Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

>I'm in 8a. Severely runing the pear tree to reduce shade and possibly help it produce would be my responsibility and fairly expensive. My instincts are telling me to open up this tree as much as I can manage, plan for nightshades and squashes near the middle, herbs spring veggies and brassicas on the ends. Suzanne

Welcome!
Things that make fruits, require more sun. Let's call that 6-8
hrs a day as a minimum.m Sweeter fruits, require even more
energy, to make the sugars. Larger fruit require more as well.

Leafy things, like leaf lettuce, can get by on far less, and
even less, if you can afford a long, slow growth.

As this is winter and things are slow, check your sunnier areas
more specifically. At 12 noon, you can see solar south by the
shadows cast. I like to play, and make a crude sundial with a
broom stick and a few bricks. maybe copy your garden bed
onto graph paper and mark the shadow outlines from 8Am to
4PM. That's nearly sunrise to sunset, right now, as we are near
Dec 21st, our time of year when days are shortest, but will start
getting longer. (Yay!) Now, put a small dot in each square, each
hour there is shade. (You're having fun, right? LOL!) From here
on, things will only get sunnier. Now, you can see exactly how
many hours each sq ft gets, & plan, accordingly.

You might put "squash" near edges and let them grow out onto
paths instead of using up valuable space in begs. That said,
really BIG ones with 20 ft do root along vines, and will not be
as big if the vines are on a sidewalk... Smaller ones, with
6 ft vines no real issue.

As for the pear tree, if it's not bearing, prune it. Sorry I'm not
near you as you can learn this easily. My main tool is a 12 ft
extended pruner that is ~$30. Usual advise is to prune 25-33%
a year, total. In your case, I might risk 50%. Err on the side of
less. You CAN "summer prune" a lil more, they say, nowadays,
if desired. Putting limbs back is significantly harder. 12 ft
is tall enough for most home gardeners' trees.

I have a $15-20 toy that tells me pH, moisture, and light.

BillSF9c

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