From Your Garden
Figs, like many fruits in our yard, are a month early this year. We have two varieties, including my favorite, brown turkey, which I’d picked up at Mount Vernon in 2006 and nursed through a few years of condo living before planting in Annapolis. The other is Hardy Chicago, and I’m getting more of them this year, when they taste better than they usually do.
I like figs because I’m a lazy gardener. Beyond using some fish emulsion/seaweed (diluted Neptune’s Harvest) as foliar feed and fertilizer, about the only thing I do is mound up wood chips around the base during winter to keep the trees from freezing. Figs will regrow after a freeze, but that can mean going without fruit for a time, depending on freeze severity. In fact, my biggest challenge is beating ants to the harvest and using the bounty quickly enough.
If I can avoid eating all of them fresh, I plan to try them stewed, perhaps with some other summer fruits and some spices, but no added sugar. The figs are sweet enough.
–Leigh Glenn, Arnold
What’s growing in your garden? Send a photo and description of your latest harvest to [email protected].