This started out as a post about my overgrown, out of control garden but along the way some discoveries were made.
Rare discoveries!
But you'll have to get through the boring part first ;)
Temps have been over the century mark so needless to say I haven't been spending much time outside. Thank goodness even with our strict watering schedule I have more drought resistant plants than I thought I did. That's not to say I haven't lost any, I've lost many. I only have 2 of my 8 Lilacs left. I've lost some young Roses, a young Blackberry, even some young succulents to the drought.
But as you can see others have taken over and are thriving in their new found open spaces.
A, yeh, there's a walkway in there ~
Geraniums, Wild Roses, and
some type of scented sage has taken over,
wish I could remember what it was exactly!
The walkway from the other side :/
The Gazebo is in there somewhere
After pruning and cleaning it up.
At least you can see the entrance now!
The roof is almost covered by the 3
Cecil Brunner's and Honeysuckle
Just a small area left.
A Hollyhock has decided to jump in and help :)
Yep, windows have made it through another year :)
A Cucumber peeking out ♥
Our Cherry Tomato (Sweet 100) that has been
providing us with lots of yummy Toms for snacking.
I see some red in there!
Remember the Strawberry Pot I planted 4 years ago?
It's grown a little....here it is
covered by a wild Sweet Pea
Need to pick the dried seeds and vines
All cleaned up!
You can see the hardier ones took over
I always know when my Grapes are ready to
pick because the Mockingbirds show up. I adore Mockingbirds and wish they would be here longer than just to eat my Grapes. We had a lot of Dr. appointments for 2 weeks in a row, so I wasn't able to get out as soon as I would have liked to and as you can see a bunch was pretty picked clean (on the left of photo).
These weren't ripe enough for them :)
But these need picking!
Beautiful bunch of Thompson Seedless
OK
The Rare Discovery!
At least for me!
Along the back fence is a 21 year old
Climbing Fig ~ Ficus pumila.
It's been climbing happily up the fence onto dead Lilac trucks
and the neighbors 2x4 that sticks up in the air about 15 ft.
What that 2x4 is for, I haven't a clue.
But I digress....
While picking Grapes along the back fence, I found these things hanging. They caught me so off guard it took me awhile to realize they were from the Creeping Fig - it was fruit!
I had no idea it even produced fruit.
But what was weird was I had been seeing small pieces of green fruit that had been dropped here and there in the yard.
I thought the birds were trying to eat the Apples,
even thought they aren't ripe yet,
but had been dropping them due to the weight.
Putting two and two together,
I realized it was pieces the birds dropped from the
Creeping Fig fruit.
Small Creeping Fig plants have small leaves. As they grow they get much bigger. The fruit seems to develop on the branches of these large leaves. The photo below shows the Grape vines in front of them.
What I found online was very confusing.
Some say it's poisonous, some say it's not.
Some say it's edible, some say it's not.
It did seem that everyone agreed they
weren't ripe until they were purple.
Which doesn't matter if they're poisonous!
And why are the birds eating them when they aren't ripe?
With my Turkey Fig they'll peck and eat the ripe side of the fruit
and leave the unripe side alone.
This photo shows the smaller leaves towards the
bottom getting bigger as the plant grows.
I hope it just doesn't cross-pollinate
with my Turkey Fig. :/
So there you have it.
Does anyone have experience with this fruit?
Help?
