When we bought our house last year, we knew that we would want to plant more trees on the property, specifically fruit trees. Josh has already planted two Anna apple trees, and our next fruit trees were going to be pomegranate.

At our old house in California, we had one pomegranate tree that gave us many pomegranates after two years (it was a few years old already when we bought it and planted it).

We were waiting to buy pomegranate trees because of the cost, but then I found out that Trico, our power company, has a discount shade tree program to help its customers reduce their power bill.

You can read about Trico’s Tree Program here.

Pomegranate trees were on their list of available trees, and they were only $15 each. The delivered tree would be at least 3 feet tall. Usually, we would pay $25-$30 for a tree that size, so $15 was a bargain! A few other tree options are fig, mesquite, palo verde, acacia, and desert willow. Choosing a tree depends on your shade needs as well as the space you have on your property. We ordered two pomegranate trees the end of last month and they were delivered this month, on February 13th.

Since it is winter right now, the trees looked a bit sad when they were delivered, being leafless. This didn’t worry us any though and Josh planted them this past Saturday.

We’ve had some warmer days since then, and the trees are already starting to show signs of life.

Trico’s Tree Program is a great way for a power company to support its customers, by providing a low-cost way to shade homes and property. We are pleased with this program and plan to buy one more tree this year. If we feel that we need it, we can even purchase three more trees next year.

We look forward to sometime in the next few years, picking our own pomegranates again!

-Joshua and Lynn