Crazy Garden Updates

crazygreenthumbs

April 4

Had to net the mulberry tree. The new green growth will harden like this before I get the net back off, so it will have a sort of weeping form. That's fine by me because I don't like climbing ladders to mess with fruit trees. These mulberries are way ahead of anything else in the yard. It fruits so quickly that if I don't net it, the birds strip it. The best way to harvest this tree is to put some row cover in a circle under the tree and shake the limbs.

Netted and now weeping.

If you have to pull a mulberry off a branch: it isn't ripe. These are pretty tart in their unripe state which, when mixed with the ripe fruit: makes for good pies and preserves and gives the flavor depth. Watery fruit is what you get with super wet springs. As this is a dwarf everbearing (I believe it's a morus alba although identifying mulberries is not simple.) it fruits out into our early summer heat. Once our heat starts, our rain stops, and these get super sweet, have a firm texture and are flavorful. So, this might not be the kind of fruit for you if: your spring and early summer have tons of rain. (Which would be why I didn't like Kansas mulberries. Kansas gets way more water than we do.)

It's absolutely covered in berries.

However, the morus nigra puts on fruit in the late summer and if that is a dry period for you: I would see if your growing conditions will support that type of morus. All mulberries require irrigation or moist conditions. (I am in the former category.) Unfortunately, nigra naturally gets up to forty feet high. At that point, you are just feeding birds. Pollarding is always an option with a strong grower like a mulberry. They used this method to feed animals in winter, (instead of cutting hay) back in medieval times. It's usually called "crepe murder" when they do it to crepe myrtles these days, but it has a strong history for producing highly nutritious fodder for farm animals using trees, like the mulberry.

Yummy mulberries! First fruit of spring!

As I was putting on the netting, I ate probably two cups of mulberries. I filled my pockets and I had stains everywhere from the juice. It's the first fruit of the year and if you are lucky enough to have an everbearing mulberry: this lasts for weeks. It's the best way to feed yourself with spring goodness: if you've fasted for Lent. I did fast this year, but not on purpose. I can't believe I went for over a week with no food. Not fun. What a garbage cold! I'm making up for it in mulberry consumption.