Summer Projects: Pear Trees

Every year we enter reach spring with an ambitious list of projects, chomping at the bit to get started. (Incidentally, where do I opt out of this whole “Climate Change” thing? I seriously resent how late Spring starts these days, and how wet the summers have been!)

This year, one of our top projects was planting pear trees. We have long agreed that plants should earn their keep; if we’re going to carve out space and time to tend something it needs to contribute. Fruit trees decidedly fit the bill.

In May, we did a ton of work in and around the back corner of the yard and the spot we’d picked out for our new trees. We opened it up, taking down spindly pines and some larger trees that would have blocked the sunlight, figured out what the soil pH was to make sure it would appropriate, etc.

Our baby pear trees!

Then we headed to the local nursery and grabbed four pear trees: one Bartlett, two Commice, and a Seckel. We set them up in a beautiful, sunny spot and crossed our fingers. That combination should allow for strong cross-pollination and allow us to expand to other varieties in the future if we decide we want to.

So far, they’re thriving! Other than the fact that the deer ate all the little tiny baby pears off of them, they’re strong and growing well.  

Fruit trees are a long-term investment, of course. It will be years before there’s any kind of good return, but for now we’re delighted to have crossed this item off our list and to have taken our property one step closer to our larger vision of all it can be.