The Garden Club

LOL. Good joke. And I know you can't tell directions from the photo, but those poppies do seem to be leaning left a bit.

it very well could be but I am no expert in horticulture.  I have heard it said,  you can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think. 

That's some cucumber. Are you going to name it Wilbur? 

I love home-grown cucumbers. You wouldn't think it with such a simple plant, but the difference in taste between the store--bought and home-grown cucumbers is significant. 

I bought this fig tree about five years ago on a lark while driving by a private residence that had a sign by the road. He was selling potted seedlings for about $5.00.

It’s been potted-up at least twice, the last time in January. It’s in a half wine barrel that I got at Lowe’s for about $40.00. My brother picked it out as my Shabbos goy and he got a good one. Masks were still required at the time and I refused to wear one.



Larger View

I’ve had two ripe figs on it so far this year. They were both good. These were the first ripe figs I’ve gotten from it that seemed like finished products. I had one or two last year that were kinda-sorta edible, but they were not fully sweet nor did they grow to full size.

Last year, around May, both my fig trees (I have a two-foot one planted elsewhere) suddenly lost their leaves. I don’t know why. But they did eventually sprout new ones and went on to fill themselves out fairly well. I wondered if the same thing would happen this year. The only thing I could think of is that I might have over-watered them. So I tried to be careful of that this year. But with this especially hot summer, over-watering was not a problem for any plant.

And at the peak, we had three or so days of 100-plus weather. That scorched many things, including the fig tree. After the heatwave, it began to lose leaves. One here. One there. I thought it was going to happen again where all of them would fall off. But it stopped at about 7. This was likely the result of the heat and yet many of the leaves that fell of looked perfectly healthy, while there are many leaves on the tree now that show clear signs of scorching.

Who knows? But it does seem to be doing well. It’s full of figs although it’s anyone’s guess how many will ripen into full-sized fruit.

I had always assumed that figs were a tropical tree. I’m sure they probably are. This site says:



I’m in planting zone 8b so I guess it works although I don’t insulate the container nor bring them indoors. I probably do need to add some more fertilizer to it, although I did do that earlier in the season.



I’ve already chosen a brand name: Go Fig Yourself. I'm working with an artist on package design. I'll be sure to send you a free sample pack.

 
 That article I read about figs and climate noted that a tree could die off to the ground but still be alive. Your experience has confirmed that.

We have a number of shrubs and bushes around our home which require regular trimming. I have avoided this chore for some months and as a result, the yard has begun to look like a wilderness. I admit to hating yard work, but doing yard work with second-rate tools makes it even worse. I confess, I am cheap.

Well, things got to the point that I expected a bear to come out of the bushes. I kept saying that I needed to do something about it the situation, but made no move. Then, one morning my doorbell rang and upon opening it I encountered a Mexican who told me he would trim my bushes for $250.00. For $400.00, he would also remove the dead hawthorn bushes. I took his name and number and told him I would get back to him if I decided to avail myself of his services.

I thought $250.00 was not so cheap and told my wife about it. She said that $250.00 was a good price and I should have had the man clip away. This got me to pondering things. I finally decided to have a look at the state of electric hedge clippers. I have a couple of old Black and Decker 14 or 16 inch clippers which are not very useful, at the best of times. Given the state of my yard today, they would be useless. They are both too short and too weak.

After looking around the internet, I came upon this Kobalt hedge trimmer. The main selling point was the 26 inch blade. That is considerably longer than my Black and Deckers and longer than trimmer blades I had previously seen. (It makes me think of a long sword) The gap between the trimming blades is also larger than most. Finally, I saw the $70.00 price as a savings of $180.00. So, I went down to Lowe's and picked one up on Friday night.

I used the thing yesterday and today and can confirm that I am happy with it. The length of the blade let's me cover area faster and get to spaces safely instead of performing a balancing act on a tilted ladder. Furthermore, the trimmer is much more powerful than my old Black and Deckers. It cuts through 1/2 inch branches without any problem. In fact, I cut a few branches that must have been 3/4 of an inch thick. An added bonus is the handle that can be rotated in such a way as to have the blade cut perpendicular to the handle. This means that one can cut the sides of bushes without having to position oneself facing the side.

If I have one complaint it is the weight. I know it weighs less than 7 lbs, but I felt the weight after using the clipper for 30 minutes. I am sure that being an out-of-shape 68 year-old man had nothing to do with that. That said, I think the overall convenience of the trimmer makes up for any extra weight.

I am very happy with the purchase and have already gone a long way to cutting back any underbrush in which bears might hide. Peace of mind. Now, what to do with the dead hawthorns?

The tulips are looking quite fine:



Larger view

You're not tired of winning yet? Well, I've got the property around here in decent condition. Strangely (master gardener that I am), I lost about 6 ornamental grass plants due to a cold spell (cold for us...maybe the mid 20's) in winter. But some of these plants had been just fine over the last 4 years.

I may replace a few of them with something else. But the garden is (aside from tidying up) more or less on autopilot. But the rosemary bushes are spectacular and in full flower. They look great. The fig tree is budding so the cold didn't hurt it. Not sure why the grass plants succumbed.

I should get more tree fertilizer spikes because I do think that did wonders for the fruit production last year on the plum trees. There's also a little apple tree across the driveway (on school property that is a strip that is unused by them or anyone else). It could use some spikes as well, although I have tried to encourage it by cutting back the madrona* that is growing beside it and somewhat over it.

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Perhaps usually written "madrone," an alternate correct spelling is "madrona" and that is how we pronounce it around these parts: muh-DRONE-uh.