08-04-2012 Fig time!

The good news for this week is that figs are finally turning color and producing nice amounts of everyday sweet pleasure. The ones in the pictures are my favorites: "Violette de Bordeaux" a.k.a. locally as "La Negrita". It has great color, a nice firm body and is not too sweet (to quote my son David:"The way I like my women!") I also have a "Chicago", sweeter than V de B , a B-17 so named because it was smuggled out of Greece after WWII by a B-17 pilot. Now this one really is sweet. I received it last year from Paul Pepper who loves tinkering with different cultivars but saw this year's crop killed by a late frost (He lives in Northern Wake County) here is my B-17; it was just a few inches tall last year and is now four feet tall:

I almost forgot my other fig tree. It was supposed to be a "Brown Turkey" but based on its watery taste, it was mislabeled and I am the one who's been taken for a turkey. trouble is, that baby is already eight feet tall. I guess I'll keep it for the birds.

Important: Sharing being at the heart of happiness, if you live close enough and want to get figs, let me know a couple of days ahead of time to make sure I have not already promised that day's crop to anybody else and I'll be happy to share with you. Just let me know how much you want/need and I'll make sure to save them for you.

Other than that, tomatoes are still doing well albeit growing a little slower; that heat is tough even on them. Perfect time of the year for tomato/cheese sandwiches but, the real good ones you have to eat standing by the sink; they're a little too juicy for civilized eating.

My cucumber production has come to a halt: high temps hinder proper pollination and you're left with an ugly worn out vine that you keep watering hoping the weather will cool a little sometimes and the cukes will produce a few more fruit.

Started thinking about my fall/winter crops.( Gardeners never live in the moment, they always think about the next crop, a few weeks down or a few years away if planning to plant trees. Only the fresh taste of new fruit or produce brings them back to the present.)

Ah the thought of fresh, crisp lettuce or endive!!!!

In the meantime, I keep sweating away in the garden most mornings trying to keep things fairly tidy and spreading some fresh wood chips around big plants and on the paths. Craig Brown, a North Raleigh tree surgeon surprised me with a load the day before my birthday so that I have been sweating away spreading the good stuff. Craig knows that a good man never has too many wood chips. :)

Pictures:

one of my favorite fellows in the garden; I call it" banana spider" because of its color bur it is really known as the Argiope Aurantia and the garden spider. It builds amazingly strong webs, allowing it to capture insects larger than itself and it does some kind of magic dance when you touch its web, most probably to help stick it to the poor sucker.