In her book ‘An Omelette and a Glass of Wine’, Elizabeth David said: “To eat figs off the tree in the very early morning, when they have been barely touched by the sun, is one of the exquisite pleasures of the Mediterranean.”
Many of us British gardeners would like to recreate the magic of the Mediterranean and grow our own figs but although they grow well outdoors in the South of England, they are more of a challenge the further North you travel.
For this reason, Doc and I decided to grow our fig tree inside the greenhouse. Our idea was to lift it outside in the summer but it grew too heavy and awkward to make this a practical proposition year after year so it stays under glass. It seems to be thriving.
Another good reason for growing a fig tree in a pot is that it needs to be treated very mean. Left to their own devices a tree can reach 20 feet tall, with lots of vigorous green, sappy growth which does not crop well.
We planted Ficus carica, Brown Turkey’ (AGM) because it is the classic fig for this country, with heavy cropping, producing its fruit in August. We started with the fig in a pot one size larger than the pot it arrived in and over the years, it has been re-potted on every other year. It is now at home in a very large 45cm (18in) diameter pot of soil-based compost (John Innes 3). We top it up with fresh compost from time to time and feed it with tomato feed in the spring and summer. It needs plenty of water when the fruit is swelling.
We do prune our fig in early spring, cutting out dead or straggly branches, before the main growth starts. By mid June, the new shoot tips are ready to be pruned to leave four or five leaves. I have heard that figs kept under glass can produce two crops per summer but we only ever have one crop. By the end of the season, there are pea-sized fruitlets which grow on the tree all winter, over spring and then into the summer for cropping.
Figs are ready for harvesting when the skin is soft, and a bead of sugary fluid is secreted from the ‘eye’ at the base of the fig. They also split when gently squeezed.
Our fig has never suffered from pests. Red spider mite is supposed to be a problem for figs grown under glass but we always damp down the greenhouse in hot weather.
A fig tree always has an exotic look about it and reminds us of sun-filled holidays. I love those large, fan-shaped leaves. I can’t say they are my favourite fruit to eat but Doc loves to eat them with goats cheese. I did wonder about drying some of the fruits in the airing cupboard and making them into lovely fig biscuits. However, I think Elizabeth David would turn in her grave, and we don't want that, do we?
Baz, our tree man has come today to inflict the chain saw massacre on our dying pear and apple trees. He tells us that the oak tree in a neighbour's garden will be receiving the final chop shortly. Although the canopy looked healthy adn verdant, the trunk has a huge split in it. The water is seeping in and gradually rotting the tree from the inside out. This is a danger sign - we have strong winds here and the tree could have easily crashed to the ground during the next winter. The oak tree is not a native specimen but it has done well and we have all enjoyed its spendour. RIP.
Despite the miserable weather, we have a reasonable crop of spinach. I fancy making a spinach roulade for tea. I have just popped down to see if there is any asparagus to go with it and there are creamy speckled beetles on the asparagus bed. The dreaded asparagus beetle!
I have picked off several of the critters and squished them but no doubt they have had fun laying their eggs everywhere. We never compost the ferns at the end of the season and always throw them on the bonfire, so we are bemused that the beetles have overwintered and multiplied to successfully. We have never encountered this problem before. The spears look characteristically bitten and unsightly, but some are edible.
Steps will have to be taken. Nematodes are not available to tackle this problem but apparently, Scotts Bug Clear Gun for Fruit and Vegetables (RHS advice) is a possible solution. It contains pyrethrum which is a natural insecticide made from the dried flower heads of chrysanthemums. We shall have to see if it works. I will choose a still day so the spray does not affect surrounding plants and the insects pollinating them.
Pests or food? It is a perenniel gardening and agricultural dilemma, isn't it? Feed the world but conserve the wildlife.
We have had some warm-er days over the last ten days, several were pleasingly sunny. However, it appears that Mother Nature likes to toy with us. Just when we are thinking about wearing a pair of cut- offs and stoking up the barbecue, she not only drenches us but adds cold wind and hail storms as well.
Today was cold enough for thick gloves and Doc carried the pressure-washed garden bench into the greenhouse so he could oil the wood in some degree of comfort. Yesterday, we were pleased to find healthy little parsnip and carrot plants poking through the soil in the raised beds and today we are wondering if they will still be there tomorrow.
I have runner bean plants escaping from the cold frame and I had hoped to plant them out by the end of this week. I took a risk with the pumpkins, butternut squashes and courgettes – but they are snug under cloches for a while yet. The lettuces are doing well and of course everything in the greenhouse is on schedule. I nearly removed the fleecy tunnel from the potato bed but thought better of it and I’m glad I left it in situ. Potatoes do not like the cold and they have put on a lot of green growth this last fortnight which could frizzle if exposed to very cold temperatures.
Recently, Doc and I witnessed a sad spectacle in a neighbour’s garden. We have long since benefited from the view and majesty of their huge oak tree. We don’t know the details but a team of tree surgeons spent a couple of days dismembering the canopy of the tree. They were highly skilled, two men were harnessed in the tree itself and several others were on the ground using ropes and pulleys to guide down the severed limbs down. Limb by painful limb the tree was dismantled and the screeching of the chain saw made us shudder.
No matter how expertly the work was done, or how much it needed to be done, it was still sad. Who knows how many decades the tree has been growing? Ten? Twenty? We have always considered the tree part of the landscape, free to scrape the roof of the sky if it so wished. Now it is nothing more than a large stubby trunk with shortened arms, a ghost of its past. We are hoping though that this skeleton is a mercy. Maybe they have pollarded the tree so it can re-generate and be more manageable in the years to come. Every day we walk down the garden and a glance across at it. So far, the men have not been back to finish the job. We don’t want to hear them shout ‘timber’ as the last of the tree crashes to the ground.....
For the neighbours closest to the tree, there must have been a severe loss of light from such a monster of a canopy and indeed we shall have a much clearer view of the setting sun on those rare, balmy evenings. We did not have to live right next to Goliath, other people did, so we hope there are benefits worthy of such a drastic pruning.
It is poignant that tomorrow we are losing a very old, almost dead pear tree and an apple tree which is virtually falling down on its own. (It sways in high winds!) Our neighbours will have to listen as a chain saw tears into old wood. Sometimes we gardeners have to take difficult decisions but gardens bring with them responsibilities as well as opportunities.
So, Doc and I have decided. We are going to plant two trees to replace those we are about to lose. We would like a Liquid Amber but are undecided about the other one. I have also ordered two highly vigorous climbing roses: Rambling Rector and Himalayan Musk, to scramble up our last two remaining, large old apple trees in the orchard. All our replacement fruit trees, except the Bramley Seedling, are on semi-dwarf rootstocks so this is the last chance to make a bold statement.
There will be a lot of work to establish the roses because they will be close to the old apple trees and they are hungry plants. We will have to bury a very large open-ended pot, filled with masses of nourishing stuff for each specimen, protect the stems from rabbits and train the growth up the trees with wires. It is expensive too but hopefully, in a few years time, two roses will be scraping the roof of the sky and filling the air with delicious scent. Well, that's the plan. We can’t wait. It will be nice for the neighbours too.
The idea of a French-style Potager where vegetables, herbs and fruit jostle attractively with cottage garden flowers, is very appealing. However, if I tried the aesthetic approach with the cabbages, they wouldn’t last long. The red varieties are particularly beautiful but all brassicas need more care and attention than other crops because they like specific growing conditions (lime) and they are plagued by pests.
The raised bed allocated to the brassicas this year does not look pretty but it is a very effective vegetable fortress and keeps all the cabbage-loving critters at bay. The mesh is very fine and will keep the pigeons and insects out. Cabbage white butterflies have to flutter by too. They like to lay their eggs on the undersides of the leaves. The eggs grow into caterpillars that then eat all the leaves. As for the slugs, the bed has been treated with biological nematodes and for double measure, each plant has a sprinkling of organic slug pellets too.
In addition, each cabbage has a collar round the base to protect it from cabbage root fly. This little demon lays its eggs on the soil at the base of the cabbages and when the eggs hatch, the maggots tunnel down to feed on the roots, effectively killing the cabbage. I buy packets of cabbage collars but they are expensive and I must start making my own from bits of old carpet. They are simple enough to make, for each one you just need to cut a smallish circle, cut a straight line halfway through the circle and then cut either side so it forms a Y shape. Then you just slip one around the base of each plant, though you need to be careful you do not damage the stem – I always have a few spare plants waiting in the wings just in case.
This year I am growing some pointed, small Hispi cabbages, white cabbages for coleslaw and our favourite red cabbage for an autumnal, spicy braise to go with pork. Checking on progress will be challenging though. I might need some SAS training to get under the mesh.
It may have been a slow start this season but Springfield has definitely sprung and is galloping along so quickly, I can’t keep up with it. I still have a broken left foot and this is not helping the situation. I am not fit enough to chase after the garden but thankfully, Doc isn’t working this bank holiday weekend. He was looking forward to a few days off and perhaps the opportunity to enjoy a Saturday as well as a Sunday paper, but he will probably think differently by the time I’ve finished prioritising his list of jobs!
The rhubarb forcer has delivered the goods and a few days ago we tasted the most sublime early (time is relative this year!) rhubarb. The stems were candy pink and fragile and needed no more than a sprinkling of orange zest and a little sugar. I poached it gently for a few minutes and we enjoyed it with local, vanilla ice cream. Simply delicious. We shall force some rhubarb next year but since it puts stress on the plant we will us a different crown.
Today, the sun shone all day and someone turned up the heater. It felt good to feel warmth on my face. The magnolia is a white froth of loveliness and the scent fills the garden. The camelia is also in full bloom and the borders are bursting with perennials. I’m sure I will manage to pot on the tomato plants in the greenhouse and I am hoping the tiny asparagus tips (finally) poking through the soil, will soon be big enough for me to harvest. No injury will stop me making a hollandaise sauce and poached eggs to go with the lightly steamed asparagus.
Last weekend I ventured out (in the cold) for a potter around (Doc allows pottering) and I took the radio with me for my weekly fix of BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time. I was examining a patch of golden and red dogwood and cursed the Lily of the Valley encroaching on its space. No amount of cold, drought, flood, poor soil or absence of light stops it from creeping up on everything. It is such a weed in our garden, a blight on the landscape and one of the few plants I would happily give away. However, there was a lady on GQT who was asking how she could grow it! Apparently, she had tried for 40 years without success. And here we are, trying everything available to kill it! We cannot even claim skill and perseverance. The LOTV was here when we came and will probably still be here when we are long gone.
Gardeners often have plants they cannot control or plants they cannot grow at all, whatever they try. The plant that I would love to grow is aubretia. In our village, several of the cottages have high, beautiful stone walls with purple, lilac or blue aubretia cascading down to the footpath. It may be considered a cliché and suburban but aubretia makes a beautiful statement in springtime. I love it. We also have a stone wall and a rockery but can I grow it? Not at all. It looks good for about 10 minutes and then succumbs. I blame some unidentifiable critters rather than the gardeners in residence. If anyone out there has any foolproof tips, please let me know. Such is the life of a gardener.
