Poor pears

Posted on September 13, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blossom, Cherries, Crop, Food, Fruit, Fungus, Gardening, Growing, Pears, Ripe, Time, Trees4 Comments

Some years the pears set, the tree is well watered and we get many pears off our tree. But it’s looking sad as the wind blew it over at an angle a few years ago. We had to support it on blocks of wood.

As the branches are horizontal that usually encourages fruiting. But both the pear and cherry trees flowered but we’re caught by late frosts and then strong winds that blew the blossom off. The cherry only managed half it’s crop and now the pear is even worse. A few pears had a fungal infection and had to be thrown away, you can’t compost them as it encourages the fungus to spread. So we only have a few pears to show this year. Here are three. The little one is going squishy so it’s getting thrown out.

Pears are funny, they stay unripe for ages. Then seem to ripen overnight. We will just eat these, as there is not enough for a chutney.

Pear time

Posted on September 28, 2022September 28, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged annual crop, Crop, Food, Garden, Gardening, Life, Pears, Plant, sapling, Tasty, Tree, WoolworthsLeave a comment

Pears off our tree and oranges from the supermarket. This shows just how big our pears have grown this year. They needed picking as they won’t ripen on the tree. The tree was a small sapling from a woolworths store in Stoke twenty years ago or so, before the stores went bust. It’s now a tree about fifteen foot high and spreading branches about twenty or twenty five foot across. It grew leaning over because of the weight of the pears. I have to say they are very tasty when they are ripe. I think they are a conference style of pear. We have had around fifty or sixty pears but most of them are too high to reach, the ones in the bowl were low hanging.

Pears on the tree

Posted on August 18, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Crop, Fruit, fruit tree, Gardening, happy nature, Pear tree, Pears, Tree, View, WindowLeave a comment

View out of a side window, heavy with pears the branches are bending down on our pear tree. The trunk is propped up because its gone over to about a forty five degree angle partly caused by strong winds and partly just from the weight of pears on the branches. This from a tree bought from Woolworths twenty five years ago as a small sapling. Every year I marvel at the productivity of the plant. And looking out the window at them? Makes me proud of what you can do if you let nature take over.

Pears

Posted on August 13, 2020August 13, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Block of wood, Crop, Fruit, Garden, Growing, Life, Pear tree, Pears, Plant, Support2 Comments

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The pears are growing big on the tree and starting to weigh the crown down. Soon they will be ripe. I hope they are ready before their weight snaps the tree! At the moment it’s held up with a block of wood.

Gardening is learning. Finding out how to support plants when they need it. I’ve been told the tree has black spot, but it survives. And is covered in pears.

More fresh cherries off the tree

Posted on July 15, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cherries, Cherry tree, Crop, Food, Fruit, Fun, Garden crop, Gardening, Homegrown, Plants, Ripe, Tasty4 Comments

Hubby went up the step ladder this afternoon and got some more delicious ripe cherries off the lower branches of the tree. The really bright red and dark red ones are too high up. A lot of the ones he got had peck marks in them and splits where they had started to burst their skins. I put about twenty or so on the bird table and then more bad ones in the bin when we came in. But it’s still a good haul. I’m thinking of doing another trifle…. Yum.

Now they are safe and washed and in the fridge, but they won’t last long…

Who’d think, cherries in coleslaw.

Posted on July 8, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cherries, Cherry, Cherry tree, Cooking, Crop, Food, Fun, Gardening, Jelly, Life, Poem, Poetry, Salad, TrifleLeave a comment

With such a large crop,

bowls full to the top,

I tried-

To decide-

what to do with them?

Each cherry on a stem!

Salad with cherries

fills my belly.

Coleslaw with cabbage

with cherries added.

Now I’ll make jelly

with added cherry,

summer fruit,

so much loot.

Birds are merry

They have cheery

Cherries too!

🍒

Cherry ripe

Posted on July 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cherries, Cherry tree, Crop, Eating, Fun, Gardening, Happy, Harvest, Pick, Tasty, TreeLeave a comment

Got to try and harvest some more cherries between the thunderstorms.

We got a lot off the lower branches. We need a rake or something to grab some of the other branches. We have almost eaten the other ones we picked. I’m jealous of the birds that can get at the ones on the top branches. It’s great to have fresh fruit grown in your own garden. My friend bought a cherry tree but hers was a sour type. Ours is sweet. It’s worth checking and this tree is self fertile which means it sets fruit without the need of a companion tree.

Happy gardening.

Steps holding the pear tree up.

Posted on May 27, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Cherries, Crop, Garden, Gardening, Green, Life, Pears, PlantsLeave a comment

We have to put a piece of wood under one bough of the pear tree but in the strong winds last week we had to put step ladders under the other limb. Surprisingly there are lots of pears setting on it. It may be that it’s because it’s more horizontal and fruit does tend to set (develop) on horizontal branches. Thats why some fruit trees are tied onto walls. Is it called espalies?

The cherry tree behind it is also covered in fruit. Looks like it might be a bumper crop! The bush/tree cut in step shapes is an old evergreen we have had for years. It grows slowly and I practice topiary on it. The rest of the garden is very leafy. I’m going to have to get someone in in the autumn or winter, to cut things back slightly and let a bit more light in.

Pear tree collapse

Posted on September 29, 2019September 29, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Crop, Environment, Fallen tree, Food, Fruit, Garden, Gardening, Life, Pear, Pear tree, Pears, Plants3 Comments

A shout from outside. My hubby had gone outside to feed the stray cat….

There’s a problem, a catastrophe.. The pear tree had blown over in the heavy rain and wind we have been having…

The tree has been gradually leaning more over the last couple of years, and each crop of pears has grown. Till this year we counted over fifty pears. But that of course pulls on the top of the tree.

We had propped it up with some wood, but that had snapped in half. What to do? We tried using an old exercise bike near the roots…

We also tried to pull as many pears off the tree as possible as they were now in reach. My hubby normally shakes the pears down which may be why it’s leaning!

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Finally we used the step ladder to prop it up a bit more. I don’t know if it’s salvageable, the trunk is split. It’s a shame if it has to go as the pears are very tasty. They were just starting to ripen, but the weather has been mad. We weighed the good pears (disposed of the split one’s). 11.7 kilos. Not sure what that is in pounds but I think it’s around 24 pounds.

I’m going to share some of the crop with friends….

Ice

Posted on September 15, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Crop, Depth of field, Focus, Ideas, Photos, Picture, TipsLeave a comment

I just took this photo, you can photograph anything and get an interesting result. In this case I like the way the cartoon cats surround the block of ice and almost seem to glow.

My tips for photos?

Look first. Even if you are seeing something through a lens look at it to see if you are including things you don’t want.

Don’t be scared to crop your photo. Got a streetlamp sticking up in the sky? Crop it if you don’t want it.

Don’t filter too much if you can help it. Once you start adjusting colours it’s hard to find the right balance. Sometimes you have to, but don’t over do it.

Use your on screen focus if you have it. If you can see something interesting you can us the focus option to just select that area. It also changes the depth of field.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Crop