I took my root beer popsicle outside — the way we often require children to do — and wandered around the garden. On the earth and becoming part of it I spied three plums that must have fallen sometime since the day I thought I had picked the last of them. That makes — ta da!! — a total of 52 plums this summer, way, way more than ever before. It may have something to do with the copper dormant spray I applied last winter. The foliage has been looking healthy ever since it leafed out.
With a popsicle in hand, I couldn’t very well gather up armfuls of pine needles or do much of anything about the overgrown mess the garden has become, so I sat in a chair facing my little carved stone icon of Mary, and my quite large fig tree. A week ago an afternoon windstorm blew down bushels of crisp, russet brown pine and redwood needles all over the garden, even into the little shelf in front of the Theotokos. The lavender I had put there was long ago dried up.
On this side of the garden the invasion of dead plant matter is from the neighbor’s redwood tree; the twigs get caught on everything on their way down and continue hanging on the guava, the salvia, the fig… Below you can see the swellings of baby pineapple guava fruits:
Drying up jumble that it is, to me it is a lovable mess. In the past I would feel overwhelmed with the task of keeping up with it all, but lately I have accepted the reality that it’s too much for me to manage even well, much less perfectly. And anyway, a garden that always looks perfectly orderly is probably not the best kind of pollinator garden, and here where we get no summer rain many things are going to look a bit dried up at this time of year. But the bees don’t notice; they are still after that African Blue Basil that never stops putting out new flowers. I haven’t used it for cooking, though, because it’s too medicinal tasting.
I’m focusing less on management and more on friendliness with my plants, and appreciation for their unique cultures and seasonal changes. They keep growing even if I don’t do all the tasks at the right time. Week by week it’s always a little sad to clean up “the mess” — such as the acanthus blooms that have turned from fresh green-and-white to tan, and then brown. Here and there a milkweed stem leans over so far it is lying on the ground, and the tall Indigo spires salvia likewise, but many more of them.
I worked hard in the last few weeks to clean up, though. Three weeks in a row I needed to use space in my neighbors’ bins; two of those weeks I completely filled three 96-gallon yard waste containers and wheeled them to the street. I had removed all the superabundant asparagus and several shrubs, thinned out many patches of lambs’ ears, the fig tree, the juniper…. on and on.
I finished my popsicle and my rest, and as I was headed back to the house, something glowing red in the sunlight caught my eye, among the leaves of the fig tree…. and when I looked in there, surprise ! it was a dead ripe fig (actually black) — I picked it and two more that were hiding in the shade inside. Now begins the bountiful fig season; I knew it would be a good year for them, because of our several heat waves, in contrast to last summer being a cool one and me getting zero figs. I better get my dehydrator ready.
Gladsome Lights 
Lucky you, to have figs! I haven’t even checked on my local source of them,having assumed that our consistent and heavy rains probably would have damaged the crop. Perhaps I’ll check next week and see how things are.
Right now I’m contemplating a root beer popsicle. I’ve never heard of such a thing — did you make yours, or is there a company in your area that produces them?
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I have had them in the past, without ice cream, essentially root beer flavored sugar water, but this one was vanilla ice cream with the icy root beer flavor coating the outside. It’s a Trader Joe’s product.
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That’s why I’ve never encountered them. I’ve never been inside a Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods.
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I would never think of those two stores in the same sentence. But I guess they have that in common, that you haven’t been there.
I find Trader Joe’s fun to shop in, and Whole Foods very stressful!
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Here’s another similarity. I’d have to drive 30 miles into Houston to shop at either one!
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Well, if you’re ever in Houston and need a popsicle, you know where to go!
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Sadly, the giant Natal fig tree in our garden produces fruit only edible for the birds (lucky them). I love eating figs – so enjoy yours on my behalf! I too have given up the battle and view the leaves fallen all over the garden as blessings that mulch where I cannot get to – I only clear them from our swimming pool 🙂
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Very practical, I’d say!
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Oh, figs! Sigh! I am going to remember the concept of a somewhat unkept garden is better for pollinators! Sometimes I grab at whatever rationalization will work. I love the mental image of you with your popsicle, looking about the garden, finding a plum, a fig, and noticing it all. Peaceful and beautiful.
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I will be grabbing at whatever rationalizations will help me to eat more figs, and I just realized that several of my readers need me to eat one or more for them 😋
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I only know of fig newtons😂Actually maybe I have eaten a dried fig covered in chocolate 😋
I am drinking a berry smoothie while Bill mows the grass. I have been a lazy gardener this year but I rejoice over my pumpkin patch. I am so glad you are my friend. I like your ways so much❤️
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Sounds to me like you’ve got the right attitude of a balance in your garden, Gretchen! 🙂
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For all you claim to be adjusting to a more friendly method of gardening and less on management, I am amazed at the work you continue to do. It’s easy for me to embrace a lazy garden now, at least until I see pictures on Instagram of other gardens, but RH is so hard on himself, regretting that he can’t do the labor in it he used to. And my goodness what a harvest of plums you’ve had this year, with promise of more figs too. RH would be happy to help you eat both of those fruits…are figs a fruit?
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Do figs not do well in the South, Dewena? I know they are famously Mediterranean, and that’s the climate we have where I am, as you know. To be the owner, or friend, or keeper of a fig tree is such an honor and unbelievable joy to me… I am sorry that so many people do not know of them. The ones who don’t care for them, I understand; they are a little strange 😉
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My fig story is that I don’t care for the taste of them or fig jam but there’s always a jar of that in the fridge for RH. I would love to have a fig tree and for some reason we never planted one. One of our sons has a lovely one that he tends carefully as he and our daughter-in-law love them.
I was distracted while writing both these fig comments because I was mentally searching for something in the back of my mind, a wonderful devotional I texted my son a few years back about pruning a fig tree, compared to God’s loving but sometimes misunderstood pruning in his children’s lives. It actually had instructions for correct pruning in the devotional and was interesting. I think at that time I was reading the Mockingbird devotional book so I must get it off my bookshelf and see if I can find the fig entry.
I love your sense of devotion to fig trees!
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