Still not farmers.

Or, more appropriately, "Damnit, Jim, I'm a mother, not a horticulturalist!"

Zorak and I took our random ramble around the property to check on the fruit, and we found this:

Sooty Blotch and Flyspeck. Ew. (Yes, Hillary, more mold! LOL! Actually, they're fungi, from what I've read.) OK, I keep telling myself that we eat mushrooms, and mushrooms are fungi... but reading that these are "cosmetic" flaws, and that the apples are still edible... kinda heebes me out, to be truthful. The sooty stuff washes off. The flyspeck (could they have come up with a less appetizing name, huh?) doesn't go all the way through the skin. So, I guess, technically, it could be cut off.

And you betcha, I've researched how to head it off for next year. It starts this fall, with burning the leaves. Thankfully, we're raising a houseful of pyros-in-training, so I don't think we'll have to engage in much arm twisting to get the project started. More pruning in late winter, to improve air flow and sunlight penetration. And, then we'll have to decide if we want to go with fungicides or not. So far, everything we've grown (*cough, sputter, aherm*) is "Organic". Actually, it's "Apathetically Organic" - which means there are no pesticides, chemicals, or unnatural feeds, etc, only because we never get around to it. However, this trial-by-fire-and-total-lack-of-preparedness approach may reap serious benefits in the end, no?

The pears on one tree are HUMONGOUS, but not ripe yet. They look like they could kill someone when they let fall, though. Makes me nervous to have them dangling there. The few pears that survived on the second pear tree are teeny-tiny, and the most beautiful reddish color. They're starting to ripen now, which is exciting.

AND, we found the persimmon tree! Several hundred yards from where we thought it was! (Maybe there are two?) How cool, huh? What, um, what does one do with persimmons? Besides trying to figure out when they're ripe, that is. (On this week's checklist!) It may not have more than two dozen fruits on it, and we may not have any idea what to do with them, but it's exciting nonetheless.

Zorak's managed to urge the late-plant "Desperation Garden" along quite nicely, and we've been enjoying zucchini from it this week. The okra is trying to produce. We're cheering it on! Go, okra, go! C'mon and grow, babies! *rah, rah, rah* (That's the extent of my gardening skills, thanks.) The melons, pumpkins, and peas are toodling along, doing their thing. I don't know if they'll produce in the end, but it's fun to watch.

And that's the big gardening update from the Forever Home.