June 14 Column: Growing Figs

For this week’s garden column, I wrote about our adventures in growing figs. Yes, figs in our zone 5b garden! You can read it in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: With figs, it’s best to contain your excitement.

Mind you, it’s not like we’ve had a whole lot of success but we’re feeling hopeful that we will actually get some figs this year. That fig in the photo to the left is the one and only little fig that our ‘Chicago Hardy’ fig put out last year. Sadly, it was super late in the season and we had a killing frost well before it would have been ripe enough to pick. Darn! But hey, it’s the thought that counts.

If you’re wondering where we bought ours, they came from Burpee. After doing a quick web search, I found this source for a huge variety of figs for many different hardiness zones. I have never ordered anything from Rolling River Nursery, but you might have fun looking at their selections. Whew knew there were so many fig cultivars? While there are a lot of other online sources for figs, I always recommend that you check with your local independent garden centers first.

One thing I wanted to clarify about our figs is their growth habit. When most of us think of figs, we think TREES. Well, our little figs have a shrubby growth habit and we’re totally OK with that (photo to the right shows what we started with). So if you’re puzzling over the shape of our fig plants, that’s my explanation! Since our plan is to move them into our garden each winter, I think shrubs will be more easy to handle than trees.

Are you thinking about growing figs? They sure are pretty plants and, when all goes well, there are sweet rewards for your efforts!

In this week’s “Everyone Can Grow a Garden” video, I show you our two figs, explain a bit about their set-up, and then take you along while I complete a couple of springtime tasks. I hope you’ll enjoy it: