Few things in life are as good as eating fruits freshly picked from the tree. Figs are one of those fruits that you want to leave on the tree until it is very ripe. Thus the problem of finding figs in the shops: they are a nightmare to transport when ripe. I am lucky to live on a property with a big fig tree. Every year this time, we flock to the tree, much like the birds, to pick the first ripe fig. We peel it there, whilst standing in the summer heat, and we feel like children anew.
Each morning, me and the dad go to the fig tree to try and scare away the birds, but this is a futile task as the fig tree is in fact just a massive bird feeder.
Some of the figs are not perfect, in fact, they are rather funny looking. They go down the hatch (mouth) the same either way!
I really wonder what happened there. Alas, imperfect or perfect, growing your own fruit is surely one of life's treats.
But sometimes a blessing can become a curse. My wild rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) took over and I needed to cut it back. I love to eat salad every day, but this grew too much, in fact, it killed some of my swiss chard. The image below is the before image:
Very messy indeed. But the after image looks better!
Have you ever seen how big wild rocket can grow? It amazed me to see just how big they can grow when you let them:
See also the two photographs below to marvel at the thickness of their stems! Remember these are perennial plants, so they can give you many years' worth of salad!
Naturally, I chopped everything up with my lawn mower, ready for the compost in its small chunks:
A couple of bad-looking swiss chard leaves also found their way into the mix!
But it is amazing to see how quickly they have again grown back. The new leaves are obviously a lot tastier and their texture is also softer.
It benefits one to thus at least trim them from time to time so that new growth can be encouraged.
And it is amazing how just how many seeds these plants produce. Left unattended, like I did, the pods break open and they become a real problem:
But when you get them early enough, you will have a bucket full of seeds:
And now you will ask yourself: do you really need that much seed? The amount of plants you can grow with the seeds is mind-boggling.
Yet, each year I harvest these seeds and do nothing with them because you can only plant so much on a small plot. And these plants just give and give and give. It is amazing.
I wish I could share these seeds with you, and the figs!
Have you ever used rocket seeds other than planting them? Please share your ideas!
For now, happy gardening and stay well. All of the photographs are my own, and the musings are as well.