My Garden and its Beasts

Fig trees dominate my garden lately. Today I trimmed a few more branches off the tallest (Italian) one to give sunlight to the oak. Then I bent & slashed into the ground a branch of the mission fig tree on the corner, so as to make my second new tree. The first is doing well, on the far left.

After I looked at the picture on my laptop I spotted Percy, my neighbor's cat, walking down the alley. Percy likes my garden and sometimes lies down to rest on the grave of my boys Carlo and Max, who lie side by side just behind the little oak. I found that strong little tree growing in the alley years ago and moved it to the front garden, then I razed it when my then-neighbor was worried about its future roots. I regretted that compromise and was pleased when the oak rose again and the neighbor moved out.

In the extra you can see my smush-graft. On the tree side (above the stakes) there are freakishly early fruits. The harvest is normally in late August or early September. I attribute these weirdlings to climate change --and the tree not yet knowing what to do. Hell, there normally aren't fig trees all over West Philadelphia. This was the northern extreme for growing figs until 10-15 years ago. Before that there were two or three that I knew of. Now they're all over the place and one can buy short ones at stores.