1 In most cases, it is essential to protect an evergreen planting from being destroyed by deer and other wildlife before the trees have a chance to grow above a deer's browse height.

2 I have had success protecting my plantings with bud caps — simple squares of paper stapled to the terminal leader of the tree. Fencing also works, but is expensive.

3 Some evergreens are more palatable to deer than others. I've discovered deer only occasionally browse on white spruce, so most of my recent plantings have consisted of white spruce.

4 When choosing a location to plant evergreens, keep in mind you don't want to destroy a unique habitat just to plant another habitat. An example: Don't replace mature oaks that bear thousands of acorns with an evergreen plot.