today's harvest

Today's harvest: lots of broccoli and green peppers and chilis. (I gave most of these away before I took this picture.) Also, a big leek, a Benning's green tint patty pan squash, red Thai hot peppers, and a couple beets.

I also harvested a nice big pear today. Still green. I hope it will ripen well. I have read that pears should be picked green and ripen off the tree. I hope this is right. I originally had 5 pears set on my 2 young espaliered trees in my community garden plot this spring. Three disappeared back in August. One disappeared last week. So with one left and cold weather setting in, I picked the last pear today. (I think the others were picked by passers by. Next year I will devise a net or extra fencing to protect them if I get more fruit to set.)

espaliered pear trees

I have two espaliered pear trees in my community plot. This week I pruned them and tired up some stray branches. My new pear tree has 5 little pears that set. The older Bartlett tree again had no fruit - like last year. It has crossed my mind that maybe its because I am pruning them wrong. Could this be? Maybe I should prune earlier in the year.

baby pears

I was very happy to find a bunch of baby pears (my first!) on one of my espaliered trees in my community plot. I have two trees trained on a 5 foot fence. One tree (a Bartlett) has been there for 3 years now and the other I planted last spring. Last year both trees looked bad - with some bugs in the leaves (red spots - scale I think), so this spring I used a dormant oil spray just before buds opened. The fruit has set on the newer smaller tree - no bloom or fruit on the older tree. But the leaves look very good on both trees. Maybe next year I will have fruit on both trees. Soon, I will bag the fruits I have now and hopefully protect them from the garden critters.