Hi, guys!
I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving! We’re still working on leftovers over here, which is A-OK with me — next-day turkey-stuffing-sweetpotato-cranberry-sauce sandwiches are the best part, as far as I’m concerned, although this year I made Cornish hens instead of turkey because my daughter Julia has some kind of a weird, undiagnosed allergy/sensitivity/reaction to turkey. 🤷🏽 It’s just as well because I’m not much of a turkey fan myself.
I had hoped to serve all those beets I planted in late August and early September, but the rabbits (or voles?) only left two or three for us. So that was a bust! But cousin Vivian brought lemon Brussels sprout hash and collard greens, Julia made the charcuterie and cheese board, and the salad, and my daughter Justine took charge of the mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce (from a decades-old family recipe I passed down this year for the first time,) so we certainly didn’t go hungry — and I had some help.
With the preparations and most of the leftovers behind us, Thanksgiving weekend means it’s time to wrap the fig tree, unless you live in an area that doesn’t experience freezing temperatures over winter. The rest of us will need to get to work.
Now, I’m aware that some folks in cold zones get away without protecting their figs, and sure, there are microclimates that vary from town to town and even yard to yard or within parts of the same yard. If your tree is planted up against a south-facing wall, for instance, it will be better protected than one planted smack in the middle of the garden, but it’s still playing Russian roulette. Other gardeners will insist that although their trees die down to the ground over winter, new growth still appears from the ground in spring. But that’s basically a whole new plant that will need to mature all over again before yielding an abundant crop.
So I’m here to tell you that if temperatures drop into the 30s or lower over winter, you should be wrapping your fig tree. Here’s a vintage video demonstration from My Vault using a young, single-stemmed tree. If yours is larger, and it likely is, just pull all the branches together before wrapping.
💡 If you do one thing this week…
If you’ll be planting peas in March, prepare their beds now.
📬 Ask Jessica
DEAR JESSICA: I have two oak trees that produce really huge leaves. When the grandkids were younger, they would try to find the largest one. The largest we ever found was 19 1/2 inches long. I’ve tried to identify what kind of oaks they are, but have found nothing. Can you help? — Sue Evanecko, Manorville, NY
DEAR SUE: Your oak leaves come from the pin oak (sometimes written as pinoak) tree, which typically produces leaves in the 5-inch range — even up to 8 inches — but 19 1/2 inches is astounding!
Pin oak (Quercus palustris) is a fast-growing shade tree that grows in zones 4-8 with glossy green leaves. It prefers full sun and needs acidic soil, but can tolerate many soil types and even some sogginess.
Its coppery-orange fall foliage is a traffic-stopper, and it can grow to as tall as 75 feet with a 40-foot spread. Pin oaks produce yellowish-green catkins in spring and half-inch-long acorns in autumn, and as you can see, distinctive skinny, five- to nine-lobed leaves with deep sinuses (the curvatures between lobes).
👏 Sunday shoutout
Marie Murphy of Rockville Centre, NY, captured this bee collecting pollen from a beautiful salmon-colored rose in her garden in June.
Send in a photo of your garden (bonus points if you’re in it!) and you might be featured next!
📧 How am I doing?
I welcome your feedback, comments and suggestions, so please send them along — as well as any topics you’d like to see covered and questions you’d like answered in the Ask Jessica section. Hope to hear from you soon!
I have a fig tree transplant last summer into a large pot. I pulled it into my shed and wrapped in burlap. Do I also need to wrap in tar paper? Next spring it will be planted in sister-in-law’s yard in Brooklyn. It is special family fig tree so don’t want to kill it. Thanks Michael