Near and Deer

 Several years ago I plaanted a couple of espaliered five-in-one apple trees. That is when all the limbs are trned to grow along a single plane. If done properly the trees are amazing looking.

I got interested in doing this because we stopped at a Dairy Queen in Raymong, Wa., and along the northern property boundary were a series of espaliered junipers. I had never seen anything like it and it stuck in my brain.

When I was visiting a local nursery i came across these two five-in-one apple tree starts that had been espaldiered, so I had to have them.

It tkes several years to get appreciable results. This spring, the two trees were beginning to look really nice. They had formed a living fence. When in bloom it was pretty spectacular.

And then it wasn't

I live on the edge The Olympic National Forest. 100 yards to the south of my driveway there is a sign that says "PAVEMENT ENDS". The area is inhabited by bear, coyotes, cougar, eagles elk. And deer. Lots od deer.

I had installed an electric fence around the orchard. Three cherry trees, the two apple trees, a couple of hazel not trees. Five feet high. It seemed to be working until it didn't.

I came home from a trip and all thhe blossoms and most of the vegitation had been eaten by the deer. Man was I pissed.

So I now have built a deer fence around the two trees. Seven and a half feet tall. Maybe in a couple of years it will approach the level it was before deermagedon.