Pear hanging not so free in the netting
Did you know storms can pick fresh fruit? It’s true. All you have to do is wrap netting around the tree to catch it. Irene was kind enough to knock this one loose. So that’s one pear harvested successfully, two to go.
Pear swathed in netting
I wasn’t the only one eager to pick peaches yesterday. This morning, several peaches were hanging in the bottom of the netting, so I figured it was time to pick them all, ripe or not. Two were chewed up and gross, four were slightly bitten, but six peaches were pristine. They even all smell like peach! Must have driven that raccoon crazy trying to get at them.
The second best part of this (the best part being an actual harvest of peaches) is that harvesting the peaches means I could transfer the netting to the pear tree. Since there are only three unmolested pears left, it was all too easy to wrap the netting around the relevant branches.
Take that, you sneaky raccoons!
I sure hope that pear tasted good, you dang raccoon!
The garden is filled with fruit that just ain’t ripe.
A bunch of small, hard pears and peaches
I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for the peaches and the pears hanging small and round and scentless to ripen. The peaches have been rockhard so long, I even had time to drape some netting over the tree to keep the birds out. (I have no faith that the netting will do anything more than annoy the raccoons, but we’ll see.) This morning the peach tree looked all bent over and weighed down. When I went to look closer, I found a bunch of peaches in the bottom of the net and more on the ground and some with teeth marks in them. (I told you it wouldn’t stop the raccoons!)
And over by the pear tree I found a bunch more pears on the ground. Did they drop off, or get dropped off? Someone else is waiting for ripe fruit, and they’re not finding it either.
My big project for today was to go out in the yard and play.
First I admired how much bigger the pears and apples are already. Then I took one last look at the amazing number of little peaches on the peach tree. I learned last year from the plum tree, that if I don’t thin such a dense attempt at a crop, a branch could break under the weight. Also the plum tree is still recovering from last year’s efforts; there’s maybe three plums tops. I don’t want the same to happen to the peach. So I played “cut off the tinest ones so the big ones can grow”.
Now if I can just get the netting on it securely, maybe this year I’ll get some peaches to eat before the squirrels and raccoons.
In all the wet weather, I haven’t seen many bees. A few bumblebees, the occasional miner bee, and not even all that many honeybees. But little by little, they got the job done.
Miner bee enjoying pear blossoms
The bees are in the trees,
It’s a happy, buzzing breeze,
Cause the bees are in the trees,
And the pear blossoms are pleased,
Down in the earth, up to the leaves,
The miner bees are in the trees.
Peach blossoms, pear blossoms, and lots of tulips.
All joining the plum blossoms.
Pear bud? Really?
You foolish, foolish pear tree. Not only did you flower again, you set fruit. What were you thinking?
