Frankly My Dear… I Don’t Give A Fig

Another fig is ripe on my fig tree and I will not be eating it… again. No, it won’t be the squirrels or crows that snitch it (though they often try. Thank the garden gods for my crazy, runt tom cat, Sydney, who will hunt anything in my yard).

The culprit will be my husband. And he isn’t even really a culprit. I give them to him freely. I sacrifice my fig pleasure because he absolutely adores figs and my husband, being a meat and potatoes man, enjoys very little of the bounty of rest my garden. And because I love him so much, I let him have my figs. This is what I do for love. Aren’t I a wonderful woman? He really needs to build a shrine to me.

I am not sure what type of fig I have. I bought it as a rooted cutting from Polaris Career Center‘s* annual horticultural sale three years ago. It was marked as simple “Fig” and since I did not own one, it came home with me.

My fig tree is my most impressive potted plant (judging from comments I get) and surprisingly the easiest to care for. When the cold autumn winds hit, this baby simply gets rolled into the garage. After that, I remember it about once a month in order to dump a pitch of water in its container. It happily spends the winter in a content plant torpor.

This year, I may need to add an additional step (at the request of my husband) which is to bind up the branches before storing. My fig tree is now a daunting 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Our garage is not big enough to hold a small car, let alone a tree the size of one. So, when the first frost hits, I will bind up the branches before storing it.

If any of you are looking to grow a tropical but are uncertain of where to start, I would highly recommend finding a fig tree. They look great, the fruit taste great and they will make you look like a gardening genius to those who don’t know how easy they really are to grow.

*BTW, if you are looking for some fun gardening related classes in the Cleveland area, Polaris has some great ones available for adult continuing education.