My husband and I have been thinking a lot lately about how we want our yard to look and what kinds of plants we would like to grow. We were really lucky to have landscaping with so many native plants that don't need watering in place when we moved here. We have thoroughly enjoyed those for almost 3 years now and are now realizing that it's time to put in some work of our own.
One of the things my husband told me was, "We have enough trees. No more trees." Which I countered with, "But honey, we have no fruit trees, and we do eat a lot of fruit." My husband, being a practical man, saw the wisdom in this and agreed that we could plant some fruit trees. Score! He's on board. But (and I think I have mentioned this before) my husband is not only practical, but frugal and is not a big fan of buying a bunch of fruit trees.
Mom to the rescue! My mother calls me up last week and says, "You know, Grandma and Grandpa have a great pear tree and you could just grow one right off of theirs. I told them you would be by Easter weekend to get it started." Great! After getting a detailed description from my mom on how to do this, I headed over to my grandparents this weekend to start my own pear tree.
The process goes something like this:- Pick a small branch that sticks straight up in the air.
- Scratch the bottom of the branch down past the green to the inner wood in a couple places. The length of scratches should be twice as long as the diameter of the branch.
- Cut the top off a 2 liter soda bottle and punch two small holes right next to each other towards the top.
- Feed a rope through the two holes.
- Place the bottle small down over the branch.
- Secure the bottle to a near by (sturdy) branch with the rope.
- Place small stones in the small side of the bottle (now the bottom).
- Place a couple scoops of dirt/compost over the rocks. Be sure it covers up the scratched part of the branch.
- Leave until Fall.
Now hopefully in the Fall I will go back and the parts of the branch I scratched will take root in the soil. I will then cut it off below the roots and plant it at home! I love the idea that I am taking a little piece of my grandparent's tree which they have taken care of and has taken care of them for so long. It is a literal, family tree
I am sorry I didn't take more pictures. I was a wee bit frazzled with the whole process. If you have any questions I will be happy to try to answer them and if you have a better way of explaining it, please, share!
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1 comment:
That is so cool! You might need to do two though because I think pear trees have to have another around to cross pollinate or something. If not, the guy at the nursery talked my mother in law into buying a pluot tree to go with her pear for no reason.
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