First Time Plants

It is nearing the end of winter here in Southern California, and while the last frost has not yet occurred, the yard has already begun to spring to life. As this is the first post of my first blog, I find it only fitting that I introduce the first time plants (at least new to me) that I am trying this year: gooseberries, clove currants, kiwi, avocado, and figs. These are plants I would have never thought to try in my region, some because of the extreme heat, and others because of the freezing temperatures.



New leaves and thorns on the
Hinnomaki - Red Gooseberry



After reading Landscaping with Fruit by Lee Reich (a detailed book on edible landscaping), I was given a better idea of how to take advantage of micro-climates that a yard can present. Micro-climates are created by the heat of the sun beating on a wall, the direction of a slope, a depression in the land where cold accumulates, the different sides of a house, or any other feature that can influence the temperature around a plant. You can take advantage of these micro-climates and push the boundaries of a plant's habitable climate zone. My particular zone will see temperatures from the teens in the winter to well over 100 in the summer.



Gooseberries are a fruit that I have never had the luxury to try. The berries are large, with what I have heard described as sweet flavor with a pleasantly acidic bite. There are thorns on this plant which can make picking tedious. This plant is cold tolerant but struggles under higher heat. For this reason, I have chosen to place this plant on East wall of my house. This provides the bush with 4-5 hours of morning sunlight and plenty of afternoon shade to keep the temperatures down. I plan on keeping the soil moist (but not saturated) to keep the plant hydrated during the hot summers.



Crandall - Clove Currant



Clove currants are a native currant to the Midwest. The produce a dark black sweet berry with fragrant yellow blooms in the spring. They are very tolerant of cold and - from what I gather from their native region - the heat. While this is not particularly a plant that cannot handle the heat, I have decided to protect these currant by offering afternoon shade. They have been planted on the North side of the house just outside of the shade of the house, but close enough to the front wall to eliminate the chance of the late afternoon sun scorching the deep green leaves.

Anna (female) and Meader (male)
Kiwi ready to be planted



Kiwi is a fruit that has a naturally tropical look and flavor. So much so that many don't realize that it's not so much the freezing temperatures that give me pause for whether or not to plant it as it is the high temperatures. I will not waste time describing the flavor of Kiwi, for many have had this fruit, but I will say that this fruit does not grow on a tree. In fact, it is not so dissimilar to a grape vine. A kiwi vine gets pruned the same way you would prune a grape vine or muscadine.This vine struggles with the high temperatures of the desert. For this reason I have decided to plant mine overhanging my lawn on a North-facing brick retaining wall. The trellis that I will build will provide full sun for most of the day, but will benefit from the cooling effects of the grass below. This trellis will be constructed this season to prepare for the new kiwi vines, so keep posted for future updates on this project. 



Mexicola Avocado Tree
against a South-facing wall

Avocado is a subtropical fruit. It doesn't tolerate the cold very well. The ability to grow avocado is a necessity for my family. We would put avocado on everything if we could afford it. The other day I came across a smaller avocado plant called a Mexicola Avocado. This avocado was tagged as being able to tolerate down to 10 degrees, but I would guess it is more like 18-20 degrees. For this tree I decided to plant it on the south facing wall of my house. The south facing wall will give the plant added heat through the night by using the sun's heat that has been stored up in the wall throughout the day and radiating that heat through the night. So far the plant has been in for about a week and has shown no signs of any frost bite, and we have had some cold nights this past week, including some frosts. Should it get too cold, I have some tricks that I've learned, but we can discuss those in another post.
  

Black Jack - Fig Tree
Against a South-facing wall

Figs are an interesting fruit, and while I've never eaten a fresh fig, I have had dried figs and enjoyed them very much. From what I have seen, these trees grow quite a bit in a single season and they respond very well to pruning. They are not extremely winter hardy, however there are some varieties that are. I have chosen a Black Jack Fig primarily because of it's compact size. It is described as mix of a Mission Fig and a Brown Turkey Fig. The fig is not grafted so in the event of a winter kill of the trunk and branches, the fig would grow true to form from the root of the tree as long as the root was protected. Luckily in my zone, there is little chance of this problem, but I decided to plant the tree against the same South-facing wall that I planted my avocado tree. Not only will this help to protect the tree in the winter time, but it will provide added heat in the summer to ripen the figs (hotter temperature means sweeter figs). Hopefully this is not too hot...

Well that's all for now. I hope to make this a regular event, and I will surely post the status of each of these first time plants in the future.

-Desert Orchardist