I use wire fencing to keep critters away from certain plants. I collect throwaway rolls of wire fencing with a 2 x 4 inch grid. I like it a little rusty, because it's nearly invisible in the garden. I cut pieces, usually about 2 feet high, and encircle the plants to keep out critters like woodchucks. Woodchucks can dig under and climb over a fence that high, except that I cut the fencing so that pokey wire ends stick out of the top and bottom. They are very sharp, so nothing has tried to climb over it. I have to watch out not to skewer myself in the garden, and it's probably not the best method to use if you have little children running around. Maybe something like that would work around your apple tree?

In our raised beds along the driveway have a double row of everbearing strawberries in front with rhubarb behind spaced 3' apart from each other & at least 4' from the trunk of the dwarf trees, then I plant garlic & onion between the double row of strawberries & between the rhubarbs in hopes to repel deer, but it doesn't stop them when they're hungry.

I am going to assume you didn't know about Cedar Apple Rust before you planted the trees, but just for the benefit of others who might be wanting to plant apples or crabapples, the best advice is to think long and hard before you do it. Because cedar trees are widespread in our state and very invasive, it is very hard, if not almost impossible, to grow healthy apples and crabapples here. I love apples, but have lived here for 10 years and never planted one because I don't want to deal with cedar apple rust. Since you've already planted the trees, though, you have to deal with it. So, in answer to your questions: I don't think it is possible to control it on the cedars themselves. What you can do is remove the cedar apples (the fungal growths, also known as galls) before they form horns. If they have already formed horns it is too late. And, if there are cedar trees within about 2 miles of you, the disease can be carried through the air, so removing the cedar apples from the infected cedar trees near you may help a little, but it won't prevent airborne cedar apple disease spores from infecting your plants. You can spray your crabapples with a fungicide that is labeled for use on crabapples for the prevention/control of cedar apple rust, but the spraying has to be done at very specific temperatures and at very precise times. I believe the spores transfer most readily when temperatures are in the 60s. The fungicide most readily available to homeowners for Cedar Apple Rust on crabapples is cholorothalonil, most often sold as Daconil, and often used by vegetable gardeners, for example, to prevent Early Blight on tomatoes. I think you also can use a different fungicide called Bayleton. Just read and follow the label directions IF it is not too late, weatherwise and temperaturewise, in your area. Even though your crabapple trees are new to you, they actually are several years old by the time you buy them, so the application of a fungicide following label directions should not harm them at all. Just be sure you dilute the fungicide and apply it as directed. The entire life cycle of cedar apple rust from cedar tree to its transferrence to apple trees takes almost 2 years. It is an ever-present threat. It is the reason you don't see vast orchards of apples in Oklahoma. Of the two crabapples you plante, I think Prairiefire is considered highly disease-resistant and Profusion less so. However, disease-resistant only means the tree has some resistance, not immunity, and even disease-resistant trees can and do get diseases. Cedar Apple Rust is the main cause of rust on apple trees, but you also have to watch out for the closely related Cedar-Quince Rust and Cedar-Hawthorne Rust. They are controlled/prevented by the same fungicides. Please understand though that even the regular application of fungicide is no guarantee the trees won't become infected. Understand also that cedar apple rust is not something that will be a problem only once. If is an issue for your trees one year, it probably will be an issue for them every year when the temperatures are in the precise range that allows the spores to transfer and infect apple trees. Only you can decide if you want to deal with the cedar-apple rust disease every year, or if you'd rather cut your losses and replace your crabapple trees with some other kind of tree that is more disease-resistant. Good luck, Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Info on Cedar Apple Rust

Do consider that you are going to be waiting a long time for a 6' tree planted even as close as the center of one of your lawns to provide any significant amount of screening or shading of the house. But which particular window are you thinking about? A tree lined up just right with one of them and planted close enough could provide an adequate level of screening pretty quickly - maybe even immediately if of the right size and shape. With it also casting a moving shadow over part of the house some day. Otherwise you could block the street with solid fencing and/or hedging/screening plantings consisting of or including dense shrubby kinds. Usually river birch is not affected by bronze birch borer, with up here anyway it being the European, Himalayan and paper birches that are being hit now that the pest has come this far west. For instance the next door neighbors to a friend that lived near Seattle had two cut leaf weeping European birches and one river birch in their back yard. When the borer came to their neighborhood the European birches were being drilling out and dropping branches on his side of the fence in no time. Luckily the neighbors were quick to have these cut down. Providing in addition a much better view of the river birch, which as of the last time I was on the friend's property was still standing there looking intact.