Building tree protection panels (from forest waste?)

I've been planting trees and following the advice of my tree guy to surround each tree with a circle of wire mesh to keep the tree safe from deer and other animals.

I am finding this protection scheme both onerous, ugly, and not very scalable as the tree grows. If I make it too big at the start, it wastes wire, and if it's too small, I have to start again with another ring.

So I had a better idea: build modular panels out of the wire, in 3'x5' frames. For the smallest trees, hook three of these together in a triangle. When the tree outgrows this, just add more panels, square, pentagon, etc. In this way, the polygon can big as small or big as necessary, and when the tree is old enough, just use the panels on another tree.

First question: what would be a good hinging/locking mechanism to allow each panel to connect to it's neighbor on one side and receive the connection from the other, at any angle (depending on the polygon)?

Second question: can we do this without store bought wire, making the mesh out of abundant free stuff in the woods, like invasive vines or just branches (while being secure enough)?

Third question: can we make the frame in this way too, while not being so irregular that the connection system can't work?

Any guidance on any parts of this idea would be much appreciated!

These are great questions.
I don't think you can exclude voles or mice with a panel made of natural material,but making one that deters rabbits and deer seems likely.

Lashing will be one of the cheapest ways to connect the natural materials into a panel.
Using a little bit of baling wire will make this easier.
You could also weave the materials basket style.

I wonder if aluminum cans could be used as a cheap way to protect the trunks from the smallest animals.

There are hook and eye latches that lock, with a retracting bail at the bend of the hook. The eyes would screw into any piece of wood and would be tolerant of quite a bit of misalignment. If the panels were identical, any number could be used. I'm not sure it's an inexpensive option, it might be useful at just one joint to allow for easier access if you need that?

What about a split-rail fence enclosure? It's basically logs stacked in alternating layers, a square version would resemble a crude log cabin. Braces can be added, or pairs of posts driven to contain the rails at the corners. Scalable, it could be made from sticks, saplings, limbs, logs...

Another option for ready-built panels would be shipping pallets, which you can often find for free, especially damaged ones which might still work fine for your use. Although if a circle of wire fencing looks ugly to you, this is probably a no-go.

One more thing to consider is color, green or black painted or coated wire fencing blends in better than galvanized, even completely rusty wire blends in better! So, you could even paint it yourself, if a different color green, or tan, or whatever suited your location best.

Kenneth Elwell wrote: There are hook and eye latches that lock, with a retracting bail at the bend of the hook. The eyes would screw into any piece of wood and would be tolerant of quite a bit of misalignment. If the panels were identical, any number could be used. I'm not sure it's an inexpensive option, it might be useful at just one joint to allow for easier access if you need that?

What about a split-rail fence enclosure? It's basically logs stacked in alternating layers, a square version would resemble a crude log cabin. Braces can be added, or pairs of posts driven to contain the rails at the corners. Scalable, it could be made from sticks, saplings, limbs, logs...

Another option for ready-built panels would be shipping pallets, which you can often find for free, especially damaged ones which might still work fine for your use. Although if a circle of wire fencing looks ugly to you, this is probably a no-go.

One more thing to consider is color, green or black painted or coated wire fencing blends in better than galvanized, even completely rusty wire blends in better! So, you could even paint it yourself, if a different color green, or tan, or whatever suited your location best.

Hook and eye latches seem like a good solution, but I'm not sure if the hook could be attached so that it bends around a 120 or 90 degree angle in the triangle and square layout that I'm imagining. Maybe one could be made out of flexible material.

How would you design the split rail fence so that it would be expandable?

My wire is green, and it's not extremely visible, but you can see it and it feels a bit industrial for a meadow. But it's also kind of sloppy. It's not a perfect circle, because the spring of the wire makes it snap back, and I've got wooden stakes holding it in place, but it's not that neat. The panels would clearly look human-made, but at least it would be tidy.

One of the best "fences" I have is around a cherry tree. I just took branches from a tree I was limbing and made a circle around the tree with them, overlapping each end of the branches. I piled them up about three feet and about three feet from the trunk of the tree. As the tree grows, you can always make it taller. It shrunk down after a couple years, so you just pile on more branches. Think really narrow dead hedge and you'll have the idea. Nothing touched that tree and it is thriving. It keeps out deer in my heavily browsed area and for whatever reason, even rabbits never bothered it. I think because it is so narrow, only one branch thick, the rabbits don't try to hide in it and it's pretty tight so they don't try to get through. No manmade materials at all, no cost, about five minutes to construct.

Joshua Frank wrote:

Kenneth Elwell wrote: There are hook and eye latches that lock, with a retracting bail at the bend of the hook. The eyes would screw into any piece of wood and would be tolerant of quite a bit of misalignment. If the panels were identical, any number could be used. I'm not sure it's an inexpensive option, it might be useful at just one joint to allow for easier access if you need that?

What about a split-rail fence enclosure? It's basically logs stacked in alternating layers, a square version would resemble a crude log cabin. Braces can be added, or pairs of posts driven to contain the rails at the corners. Scalable, it could be made from sticks, saplings, limbs, logs...

Another option for ready-built panels would be shipping pallets, which you can often find for free, especially damaged ones which might still work fine for your use. Although if a circle of wire fencing looks ugly to you, this is probably a no-go.

One more thing to consider is color, green or black painted or coated wire fencing blends in better than galvanized, even completely rusty wire blends in better! So, you could even paint it yourself, if a different color green, or tan, or whatever suited your location best.

Hook and eye latches seem like a good solution, but I'm not sure if the hook could be attached so that it bends around a 120 or 90 degree angle in the triangle and square layout that I'm imagining. Maybe one could be made out of flexible material.

How would you design the split rail fence so that it would be expandable?

My wire is green, and it's not extremely visible, but you can see it and it feels a bit industrial for a meadow. But it's also kind of sloppy. It's not a perfect circle, because the spring of the wire makes it snap back, and I've got wooden stakes holding it in place, but it's not that neat. The panels would clearly look human-made, but at least it would be tidy.

For expanding the split rail fence, I would assume that one might reuse the original pieces and add more... so if it were a triangle, then a square, pentagon, hexagon, etc... using the same sticks, each shape would encircle a larger area. So, it would be a restacking in a new larger shape, but it's super fast to stack.

For the latches, they could be on the inside (reach over the top, or through a hand hole(s) to latch) and if aligned to work when flat, they would always reach at any shape.
For the bottom, you could use one or two landscape spikes (the BIG nails for timbers) or some tent stakes into the ground, in lieu of a latch. this would also keep the cage in place/shape.