Welcome to Fig Watch 2018. That's right! Figs! On the edge of their hardiness zones. Lots of them, too. I didn't count them but I think there are about 56 figs out there. Because maybe I did count them! The big question is whether or not the figs will ripen before the first frost, which on average is around October 11th. But we've had frost as early as September 23rd and as late as November 10th. The answer will come in a few months, perhaps sooner! This is the first season since I planted … [Read more...] about Fig Watch 2018
fruits
A Raccoon Rumspringa Party in My Garden
I went out earlier today to check on my pawpaws and they were gone. Gone. As in not a trace of a pawpaw anywhere. No half eaten fruit. No seeds delicately spit out by whoever ate them. No tracks. No tell-tale scat. Gone. I assume the raccoons took them. Those hooligans. How could they have discovered my pawpaws? There were only two pawpaws. Probably by scent. Once they found them, they probably had a raccoon rumspringa party and ran off with them. (Insert terrible bad words … [Read more...] about A Raccoon Rumspringa Party in My Garden
‘Tis the Season of the Pawpaw
'Tis the season of the Pawpaw and I've been going out every day, sometimes twice a day, to check on the fruit on one of my little pawpaw trees. What? You've never heard of our native fruit tree, the pawpaw? Asimina triloba. It's a native tree if you live in the Eastern United States where it can be found in most wooded areas. Because pawpaws seem so common, once you know what they are, people think they'll just take their trusty shovel out to a woods, dig one up, and take it home to … [Read more...] about ‘Tis the Season of the Pawpaw
Raspberries
My raspberries. They came to me in the early spring of 2012, three sticks with a few roots attached at one end. I planted them in an area where I had previously planted some shrubs on the edge of the Vegetable Garden Cathedral. Who wants shrubs on the edge of a vegetable garden? I decided I didn't. I decided the edge of the garden is a good place for fruits and berries. I watered my raspberry sticks, and they began to grow and I began to think of all the berries I would be eating. … [Read more...] about Raspberries
August Harvest: Red Raspberries
Big drops of red raspberries drip off into my hand. I pick. I eat. I pick some more. Very few make it all the way indoors. Why did I wait so long in my gardening life to plant raspberry briars? Oh, right. Because they are briars, suckering up all over the place. Encroaching on the vegetable garden path. Making their way out toward The Shrubbery. But all is forgiven when I stand there, precariously making my way between the raspberries and nearby roses to pick and eat those big drops of red … [Read more...] about August Harvest: Red Raspberries
The bloom is off the viburnum
Strawberry blooms The bloom is on the strawberry and off the Korean Spice Viburnum. By golly, now that it isn't blooming, I think I can remove that Korean Spice Viburnum on the right side of the gate to the vegetable garden after all. It has a big dead branch in the middle and is right where I want to plant a new honeyberry. Then I'll move the other smaller Korean Spice Vibnurnum on the other side of the gate to someplace else in the garden. And when I say "I", I really mean the … [Read more...] about The bloom is off the viburnum
