A fig tree and a vine…

Many years ago my mother appeared at my door with a housewarming present – a little fig tree and an infant grape vine to plant on either side of my kitchen stoop. ‘Follow the good book at least in this,’ she exhorted, although she was never one to be caught thumping a Bible.

The gift was to celebrate the finale of my first restoration project, an early 19^th-century frame dwelling in Camden, Delaware, that the town had condemned and which I saved from destruction. It took about four years and all the money I then earned to turn the old dilapidated structure into a livable home, and I swore I’d never venture such a thing again.

Ha!

I found myself thinking of the Camden house yesterday as I hacked and whacked at our full-grown fig tree, cutting out dead limbs, snipping suckers, and tugging off ivy and morning glory that were smothering nearly every branch. We did the same last year and were rewarded with more figs than two humans can possibly consume. God only knows what this year’s crop may cause in the way of frenzied fig usage: last year I made fig tarts, fig pies, fig cakes, fig jam, fig chutney, fig liqueur. And we gave lots away too.

We inherited the fig tree so we planted grape vines to satisfy the Biblical injunction: but they shall sit everyone under a vine and under a fig tree; and none shall make them afraid. Our grapes seemed to get off to a slow start, looking more like three dead sticks, but each are now inching skyward toward the wire trellis we installed on the west façade of house number one. They are different varieties and all are now about two meters high. Someday we hope, they will shade the front of that house which catches the full afternoon sun.

Although it is a lot of work, the garden adds pleasure to my day. In the cool of the morning I weed, water, snip off dead flowers, check growth, and inspect what is blooming - now, mostly hollyhocks, daisies, hydrangea, and day lilies. The showiest and most heavily scented, however, are the clumps and rows of lavender, brimming with bees and what I thought were tiny hummingbirds but which are in fact a variety of moth.