Tag: garden

Mango Manqué: When I went to turn the compost bin* this morning I found this young mango sapling – a volunteer from a seed in our kitchen scraps. There is little chance it will produce fruit, but I think it will make a handsome houseplant. 

*It’s not the bin that actually gets turned. My bin is a homemade, mostly permanent affair cobbled together with 4×4 posts and slat sides. It’s the compost inside that gets turned – with a pitchfork and the sweat of my brow. We named the bin after Luther Burbank; our family code for taking scraps to the bin is “feeding Luther,” as in, “Will you take these mango peelings out to feed Luther before they attract flies?” I am the only member of the household to whom these words are ever spoken.  

Mango Manqué: When I went to turn the compost bin* this morning I found this young mango sapling – a volunteer from a seed in our kitchen scraps. There is little chance it will produce fruit, but I think it will make a handsome houseplant. 

*It’s not the bin that actually gets turned. My bin is a homemade, mostly permanent affair cobbled together with 4×4 posts and slat sides. It’s the compost inside that gets turned – with a pitchfork and the sweat of my brow. We named the bin after Luther Burbank; our family code for taking scraps to the bin is “feeding Luther,” as in, “Will you take these mango peelings out to feed Luther before they attract flies?” I am the only member of the household to whom these words are ever spoken.  

What’s Ripening: Celeste figs, in Portsmouth, Virginia. This tree was propagated from my grandfather’s plant, which I suspect was a scion of the figs his father grew in Pleasant Grove, Alabama.

Celeste figs are soft-skinned and exceptionally sweet. Thing 2 uses them to make her signature fig and burnt butter tart, but only if we can keep the birds from plundering the crop. The mockingbirds have already gotten the fruits that were nearest to ripening. Netting goes up tomorrow.   

What’s Ripening: Celeste figs, in Portsmouth, Virginia. This tree was propagated from my grandfather’s plant, which I suspect was a scion of the figs his father grew in Pleasant Grove, Alabama.

Celeste figs are soft-skinned and exceptionally sweet. Thing 2 uses them to make her signature fig and burnt butter tart, but only if we can keep the birds from plundering the crop. The mockingbirds have already gotten the fruits that were nearest to ripening. Netting goes up tomorrow.