WunderPhotos®

This series is for all those who have admired my garden pictures and apparently think everything I do out there is a success. I have never had such a disastrous year in the garden as this one has been, on top of a bad year last year. The worst has been my orchard. So far, of 15 fruit trees, three have died and two more are dying, some without ever having borne any fruit. Those that did set on fruit, insects or diseases destroyed them. Crows took every apple off three of the four trees long before they were even ripe; the fourth was small enough to net, but wasps (which can get through the net) are busy eating the remaining apples as I write. Sum total of fruit harvested so far this year: a handful of sour cherries (not enough for a pie) and about 8 plums, all of which had bad spots that had to be cut out. Nearly every tree was a variety that has done well for me in the past, but I have never seen a year like this one. I think I am going to quit fruit farming; there is no use spending my limited time and energy digging, planting, mulching, fertilizing, weeding, pruning, spraying, and netting when I get NOTHING in return. Sorry this is such a downer, but that's the way it is.

Retiree, every year I have SOME fire blight in my pears and apples, but they usually grow past it. The apples are doing so this year even though the infection is worse than usual. The pear, however, is so badly infected that I don't know if it will even survive, let alone recover to bear fruit again. They do not gain resistance by exposure in the same way that people who have had measles don't catch measles again. Thanks for adding your comment.

Thank you, Nita and MuddPuppy! It has been a bad year for SO many people. At least we did get some significant rain finally, which a lot of folks are still waiting for. I don't know what the answer is, except to say that if the earth were a perfect place, we wouldn't long for heaven.