In addition to those individual fences I have several crops planted just for deer munching. Jerusalem artichoke grow at an insane rate, without control they reached 14 feet first year I grew them in the lower close to the house beds. Once I moved them back to the wilder sections the deer keep them trimmed to about a foot. I also grow a hosta that grows very large, very quickly, and self seeds like crazy. Deer just love it, thats fine by me. With those better choices deer pretty much leave the other stuff alone. Pam in cinti

Well, the answer is probably: it depends. I have a lot of birds that nest around my house. Last year was our first summer in the new place and I _thought_ my cherry trees might be Rainier because as soon as they started getting that blush they all dissapeared ;( but this year I netted them and turns out they are Bing... just never even got close to maturing before the birds got them. So if you have a fair number birds around and you want some or any fruit then you might want to think about netting the grapes. Not so sure if they will bother the larger fruit. Charles

My understanding is squirrels can jump almost 5 feet. In your opinion/experience what would be the appropriate height for the first limb to begin fruitnut? For example my peach tree which was planted in November is only 2 ft tall and was pruned to that height. I am going to have branching from beneath the cut. This complicates things for getting a single trunk up to 3-4 feet.

That reminds me of a funny story from years back: We had a little kumquat tree in our back yard. Was my first experience with this cultivar. About 30 years ago. The tree was right underneath my then baby daughter's bedroom window. Her changing table was right below the tree. We kept finding fruits picked off the tree every day, and could not for the life of us figure out what was stealing all our kumquats. One morning, while changing my daughter at the changing table, and having just let out my German Shorthair Pointer out to the back yard, I happened to look out the window. There was my dog, very gingerly and carefully plucking kumquat off the tree. She trotted over to the shade of another tree, plopped down and chowed down on the kumquat. She went back two more times to help herself to a couple more. Weirdest thing ever. Patty S.