Hubby and I thought heard some strange popping, and a few hours later found this. Our peach tree lost the only branch on the same side as the borer-infested branch.
We knew the dying branch wasn’t going to last the season, so this meant there would only be branches on half the tree (the half on the side of the house). In order to prevent the entire thing from crashing down and possibly hitting our patio, we decided to cut it down.
So sad!
Once hubby got the trunk down, you could easily see the damage that had been done by the borers. They kill a lot of peach trees down here in Texas.
The only fun thing about chopping the tree down was the peaches sprinkling down while hubby was chopping. You know the Skittles commercial? Taste the rainbow? That’s what it looked like.
Well, I couldn’t leave so much empty space in the backyard, so…
we bought new trees! I had a buy one get one free tree coupon from the Home Depot Garden Club, so we bought a pear tree and a peach tree for $20 total.
The pear tree is a Kieffer variety. The tag said it would self-pollinate, but some books I’ve read say otherwise. One of our neighbors has a pear tree, though, so we shouldn’t have a problem either way.
The peach tree didn’t say a variety, but I’m not too worried about it. I think they’re both going to do just fine. Hopefully they’ll both grow quickly and we won’t have to wait too many years to enjoy their fruit!
Don’t forget to check out GrowCookEat to learn more about gardening! This week’s post is about university extension programs.