Talk about a great topic for the new year!  Shawn and Blinda are talking about growing nuts and fruits on this week’s Your Livable Garden.  Considering the number of new year’s resolutions people have made concerning diet and nutrition, I’ll bet everyone’s interested in growing their own health food!

But first, I have to mention a few of the nutty, fruity ideas they’ve had in the past few years.  Most of them have to do with garden design, but this one is just for office morale: Birthday Dunking.

See, at Mirror Lake (where Shawn and Blinda draw on years of landscape design experience for all these great Saturday morning shows), we like to celebrate employees’ birthdays with a litte splash of fun.  In our display pool.

This week, it was our foreman’s birthday.  I have never, ever seen Ramon go in the pool.  Here is the incriminating photo from the last time I saw people thrown in–see how he’s darting away?  That was the closest I ever saw him get; usually he hides in his truck on the other side of the property while people get thrown in the pool.

Ramon on his way to the pool

But this time, Shawn made sure he went in!  And he commented afterwards that the water must have been right at 32 and a half degrees.

This Time, Shawn Takes Control

Anyway, a few of their other nutty ideas have turned out to be pretty successful, even popular!  Like this one they have been implementing in some of their designs–the Man Cave.  Blinda says it’s often called The Doghouse.  Well, call it what you want–Man Cave, Doghouse, Cigar Courtyard–it’s that space outside where guys who ordinarily weren’t interested in the landscape are now excited to be!  It can include fire pits, and games of extreme skill like…darts. Or Who Burps Loudest.  It is a place of No Fluffiness, a place where a man might hang his tools on back of garage.  Where he might convene with the other men and grunt a little, reflecting on the successes of his fine life.

They also come up with a new nutty idea–name all the songs/artists of the music used in the show this week (emailed to shawn@mirrorlakedesigns.com) and you can win free fruit trees!  They’re picking 3 winners, so don’t hold back!

They also interview several area experts about fruit tree growth and availability. The interview with John Matthews of Shades of Texas covers some of the benefits of this recent freeze for fruit production! And here are some of the trees available from his store: lemon, avocado, guava, citrus, apples, pears, nectarines, pomegranites, peaches…and they’re big, like 30 gallon containers!  Some may even already have fruit on them when you purchase!

They also interview Dr. Carol Brouer about the fruit trees, berries, and nuts available at the Harris County Ag Extension fruit tree sale today!  Carol explains that we can grow apples around here, which ones, and why.  Anna and Dorset Gold both do well here, and there are typically enough chill hours in this areas to make flowers and even set fruit.  Make sure you plant another tree with either of these so that you get pollination, though, otherwise you might be waiting a loooong time for an apple.  But just check out the fruit tree sale and you’ll also encounter enough experts to answer all your fruit tree growing questions.

Carol also talks frankly with us about growing fruit trees.  They are a high-maintenance item, and do require a lot of care and attention.  But if you don’t want the hardest thing to grow around here, do citrus!  They don’t even really require very much pruning, and if you get a Satsuma, the blossoms smell awesome.  She also likes growing grapes–in containers–on a trellis, and likes them as a patio cover in the summertime.

And she really likes saying “orangequat.”  Gosh, who wouldn’t?

They interview Natasha Schischakin from Buchanan’s Native Plants and talk about some of the more interesting fruit trees offered at Buchanan’s…they also talk about some of Buchanan’s more typical fare, like Myer Lemon and Mexican Lime, the latter of which Shawn enjoys planting for a Pico De Gallo Garden (or, as Natasha points out, a Margarita Garden!)  Pay attention to their conversation about growing figs, too, because they are perfect for growing here in Houston.

Finally, the interview with Scott Thomas, one of the Grillin’ Fools, covers cooking with wood from fruit trees.  Check out his web site for a mass list of items to use for smoking on the grill.  Mmm–then he covers his Beer Can Chicken, cooked in a roasting pan with everything you’d use in a stew, over apple wood, which gets in the sauce and the potatoes.  It’s like a manly crock pot meal!  He also recommends doing it with a chuck roast.  Both of these feed tons of people, are easy to do, and pretty inexpensive!

Okay, well, I’m pretty hungry and have places where I can buy trees that produce fruit!  See ya’ll there!