Figs!

Sometimes you just have to think fast to outwit a bird! Actually, most of the time you have to think fast to outwit a bird! And sometimes, something simply occurs that makes you think you outwitted the birds! The two larger fig trees put on a lot of figs this year but I never seemed to find any ripe ones even though the numbers were diminishing rapidly. Those darn birds were munching my figs before I got to them! I pondered putting the nets back on the trees but that is just so much work both in the netting and in the removing the net to pick the figs. Then I hit upon an idea! (Quite by accident, I must admit!) Early this afternoon, I turned on the sprinkler that is in the garden that contains the fig tree..the other one is just outside of the fence so the sprinkler hit it as well. Later when I went to turn off the water, I noticed that there were ripe figs! There were ripe figs that were still intact..not eaten by the birds! I was excited to say the least. I had kept the birds from the trees with a water sprinkler! Grabbing the first thing I laid eyes on that would act as a container, I rushed to pick my luscious little globes! Now some people would have thought that I was a tad weird picking figs and putting them into a cricket cage but all I could think of was that if I left the garden..my figs would disappear! So I picked figs using a cricket cage as a container! This worked well but I did have one complaint! Picking figs on drippy wet trees is not the nicest of chores! I soon was wet from head to toe! Still, I WAS picking figs! Not many were ripe but I was totally happy with the thirty or so I found! These will be dessert for tonight's meal!

I have been trying to water the gardens as much as possible but it seems not to be helping much. The plants are still dying if not from the lack of water, from the intense heat. Our temperature hit a dead heat of 103 today. It seems though, that an idea that I had several years ago is helping. When we planted the fig trees, I got Hubby to cut some PVC piping in pieces about four feet long. He then helped me bury a pipe about one foot into the ground by two of the trees. There was a bit of method in my madness here. We live on a hill and every time I would water or fertilize the trees, it would merely wash down to the bottom of the hill leaving the poor tree dry as a bone. I figured that if I poured the fertilizer and water down this pipe, it would be more apt to hit the roots. I had no idea if it would work but it was worth a try. As an experiment, we left one tree without a pipe..I would water and fertilize it with exactly the same amounts of both but without the aid of the pipe. Now several years later, there is a marked difference in the size of the trees even though all three are within a few feet of each other. This summer's drought has put the pipes to extreme testing. The two fig trees with the pipes have continued to grow profusely where as the one without has lost most of its leaves and is teeny tiny compared to the size of the others. With the three feet of two inch piping that I fill with water, I am supposing several gallons at least are soaking the roots of the trees. My experiment seems to be a success! Now that I have made this discovery, the other tree and two small ones will all receive their very own pipe!