fig

Fig Earth Supply is offering a great package for people who want to stop worrying about the possible pesticides in their product.

The tiny raised beds in the Blacks’ backyard produced lackluster harvests, if anything at all, because they were tucked under large fig and avocado trees, McLaughlin said.

The fig and avocado trees were pruned a bit to provide as much sun as possible for the garden; a round steel trellis was installed on a walkway to support a thriving passion fruit vine; a guava hedge was cut back to create room for a blackberry patch and fruit trees such as white nectarine and pomegranate; and thick mulch was laid around the walkways to deter weeds.

Now the backyard feels like a series of outdoor spaces, with the deck leading to the raised bed garden leading to the restful seating area shaded by the mature — and very productive — fig and avocado.

But scattered across this region’s tree-covered mountains, tobacco fields and orchards of apple and fig, are predominantly Sunni, Christian and Druze towns and villages — most of which are at best ambivalent toward Hezbollah.