Gabz is right about the weather. Nasty here, too, and I’m sick to boot. I hate being sick!!!! Some kind of sinus/viral/bacterial thing that makes me just want to bawl.
I’ll try to answer some of the questions as I remember them, but if any of my answers don’t make sense, I’ll redo next week when I’m not on so many good herbs!!!
Figs—they do great in a coastal climate. Not sure how far inland or north they will survive. Figs are very easy to start from cuttings. They are parthenocarpic—don’t you just love throwing around big words?!—it just means they don’t have to be pollinated! Just take cuttings from branches that are about the thickness of your thumb. Now is a good time to take cuttings because figs have a white sticky sap like latex, and the leaves are itchy like okra. We usually make ours about 12” long. Stick 10-12 in a 10” planter. Keep moist. The ones that leaf out in 2-3 months have rooted. Leave them in those containers another month or two and then gently seperate into individual containers or into the ground. Containers are easier to keep watered. :)
Muscadines and scuppernongs are the same thing, but different if that makes any sense. If you’re planting, make sure to get self fertile varieties, or you have to get 2. Check your local ext service for tips on pruning—too involved to go into here. Grapes grow on new wood, so pruning is vital. Now is the time to be trying to root grape cuttings.
Di—your ideas are great!!
Tiera—you should write that book!!
The garden with the landscape fabric looks fantastic!!! Landscape fabric works better than plastic because it lets the soil breathe and water can go up and down. It will last longer if mulched. We have a lot of trouble here with nutgrass. For those of you who don’t know what it is—nutgrass has a nodule at the end of the leaves, underground. A lot of hunters spend a lot of time planting it for turkeys and such. I offered to give them as much as they wanted, but so far no takers!!!
When you pull nutgrass, if you don’t get all the nut, and it can be as much as a foot or more down in the soil, it jsut comes back up. The only things I know for sure will kill it are 1) shade, or, 2) putting hogs or turkeys on it and letting them root out the nuts.
Don’t know about the compost heap gettng too cold! The worst problem we have here is fireants. Lime your compost and voila! It burns their little feetsies off!
So sorry you’re not feeling well.
That’s very interesting about figs, I love figs and I live near the coast, I’ll have to look into whether I am far too north or not.
I have never had any luck trying to promulgate/propogate? anything from cuttings.
Thank you so much for providing the information on figs. I have wanted to plant some new trees near one of my pastures, but wasn’t sure how to go about it.
Was going back through this thread to make sure that I hadn't missed any nuggets of information, and noticed your comment.
Geese will also do the trick, but they pose problems of their own. I have some Canadians that spend several months with me every year (same geese, but that's another story) and we have become quite good friends. They seem to enjoy hanging out with me when I'm outside and one day they were very busy in the garden plot. I hurried over to shoo them out and realized that they were pulling up and eating the purple nutsedge, so I left them alone and went back to mowing.
About an hour later I went back to check on the geese and they had stepped on and broken most of my newly planted peppers, and several of my tomatoes that were not staked yet.
Live and learn, as the saying goes!
I can tell you that figs are a not-uncommon ornamental in Rocky Mount, which is as far west as I-95 and as far north as Nash County. They produce well here.