@mrsg47
Squirrels are busy stealing my apples and pears in the backyard. They are too lazy to move a dozen more steps to these plum trees.
Wish you were here.
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Time for a visit
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It’s that time of year now- I’m getting some fruit!
I may have missed out on strawberries, but I’m getting lots of mulberries in a couple locations for the last week or so. Oscar is the best and what I pick the most of, as it has sweet, mixed with tart, while some of the others (kokuso, Wellington) are a mild, bland sweet. Oscar is similar to Illinois Everbearing, with slightly bigger berries and a bit sweeter.
I’m not sure if they are ripe, but I picked 3 test apricots yesterday, one of each type. I’ll leave them on the counter for a few days, then sample. The stained fingers are from the mulberries…
None of my sour cherries have been productive for many years now. I think it is blossom blight. I tried spraying this spring, but either it wasn’t enough, wrong timing, etc, as I had the same result. But, I do have a sour cherry (Juliet) at one of the rentals and it had a decent amount of fruit for the first time this year (planted in 2019).
I picked maybe half, even though it wasn’t fully ripe. There were some pecked fruit, so it seems like the birds are interested as well. I’ll be making it into jam.
Most tenants don’t garden, but the couple which do have pretty nice ones. Here’s a pic of one from the other day.
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Ilona and Sugar pearls are clearly under ripe. Sugar Pearls should be ivory colored to pale yellow when ripe, not green. Ilona should be completely orange. I also think that apricots do not ripen over the counter like most other stone fruits.
I figured that the SP was probably underripe, but there is so much fruit on it, that me picking one is basically thinning what is left 
My total crop of Ilona last year was 1 fruit, which I just happened to notice and pick on 6/30, at which point it was quite tree ripe. I’m shocked it made it past the squirrels, etc. So I figured I’d start testing just a bit earlier this year.
In the past, it has seemed like they have. At least, they soften and lose some tartness.
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I was impressed by “your” veggie raised beds in the last pic. They were neat and organized. And…. you told us it’s your tenant’s 
I’m sure they would be riper in a month. Except something (other than me) would eat them by then. I sampled a few and they were ripe enough for jam If I was netting them, I’d let them sit a lot longer.
Yes, my garden is generally far less tidy. This is about as good as mine gets:
My excuse is that the tenant has several people from their family working on a small garden, while I’m spreading my efforts over several acres (if you add all the rentals, plus my own 1/2 acre)
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@BobVance
Your tomato area is very neat.
After several years of messy, do-it-yourself “raised. bed” (if one can call it that) in the front yard, we decided to invest in these raised beds, just in time for the move in of our new next door neighbors.
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@clarkinks are these russeting near the calyx of Harrow Sweet frost rings? This is the first time I have noticed on a lot of this appearance on HS. Not much on other varieties.
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Thanks, Clark. I can rule out copper. I sprayed copper at dormant only.
I have a few fruit on each pear variety. Not sure if I would win a squirrel battle. Lot of them this year.
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@BobVance and @mrsg47
Here are FlavorFest. Big berries were taken by chipmunk and squirrels.
This round, the taste was very diluted because we have had a lot of rain including a downpour two days ago. Otherwise, they are large and flavorful starwberries.
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What are the best strawberry varieties you recommend for me? I tried an unknown variety from HD many years ago, it was small, flavorful but it rotted easily and attracted a lot of wood lice.
Personally, strawberries are not among my top fruits, but my kids love them. Still, I enjoy them when sweet and flavorful.
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Ahmad,
I don’t grow many varieties so I may not have a good answer to you. I like Earlyglo strawberry. I know @SMC_zone6 likes Flavorfest for a June bearer.
I think your kids will like Mara de Bois for ever bearing/day neutral varuety. I like it but the fact that I have to protect all season is really annoying. To get tasty Mara de Bois, you need to let them turn dark red. People often pick them when they turn red. That’s a week to go. Dark red is when MdB tasted sweet and aromatic.
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Mine were picked last week. It looks like we are back to the 2 weeks difference again.
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Clark
I look at the color of Juliet @BobVance picked a few posts above your post. They were picked bright red/early. Per the coloring chart I posted above, ripe Juliet is quite dark.
I want to see if I could let they ripen me as long as possible. Now that the cherries are protected, I hope I can wait longer.
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Picked mine very dark but there was not many of them. My bush was lighter than yours.
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The tree flowered profusely but I think I have fewer than 50% fruit set. Birds also got a lot before we gad time to net the tree.
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