Water, weed, woodchip!

These three tasks are super important during the summer months and ensure the tree gets and uses all the water it needs.

Growing season demands more water and considering the heat in North Texas, even more water. Make sure to give those trees a drink of water 2-3 times a week. Rule of thumb is 5 gallons per tree, increasing that amount for larger trees.

Weeding allows that water to be used by the tree! Those pesky weeds will steal the water and valuable resources meant for our precious fruit trees. Keep a three-foot ring around your tree weed free to guarantee those tree roots are getting the water.

Refreshing the mulch around your tree not only protects the soil from losing water through evaporation, but it also keeps the soil at a cooler temperature. 

Monitor your trees!

With any signs of the 4 D's (damaged, diseased, dead or deranged), prune! If you need help deciding on whether to prune or not, reach out to us via email, givinggrove@grownorthtexas.org.

Additionally, every time you are in the orchard monitor for common pests and diseases.

Common Pests and Disease

The main disease perpetrator I have been seeing is Fire Blight. This is a great resource if you are unfamiliar with fire blight (https://www.givinggrove.org/fire-blight). One bit of advice is to get ahead of it while you can. If you suspect you have an infected tree, email me directly with a photo.

Here are some leaf happenings that I have seen in the orchards:

Foe: Salt Marsh Moth laying eggs on a fig leaf. (Photo taken by Ilyse Putz)

Mineral deficiency in pear tree leaves. (Photo taken by Ilyse Putz)

Potential spider mite damage on a pear leaf. (Photo from Diamond Hill Elementary School Stewards)

I had never realized how aromatic fig leaves are until I started working in the Owenwood Demo Orchard every Wednesday. One Wednesday, curiosity struck me and I dove into the fig shrub looking for signs of developing fruit. I was delighted to see there were many hiding just inside the outer leaves. With the movement, I was surprised by the smell of the leaves. It was composed of scents more herbal than green. I was intrigued to say the least.

A week or so later, I stumbled upon a recipe video that had a unusual and surprising suspect: fig leaves. The content creator1 blended raw fig leaves with a neutral oil until friction brought it to the right temperature, extracting the natural oils and flavors from the fig leaves.

During some food recipe research, I saw fig leaves used another way2. Dried fig leaves offer a more prominent coconut and vanilla taste, whereas those flavors in raw fig leaves are second to the grassy green taste.

One thing that was cool to learn about fig leaves is they have "antidiabetic" properties, helping to regulate blood sugar. If you are familiar with nopales (prickly pear cactus leaves) or okra, they also act similarly.

Most recipes involving fig leaves on the internet come from people who foraged or live in countries where foraging is more common. Below are two recipes I found that have versatile uses.  

(1) Almond pound cake with fig leaf creme fraiche whip and vinaigrette, found on instagram here or on her blog here. (Recipe includes an easy versatile component: the fig leaf infused oil. It can be used in many recipes, not just desserts.)

(2) Dried fig leaf simple syrup, found on her blog here. (This is very versatile as well. The sky is the limit.)

If you want to read more about the food and foraging history of fig leaves, I recommend reading this post on Substack. (While some of the content of Nicola Lamb is for subscribers, this post is free!) Nicola Lamb has several fruit-specific posts that dive into how people interact with them. 

Photo taken by Ilyse Putz at the Owenwood Demonstration Orchard of a developing fig fruit.

Tina Culp-McDonald is the head steward of Diamond Hill Elementary School in Fort Worth, Texas. At her school, they have a beautiful National Wildlife Federation pollinator garden, several raised beds for vegetables and herbs, and a sizable orchard installed in 2022-23 and expanded in 2023-24 planting season.

Q: At Diamond Hill Elementary, I know you have an active garden club which involves garden beds and the GNTX Giving Grove orchard. Could you share a success story or memorable moment from teaching the garden club?

The last week of school I took my homeroom class out to pick some blackberries. One of my students (not a garden club member) had picked 2 blackberries, held up his hand to show me, and said "what do I do with them?" I simply responded, "You eat them." To which he gave me a confused look and took the tiniest bite ever. His eyes lit up and said, "Those are good! Can I have more?" I smiled and nodded, tickled pink with his reaction. He quickly picked and ate berries until the bush was empty. I assured him there would be more soon and he could come with mom or dad to pick during the summer. I'm also pretty sure he'll be joining garden club next year too!

Q: What advice would you give to other teachers interested in starting a garden club at their school?

Starting a garden club is a fun and exciting way to get kids interested in nature, as well as educate them about where their food actually comes from.

Q: And how have you seen that as a way to bring community into the orchard? 

Our community was involved with our orchard from planting, to watering, and eventually in harvesting.

Q: What do you find most rewarding about being an orchard steward?

I'd have to say, that knowing that our orchard will soon be able to assist the food scarcity of our community and mostly just seeing the excitement of students when they get to pick fresh fruit straight from the vine/plant to their mouth.

And a thank you to David Gonzalez, steward of the Diamond Hill Elementary School Orchard, for the wonderful photos. 

*Fruitful Updates is a section specifically for our orchard stewards*

Requests

Site visits and signs are planned for this summer. I will be reaching out to all of you individually to set up your annual site visit. 

I will get started on the signs here soon. If you haven't done so already, please fill out this form. I won't print your sign until I get your information through this form. 

If there are orchard questions, please send an email to givinggrove@grownorthtexas.org. This will help increase efficiency in answering your orchard-related questions. 

For those of you who had their orchard installed or expanded in fall of 2023 or spring of 2024 and their trees didn't come out of dormancy, please report them to givinggrove@grownorthtexas.org as well. 

We will replace trees that do not come out of dormancy during the first year at no cost. If trees die for another reason, we will provide them at our cost, many are as low as $20. 

Event Calendar

There are no events or workshops coming up in July and August. I am working on an annual calendar of events, which will be up and running in the next months.

At the end of this month, July, I will head out to Denver, Colorado to meet with all of The Giving Grove affiliates at the National Conference! I look forward to what I learn and what I will be able to share with you all once I return.