The fig tree towering over my garden is loaded with fruit — but wait, what is wrong here? The figs are turning purple while they are still very small; they stay hard, they stay small, and they fall on the ground. You can see in the photo below how they don’t have enough water content to droop at all, and the sign of a ripening fig is that it droops more and more on its stem until it is hanging quite limp and juicy and sweet. I am distressed about the situation, but from what I’m reading the tree has been stressed. And I think I know why.
My wonderful new landscaper who turned out to be not so wonderful, adjusted my irrigation settings several weeks ago, and since then I’ve been concerned about a few plants that don’t look happy. When I checked the control box it appeared that everything was horribly mixed up, but I didn’t trust myself to understand it, so I had my neighbor down to look at the setup, and between us we got it straightened out.
In the meantime the poor tree was very thirsty. Evidently when this happens the tree itself doesn’t show signs of stress, but it neglects the fruit ripening process. I have followed advice online to remove the smallest fruits at the ends of the branches, farthest from the tree; many of these were only 1-2 centimeters in diameter and probably would not have ripened before the frost anyway. Removing them lets the tree pour more energy into the larger fruit, and I hope at least some of them will ripen. I gave the tree a deep watering with the hose, too.
We’ve been having nice warm weather for a week or so, but at this moment it is raining. This afternoon the sun was shining and I had a young family for lunch. The children played in the garden and the playhouse, arranging salads on the little plastic plates. They’d collected snippets of parsley, mints, cherry tomatoes, rosemary, lavender, and even kale, and to top it off, asked me to cut up a lemon for them to squeeze over. They liked their salads better before the addition of lemon.
I showed them this bird’s nest that I found in the fig tree. It doesn’t look as though any baby birds hatched in it. It is very clean, and a unique building project. I see familiar materials from close by: cast-off garden twine (two types), needles from the Canary Island Pine, long Bermuda grass stems, and even dried nigella flowers. The strangest element, and not something I’ve seen outside here, is steel wool, forming the center of the bottom.
At least half the garden is in transition and upheaval right now; I will soon have all of the irises out and will amend the soil in several places before I put those back, or install the many new plants I have, or transplant old ones to an environment with more suitable amounts of sun.
The tarragon has flowers! That was a surprise; it’s evidently a bigger plant than I can make use of anymore. It will go dormant soon…
I finally took the time to cut zinnias and bring bouquets into the house, for the sake of my lunch guests. They are like much of my backyard garden now, not getting as much sun as they used to, and they are leggy — but plenty productive. Yesterday I was able to spend quite a while, in the 90-degree heat, tidying up all over the place, so I feel better about the stuff that remains undone. And there are still twelve days left of September ❤
Gladsome Lights 
Steel wool in a bird’s nest…I’ve never heard of that happening.
It must be disappointing to find your fig tree (as well as many other plants in your garden) are not getting adequate water. Disappointing too to find your new garden helper is not quite as capable as you thought.
Your nasturtium is lovely. Today I took a flower off mine and ate it like I did when I was little. They still taste the same.
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I should have thrown a few petals in the salad I made for my guests yesterday! I used to do that for the family, when we had salads every day, and the nasturtiums were growing out of cracks in the old concrete utility yard. But you’re reminding me that there’s no reason I can’t pop a flower into my mouth as a mini, or micro, salad 🙂
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Sorry to hear your tree has been stressed out and that the landscaper has not been as useful as hoped. My fig tree doesn’t seem to enjoy life where it is as its fruits never seen to get much bigger or ripen but then we think it’s been attacked by a Skeletonizer bug which is stripping the leaves. The zinnias are pretty!
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I’ve never had any pests attack my figs, maybe because this climate is generally just what they like, and the tree hasn’t been stressed before. But once a tree is stressed, I know that it’s prone to various problems. I wouldn’t think figs would thrive in your climate – are they commonly grown by home gardeners?
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For two years, the proprietors of my local fig ‘orchard’ (which is about two dozen trees) have lost their crop because of too much rain. Apparently figs are a little picky about their conditions.
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Early rain here can wreck figs! They are so soft, they quickly absorb the added moisture and tend to split open, even if they aren’t fully ripe.
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Oye! I’m glad you caught the irrigation problem and had help setting things to order. Hope your fig tree bounces back with good healthy fruit!
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Thank you, Ellen! It looks like a few of the fruits are growing larger at least, which is a good sign.
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Poor fig. I hope it will recover in time to fatten up the remaining fruit. Your irrigation system getting all mixed up is not a happy discovery. And with all you anticipated changes, probably will get more adjustments.
Love the analysis of the nest materials. Birds are so resourceful.
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I do need to be more aware of the irrigation needs going forward, that is for sure. We are supposed to have a few days in the 80’s next week, so that should help ripening.
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I love the word picture of your small guests preparing their own salads from the garden. So very sweet.
Hopefully, your fig tree will recover and give you at least some harvest this year.
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The tarragon flowers are beautiful! Your irrigation problem – at least you figured it out. Just awful.
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Thank you for this garden round-up … I would feel at home there 🙂
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You are one of the people I write my garden round-ups for ❤
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I’m curious — were the purple ones still edible? Pity to lose them. I love that you have a playhouse! I hope the tree makes it.
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So far the ones turning purple are small and hard and not beautiful. But I have some small fruits on my dwarf pomegranate that always make nice fall decor!
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The tree will be fine, and even if it isn’t able to ripen the fruit this year, I don’t doubt it will produce another large crop next year, and I’ll be keeping a closer eye on the irrigation from now on. Hopefully the only permanent loss will be of my inattention!
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