My garden in the Fall 2012

More snapshots  - this time from the Fall 2012, of my San Diego garden. 5 years ago!!!

My life has been a non-stop whirlwind of activities and events since the school year began. Hence, the lapse in blog postings......I thought I start by showing what has been happening in my garden.

My original pandanus plant from Well Sweep Farm in New Jersey!! See the baby pandanus plants at its base. I remember the owner of the nursery telling how subceptible the pandanus was to the cold.They had at one resorted to buying back plants from their customers to restart/ strengthen their stock of pandanus. I had this pandanus plant for over 10 years, taking it inside during the winter and letting it enjoy sunny warm days outside.This plant and its babies would survive until 2014 when it succumbed to an irrigation accident. We had gone away for a trip and my irrigation had failed..... Unfortunately, it was a scorching summer. No amount of watering could revive my beloved pandan.

Black Jack Fig has been a staple of my San Diego garden for many years. To me, it is one of the most delicious of the figs.

Dragon fruit flowering! This did not happen too often!

 Dragon Fruit

Turmeric is flower

Figs

Fruits in an neglected orchard

I cannot believe it is already August 2012. My real life outside Blog world has been beyond busy leaving me with very little time to blog. We have been travelling since the end of June through the end of July attending Lacrosse College Recruiting Showcases with my son. We crisscrossed the east and west coasts of the US, returning home to San Diego for a couple of days in between with barely enough time to wash dirty laundry and repack for the next trip. Having two gardens and hour apart, I resigned myself to the fact that there would be many casualties of neglect.


Finally, yesterday evening I ventured into my Chula Vista garden. It was overgrown with weeds as it had received multiple watering a day due to some glitch in the irrigation controller. We came home from the airport at midnight to find the irrigation on, then running again at 3 am when we went to bed  and at 8 am in morning!! What will my water bill be this month?? Irrigation is now turned off for the rest of the week to allow the ground to dry off.


The good new is the fruit trees are doing fine. I will let the pictures speak for themselves while I dine on some delicious Mission Figs :)

Black Mission Figs

Fruit of the Month - Black Jack Figs

It is that time once again, to drape the net over the fig tree. The birds are pecking at the fruits even as the skin of the fig fruits are starting to split, signaling time to reduce water to the plant. The Black Jack Figs plant is one of the most prolific fruit plant in my garden. It produces 2 crops a year. I rooted 2 cuttings in early spring for my garden in the new house in Temecula. (Incidentally, the wall garden  for my tropical garden in the new house is up !) I was surprised the other day by a delicious purple fig at the top of one of the cuttings. Yes, it is that easy to propagate a fig tree. The Black Jack Fig is a large purple longish purple fruit with a strawberry red flesh - sweet and juicy. Figs in the market is never as good as from your own garden when you can pick it when it is fully ripe. I like to pick it when it almost falls into my hand when I pluck it ..... but as you can see I am not able to wait sometime. The problem with waiting for optimum ripeness is that the birds might beat you to it even with the net over the tree. For me in San Diego it fruits from July through October and sometimes November. The beauty of this plant is at summer end, when all the eating is done, baby embryonic figs form like bumps on branches, letting you know here's your next crop. In spring it swells up with warmer temperature.

I recently read in an Italian cookbook I bought, how the author's mom used to pluck a fig leaf and use it to stir warm milk making a soft cheese. The `milky sap' of the fig tree acts as a renin used in cheese making. I am going to try it soon!

8/7/11 Tree laden with fruits

How's does my garden grow?

I know it has been awhile since I blogged about my garden. By no means have I forgotten it although I have neglected it a fair bit. This is an unknown price for college education.....This summer we have been getting ready for daughter L to leave for UC Berkeley. We have so far visit Berkeley twice this year and will be moving her into the dorms in 10 days time!!! These trips and the pace of getting things together with her has taken its toll on my garden. I have not been able to create the bountiful garden I had envisioned in early spring. My kitchen garden in particular has suffered the most. We were away at Calso during the hottest week and that utterly killed my tomato plants. I know, the irony- heat and tomatoes! There was just not enough watering during those critical scorching days. I nursed them back to unproductive living dead status... Today, in an act of tough love, I yanked them out and started again with left over seedlings I started earlier. They are a bit stunted but maybe now that they have been elevated to Kitchen Garden status, they will take off. I can only hope.

This is not to say that I have not worked on my garden at all. I did so in drips and drabs. I did fertilize my trees and they have rewarded me with delicious fruits.This past 2 weeks had me waking up early and taking advantage of the cool mornings to spruce up my garden. The days were killer hot until this week. I also worked the evenings from about 5 pm to close to 9 pm if the children's activities did not interfere with these zen moments.

My rewards? The glorious sweet smelling blooms of the kumquats- heavenly. And now the trees are loaded with little kumquats, a promise of delicious pleasures to come. Three pomelo slowing getting bigger. It took a longer time to adjust to the transplant. It is a fragrant pomelo- cannot remember if it was the `green tea' variety. Sweet, juicy,not pulpy and unlike the flavor you get with market bought pomelo.

The mango tree is doing well with a fair amount of fruit. I am so glad it survive the transplant into the ground last year. It is quite an achievement to get Mango to fruit in our area.

June 29 2009 - flowers set and little mango form.


August 11, 2009 - after fruit drops. Remaining fruits almost palm sized.

Not to be outdone, three new plantings last year are flowering and seem to be setting fruit- the Ciku,the Nona and the Passionfruit. Whoa! Amazing. Just 2 days ago I was rewarded with yet another first in my garden- the Dragon Fruit plant is finally fruiting!! I am so excited.


August 11, 2009- just spotted dragon fruit ! (talk about being busy)


August 15 2009- how the fruits have lengthen!



Nona / Sugar Apple - flowering hopefully some fruit will set before the cold!



Ciku /Sapote flowers

Persimmon- reliable yearly delight!

Passionfruit grown on a arch trellis

Good old faithful Fig tree which we transplanted last year from the pot into the ground has really taken off. The fruits are large, purple and utterly delicious. As you can see from the pictures, the birds think so too!! We have been fighting them for the fruits. They cleverly eat out the fig on one side, leaving it hanging, so from certain angles you think you still have delicious fruits. The figs are the fruit in season now and it is GOOD.


August 11 2009-Figs swelling up to large palm sized and turning deep purple.



We have enjoyed blueberries, blackberries, peaches and now figs. Oh before I forget we did also enjoy the oranges- Valencia and the Navels, the Clementines and lots and lots of Calamasi (limau kasturi). So all is not lost in my garden....:)