yes but will need to protect the top also as many can jump the 2 ft & get at the seed.....

Oh, I'm not too worried about the above-ground pests: the neighbor's dogs, the local fox and coyote populations, the owls and my .22-cal rifles keep them in check. It's the damn pocket gophers that kill me. They never come out of the ground to be killed. I had a row of apricot seedlings in the garden last year, and the little bastards pulled them straight down, Bugs Bunny style, into the ground as they ate the roots off! I lost a 6 ft tall Honeycrisp apple AND a 6 ft tall Northstar cherry after they ate ALL the roots and the trees basically fell over in a strong wind one spring day!