As neglected as my little backyard garden has become, it still managed to have a few surprises for me when I came down from a trip back up to the San Francisco Bay Area where I lived for over 40 years. I took a friend who liked the Bay Area so much that we decided to stay an extra week and some of my plants did not like that.
But there were a few ripe strawberries awaiting our return, and although small, they were delicious. The other big surprise was that the bare root from my late uncle's grape vine which I planted in 2009 was doing great and covered with clusters of flowers. Last year the ground squirrels got that vine so I was not sure it would bloom this year, but we just may have grapes. I have no idea what kind of grapes they will be, but if they are anything like Uncle Al's figs, they will be awesome.
I have no idea what kind of fig tree that was either, but my clones are doing great. So is the parent tree over in Hemet, CA. I drove by the other day and it has filled out beautifully after my cousin pruned it last fall, and there are little green figs popping out all over again. That reminds me that we can now eat up the ones left in the freezer from last year's harvest.
