Sage Gardens

This summer a western pocket gopher started burrowing around one of my favorite apricot trees. Generally speaking, I have a “you leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone” policy regarding such varmits, so I didn’t do much about it. But after a week and a half or so this rodent had turned the ground around the tree’s roots into a moonscape.

Turns out he was also chewing the heck out of the apricot tree’s roots. Within a few weeks the thing had dropped nearly all its leaves (it drops its leaves in late October/early November, not mid-August), so I moved in and trapped the nasty little rodent with a black hole trap. (The thing was the size of a small badger - really!)

Unfortunately, it looks like it’s too late for the tree. It hasn’t recovered and most of the branches are now dead and drying.

I’ll have to chop it down and replace it. Terri’s been pushing me to plant avocado trees anyway…