The first year we bought this place was when the old owner told us about the three ornamental pear trees in the backyard that the sapsuckers had ruined. We went back there and the bees were all over the blossoms of the trees, which were planted about three feet apart in the shade of the neighbour's Manitoba Maple that she won't let me cut down.

Anyhow that year there were a few plums growing on the one "ornamental pear" tree, and the second year was a very early spring and those trees turned out to be two apricots and a plum.

The next spring I turned the compost and there were tons of sprouting apricots, but between the shovel and the chickens most were destroyed. I managed to keep three alive all last summer and then the deer nipped the tips off in the fall, but I see a few buds on them today, so I'm still hoping they survive as two trees have since been pretty decimated and are being removed. I will baby them in pots for this summer and plant them in their forever home next spring.

We don't have the space for too many trees right now, but as I take down these massive spruce, pine and cottonwood, I will be replacing them with more manageable species.