GardenCuizine: Today in Our Garden #GardenCuizine #FIGS on the way!

Friday, June 28, 2013

Today in Our Garden #GardenCuizine #FIGS on the way!

Today In Our Garden

South Jersey
USDA Zone 7a (formerly zone 6b)

Figs - finally on the way! At last, after years of very slow growth, our little stick of a fig tree is showing signs of nutritious figs. Last year I know I spotted some too, but suddenly they disappeared. Hopefully, the squirrels or birds don't eat these before we do.

Our Ficus carica was purchased at a local garden center over 5 years ago. I don't have a record of the identification of our fig tree. It could be 'Chicago Hardy', 'Celeste', or 'Brown Turkey' fig. I don't think it's 'Celeste' though, since the fig tree has not been fast growing or shrub-like. In fact, it's been the opposite, slow growing with tree-like form and little branching out. It doesn't die to the ground either in the winter like I read Brown Turkey fig trees do. We may be better able to ID the tree by the size of the ripe fruits.

As you may know from previous blog posts, we've been attempting and planning to propagate winter hardy figs from both cuttings and air layering. Stay tuned for updates on propagating figs.

April Showers bring May flowers...but wait...it's June!!
We sure have had plenty of rain for June. How about you? Here in NJ, we're expecting even more thunder storms and rain for the next several days. New Jersey may go down in history as having the wettest June ever. Luckily, so far we haven't seen damage from too much rain. On the contrary, all our gardens are green, lush and the blooms are absolutely beautiful.

Happy and Healthy Gardening!