Six Figs Farm LLC

We weren’t going to plant any more fruit trees or bushes this year. The late freezes have won. We’re done. But then, there’s the area we planted garlic in last year. It’s all empty. Forlorn. We started thinking about what’s done well, what plants do we have that have produced for us, despite the late freezes every year. Gooseberries!

We have just 4 gooseberry plants. They were a trial early on. Gooseberries don’t grow here in Georgia, you know. They can’t tolerate the heat. But for 4 years now, those bushes have not just survived, but thrived, and starting in year 2, we’ve had first a small, then subsequently larger harvests from those 4 bushes. They’re so cold tolerant that they laugh at the late freezes and frosts, and maybe since we have them hooked to drip irrigation and mulched heavily over the irrigation, they’ve not died every summer, despite the heat.

So, what else is really cold tolerant? Mulberries! Currants!

This past week, we put in 12 mulberries- 6 red and 6 black, 18 gooseberries- red and green, and 4 currants- all black. We were happy to see the soil has improved greatly over the time we’ve run the chickens through the area. Next we’ll plant cover crops, then place irrigation around the trees and bushes, and mulch over the irrigation.

Asparagus: our asparagus should start coming up in a few days to a few weeks. This is year 5 for many of our crowns, so we’re hopeful to start having it available in early March.

Blueberries: our blueberries are blossoming for the third time this winter, in February, so either we’ll have a great blueberry crop, or they’ll all freeze when winter returns. Definitely all or nothing there.

The wild blackberries are just starting to wake up. They’ll do great, and our bees will appreciate them. We usually start harvesting in early June.

Gooseberries: we’ll get a small crop in early to mid June.

Garlic: Looking fantastic! The garlic will be ready to harvest late May/early June. Then, we’ll cure for a few weeks to a month or so, and should have it available in mid to late June.

Figs: our figs, who knows? Many of them have died back to the ground- they don’t expect nor like the 8 degree weather we had in December. We’re hoping to see them regrow from their roots, but we know they won’t do well when, after this February spring, winter returns in March or even April.

Elderberries: the elderberries are looking fantastic, they are quite cold tolerant, so as long as it can stay above 25 degrees or so, they’ll deal with whatever late frosts or freezes come our way. We expect elderflowers in June, elderberries in mid to late July

Muscadines: the muscadines and scuppernongs are still sleeping, but they are alive and well. Muscadines are usually September.

One year old trees and bushes: our persimmons are still sleeping, and our aronias are starting to wake up. They’re still small, and we don’t expect any crop this year.

Strawberry experiment: the strawberries are looking great. We’ve learned that all the pollinators we saw in the high tunnel aren’t out in the early enough spring to pollinate our high tunnel strawberries, so for this year, we’re hand pollinating them. In the future, we’ll have to decide if we want to have pollinators for our high tunnel or grow plants that don’t need pollinators in the early spring.

Our bees. We had a rough bee season in 2022. Many folks did. We’re planting more cover crops and wildflowers with the bees in mind. We’re planning a new pollinator hedgerow up near our barn. We have swarm traps out, hoping to get some new bees that way. We’re working hard with the hope that our apiary will rebound and flourish this year. Any honey we have this year will be in June.

Chickens, ducks, and geese: Going well. We have enough chickens, ducks, and geese to take care of much of our fertilization needs, as we continue to build our soil.

What plans are upcoming for this year? Not too many other things. We’ll be doing a little more annual produce- lettuces, tomatoes, things like that. Our soil is building well, to the point that we have a few more areas we can grow in.

We’re really excited about 2023. It’s going to be a fantastic year! If you want to know when something specific will be available, please join our mailing list. I can’t let everyone know individually when things will be harvested, and there are fluctuations every year. I let everyone know what’s happening via our newsletter.