Photos are from students in News Photography, COMM 1316, featured photo by Kamryn Collins.
Soon, but not yet, might be how to describe this year’s fall harvest in the SPC Garden. Apples, pears, and pumpkins are all planted in the garden behind the Wilburn and Helen Wheeler Science Center on the Levelland campus.
And while the fall is harvest time for pears, apples, and pecans, SPC Garden organizers say this year the produce is a little delayed. The reason? Heat.
“This year, our pears are a little later than last year,” says Kristin Bingham, associate professor of biology, “but pear harvest seems to be coming along but taking a little longer in part because of the heat intensity we’ve been having.”
Other fruits in the garden appear to be a bit delayed too.
News photography students went to the garden last week and found a number of pears that appeared ready to pick.
They also found a lot of apples on the trees, but not many that were fully ripe.
“This year looks like we will see less apple production compared to last year,” Bingham says.
Pumpkins in the garden pumpkin patch showed bright orange blooms and only tiny fruit.
“The pumpkins and apples are doing OK,” Bingham says, “but we are seeing small fruits, and smaller crop size due to irrigation issues during the summer.”
So, while not much has been harvested from the garden yet, Bingham says there is more to come.
“We just planted some sunflowers,” she says, “that we are hoping will be ready for entering in the South Plains Fair Horticulture competitions coming up at the end of the month.”
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