Meet Mrs. Figgypudding

Monday November 23, 2009 10:22 AM By Jessica Damiano

My father had 2 very large fig trees at my childhood home in Illinois. The winters are so cold there, that he had to partially uproot and bury them for the winter.  I live in NJ with my husband and son. I decided to plant a small fig tree this year near the garage in honor of my Dad. When I learned that we can simply wrap the tree in this climate, I was thankful that it is an easier task than burying the tree, but I was also a bit unnerved about having an eyesore in my yard.
 
I followed your instructions to wrap the tree, and then added an extra layer of burlap and some additional decoration. I thought you might get a kick out of it! Meet Mrs. Figgypudding...
-- Michele Musci, Lawrenceville, NJ

Send in your fig tree creations
 

A fig story, by reader Guy Macchia

Monday November 23, 2009 8:49 AM By Jessica Damiano

 I read your article about protecting the fig tree in today's Newsday.  It inspired me to write a little something about the life of the fig tree.  This past year I had an amazing harvest and just wanted to share my insight and experience. -- Guy Macchia

The Fig Tree from Infancy

I was a foot tall when I was put four inches into the ground. The first two seasons of growth were very minimal.

By the third season I grew taller, and produced eight figs.  As the years went by, not only did I continue to grow tall, but I started to fill out as well. I now need to be trimmed from the tops and the sides.

This past year was the most productive one.  I am now twelve years old and produced about 800 figs, wow!!!!!

Everybody had a share: family, friends and neighbors.  The reason I am so healthy is that every year, since infancy, I have been groomed and kept well nourished.

When the winter comes, I go to sleep knowing that I’ll be protected from the cold, snow and wintery rain.  When spring comes I wake up and I am ready to produce more figs.
 

How to wrap a fig tree for the winter

Tuesday November 17, 2009 10:46 AM By Jessica Damiano

It's almost Thanksgiving, and you know what that means -- time to wrap the fig tree. Growing figs on Long Island is easy. But getting trees to survive the winter takes a bit of work and dedication. Here's how it's done:

Never use any plastic materials for any part of the process.

1. When the tree is young, for the first few year or two, it’s a good idea to cut it back by half before wrapping. This is safe to do as long as the tree is dormant, which by wrapping time, it should be.

If your tree is large, pull all branches inward and tie them together with soft but strong rope. Be sure the rope and branches are completely dry before wrapping. Wait a few days after rainfall, if necessary.

2. Wrap the tree completely from top to bottom with burlap, securing the burlap to itself with pins or staples to keep it from falling off. Be careful not to pin or staple the burlap to the tree.

3. Next, wrap some heavy brown paper, typically sold in rolls, around the burlap and tie it into place.

4. Remove some soil from around the base of the tree.

5. Surround the bottom half of the tree with cardboard. Tie it into place, too.

6. Tar paper is next. Surround the tree with it so that rainwater will roll off it and away from the tree.

7. Once you’ve completely wrapped your tree, mound up soil around the base.

8. Top it off with a pail to deflect rainwater. Unwrap your fig tree on a cloudy day in April, just after the last frost.

>>See photos of the steps involved in wrapping a fig tree

Another fig tree story

Thursday November 12, 2009 1:04 PM By Jessica Damiano

Marlene DiMartino of Roslyn Heights just sent this my way:

If you can stand just one more fig tree story - I have one for you:

About 60 some odd years ago, my husband's grandparents moved from the family apartment building in Brooklyn to their very own home in Valley Stream.  They were the first couple out of the family to break away from the "family compound" and do their own thing. 

As a way to memorialize this independence, Grandpa Charlie planted a fig tree - right up against the house.   The years passed and the old neighborhood in Brooklyn got destroyed and rebuilt via developers.   All the family was asked to "evacuate".    So they moved into homes near Grandpa Charlie - establishing a new kind of "family compound".  Meanwhile the fig tree grew.   Children got married - had children of their own and the fig tree grew.  

Grandpa Charlie passed on in the late 1960's.   Grandma Mary lived there until the late 1980's.   She began to need help with everyday tasks so she moved in with her daughter, and my husband and I (newlyweds at the time) moved into the house.  All that time - the fig tree grew.  

Three years later - we decided to move into our own home - do our own independent thing and out of this family compound.  My husband couldn't part with that fig tree that he grew up with his whole life so - we took it with us.   He planted it  - right up against house.  

It's been 20 years since we have been in our home and all the while - the fig tree grew.  It is monstrous now.   Each year I pick the figs off the tree and make a variety of things with them.  I make a jam - a bread/cake, etc.   Every now and then I see my kids and their cousins picking the figs off the tree just to have snack.  

In 2007 we celebrated my mother-in-law's 80th birthday and had a party for her in my backyard.     As a type of favor to give to the guests, I made over 35 little fig cakes and had Mom hand them out when the party was over.  She was brought to tears when she realized I made all of them from her Dad's fig tree.  The little tree that he planted over 60 years ago - right up against the house.

What we really find amazing is Grandpa Charlie was fanatical about that tree, bringing it up from infancy.  He wrapped it every year and cut it back and did all the things you were supposed to do.   As for us  - we don't do a blessed thing.  When it begins to get too big and blocks the gate - we cut it back - but only then -- and yet the fig tree grows. 

We like to consider it a symbol of our family.   Every year it gets bigger and stronger.   Other family members have asked for a limb from that tree to replant at their homes . . . And so the fig tree grows!

2009 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree chosen -- yours could be next!

Wednesday November 11, 2009 10:53 AM By Jessica Damiano

At 9:45 this morning, a Norway spruce was cut down in Connecticut and it's headed for fame, albeit short-lived. The 40-foot diameter tree, which had been growing in the yard of Maria Corti, a fifth-grade teacher from Easton, has been chosen to become the 77th Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

>>See photos of past Rockefeller Center Christmas trees

This year's tree will be strung with 5 miles of lights, and the switch will be flicked on Wednesday, Dec. 2, before a live TV audience and throngs of tourists. Pop stars, the Radio City Rockettes and ice skaters will be performing from 7 to 9 p.m. Want to join them? Take the B, D, F or V train to the 47th Street - 50th Street - Rockefeller Center  stop, or the 6 to 51st Street - Lexington. The tree will come down Jan. 7, 2010.

If you have a Norway spruce that's at least 65 feet tall and 34 feet in diameter and you'd like it to be considered for next year's ice-rink centerpiece, send a picture of it with a person standing beside it to Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, 45 Rockefeller Plaza, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10111. If selected, you won't be paid for the tree, but if you were considering having it removed anyway, just think of all the money you'd save.

Buck loses head-butt fight with... lawn ornament. Really.

Wednesday November 11, 2009 9:54 AM By Jessica Damiano

From the I-Can't-Make-This-Stuff-Up file: A male deer in Wisconsin, presumably inspired by the hormonal flux of mating season, picked a fight with a lawn ornament in rural Viroqua, fighting it  to the death.

Actually, both parties paid the ultimate price when the 7-point buck, estimated  to have weighed about 180 pounds, attacked the 640-pound concrete statue of an elk in Mark and Carol Brye's backyard. The statue was destroyed, and the buck was found dead with a shattered skull nearby.

News headline writers are having a field day with this one. Here are a few I found this morning:

Lawn statue wins battle with buck - The Chicago Tribune

Unlucky buck: Deer loses head-butt with lawn ornament - La Crosse Tribune

and my personal favorite:

Love-struck buck spars with statue, ends up in freezer - Minneapolis City Pages

Sesame Street welcomes Michelle Obama

Tuesday November 10, 2009 10:16 AM By Jessica Damiano

Michelle Obama, the first first lady to have grown up watching "Sesame Street," as I did, will appear on the celebrated children's show today to promote her healthy-eating message to kids.

While Obama isn't the first first lady to have appeared on "Sesame Street" (Barbara Bush was, followed by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Laura Bush), today's season opener is making history anyway: It marks the show's 40th anniversary.

>>Video: Sesame Street celebrates its 40th birthday

>>Video: Sesame Street 1969

Since the show was pre-taped, we have some inside information of how it will play out. Mrs. Obama will be introduced by Elmo, after which she tells him and some children, ""We're here digging up soil so we can plant a garden. Veggies taste so good when they come from the garden, don't they?"

Big Bird joins the group on camera, saying, "You're tall like me, maybe we're from the same family. Are you part bird?"

"No, Big Bird, I'm not," she replies. But she tells the children: "If you eat all these healthy foods you're gonna grow up big and strong, just like me!"

Since her husband took office nine months ago, Mrs. Obama has taken on the cause of healthy eating and fighting obesity, particularly in children, most notably by planting the White House Kitchen Garden on the South Lawn. And since most GenXers and Yers wouldn't be caught dead with a gardening spade in their hand, I'm holding out hope she'll inspire Generation Z to see gardening as cool.

Make your own holiday centerpieces

Monday November 9, 2009 2:37 PM By Jessica Damiano

Feeling creative?

Old Westbury Gardens is holding a holiday floral arranging class on Saturday, November 21, at 11am.

Scott Lucas, the floral designer for Westbury House, will demonstrate his techniques and offers design hints. The $15 fee includes admission to the house and grounds.

Just show up at 71 Old Westbury Rd., Old Westbury, or call 516-333-0048 for more details.

Who wants to win 'The Well-Designed Mixed Garden' by Tracy DiSabato-Aust?

Wednesday November 4, 2009 2:03 PM By Jessica Damiano

I never met a Tracy DiSabato-Aust gardening book I didn't like.  And I'm pretty sure that if I met the author, I'd like her too.

I dig her hair and  her unpretensious, no-nonsense style. She's the face gardening needs if it's to appeal to Gen-Xers and Yers and, heck, even baby boomers who are turned off by the matronly images that gardening seems to conjure up all too often.

No, I don't wear a wide-brimmed straw hat. (I wear a bandanna.) No, I'm not one of those ladies who lunch and play bridge. (Who has the time, anyway?) And, no, I never, ever, wax poetic about the joy brought to my heart by my primroses. (I stick to nuts and bolts; that's what I would want to read.)

That's why I'm a fan of this lady. I relate to her style. Her books are chock-full of practical tips, useful planting straegies, unusual plant recommendations and, very importantly, lots of photos, which are mandatory if I'm to consider a plant reference worthy. So many others provide scant images, maybe one per page or per chapter -- or worse, sketches. Since a garden is so visual, shouldn't a gardening guide be, too?

The author of "The Well-Tended Perennial Garden," which I've recommended countless times, and "50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants" has recently re-released "The Well-Designed Mixed Garden" in paperback, and somehow two copies have landed on my desk. This means I get to keep one, and you get to work for one.

Click this link to send me an e-mail  (or write to jessica.damiano@newsday.com) and tell me what makes you a unique gardener. Be sure to include your name and mailing address. Best response gets the book.