Joao Winckler

Ha, I've done this with rosemary and thyme on a hot day, works surprisingly well. The car gets up to proper dehydrating temperatures pretty fast in summer. Only issue is everything smells like herbs for a week after.

The Japanese branch propping idea is worth trying. A forked stick or a length of timber wedged under the heavy side can take the weight off while the tree slowly adjusts. After harvest is the right time to reassess the structure, maybe take out the worst offending branches over a couple of seasons rather than all at once.

The low-vigor groundcover approach makes a lot of sense for harvest. Anything too vigorous just becomes another thing to manage. I've seen comfrey used in fruit tree guilds but it can get out of hand fast — the persistence-not-vigor principle is a good way to think about it.

The runner grasses that spread underground are the ones I genuinely can't make peace with. Everything else I can work around but couch grass through a bed is just a nightmare. The dew collection thing is real though, noticed the same on my paths in the morning. Doesn't make me hate it less but at least it's doing something.

Separating them into individual pots is the right move. Seed-grown pears are a long game but it's genuinely exciting not knowing what you'll end up with. The ones that break dormancy early and grow vigorously in year one tend to be worth keeping an eye on.

John's slug trap use is the one I've actually tried. Works pretty well, the slugs are definitely attracted to it. Lost a batch to my dog once though, which was an experience. The biostimulant angle is interesting, hadn't thought about it that way — makes sense that feeding the soil microbes would have a knock-on effect on nutrient availability.

Oak is worth hanging onto if you can. Dense enough that it burns well for years, and sound oak is genuinely useful for woodworkers if you know anyone local. The stump situation is the real headache though. We had a couple of big ones and ended up just letting them rot in place, planted some wine caps around the base and they went absolutely mad.

Mine was realising I was watering on a schedule instead of checking the soil first. Killed so many things by watering every day out of habit when the soil was already wet. Once I started just sticking a finger in before reaching for the hose, things started actually surviving.

Yeah Phil's right, leaf miners are pretty much impossible to spray out once they're inside the leaf. Plucking the worst affected ones off and binning them is about as good as it gets. Young trees are more vulnerable just because they have fewer leaves to spare, but once they're established they tend to shrug it off.

Those silica packs that come with shoes, electronics, bags — worth saving every single one. I've got a little jar I throw them all into and just toss a few in with each seed container. Recharge them in a low oven for an hour or so when the indicator beads go pink and they're good again. Free and basically endless supply once you start collecting.