The pears tend to grow 5 pears to a spur, and it is generally recommended to thin them out to one or two to a spur. I’ve been informed that the time to do this is July, as there can also be a natural loss of fruit. However, many of my tree’s spurs were bearing 7 fruits, and I really didn’t want it wasting energy on fruit I would only be thinning out later. So I have taken off the weediest, and thinned them down to 4-5 a spur. That way, in July, I should have a pick of healthy fruit, should I want to thin again.
Month: May 2009
The other beds all have soaker hoses buried, fed from a pipe that goes around the garden, and I have just extended this to the new bed. The pipe is normally fed from a pair of water butts, but they are almost empty at the moment. So for the two weeks I am away, I have set up a timed water feed from the mains, to come on for a while, every 3 days. I did have a cunning plan to use the timed mains water feed to simply top up the butts, using a ballcock valve – that way, the mains water would only be used if the butts were empty. But that is a level of complication I haven’t got time for at the moment.
Less people were attending this month from previous months I have seen, but we still had a very good time of it.
Until today, it has been a puzzle to me why I decided to plant them out – it seemed to me I would start off thinking “it’s too early for X”, then suddenly decide that if anything I had left it late, and then – after I had planted – I watch the plants slowly die.
I guess this means it is going to rain tomorrow.
Anyway, among the larger family type cookers was this one, priced at 12.99 then reduced to 8 quid. I couldn’t resist it. It’s a nice little 1.5 litre cooker, perfect for 1 or 2 portions, and has 3 heat setting – “low” (slow cook), “high” (simmer) and “keep warm”.