MY LITTLE FIG GROVE IN MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN ZONE 5
Before we went to visit "the old country" (Yugoslavia) my grandmother warned me not to eat green figs. Here they are below.  The ones in the picture to the right are ripe.  This is my 3 year old Celeste.  The figs enlarge, turn color and the stem soften so the fruit "droops" and turn soft when ready to eat.  While in Yugoslavia I got hooked on ripe figs and have been thinking about ways to grow my own. I think I got it right.

CELESTE GETTING RIPE  -
(they swell quickly before they get ripe)
 


BROWN TURKEY --- RIPE
 I ordered everything online. I have 5 figs:

The Brown Turkey above and right was planted this spring. BIG and delicious with thin skin.  Fruits on this years wood. 
From Paradise Nursery.

Celeste from Aarons 3 years ago, small but delicious. I must have 75 figs on that, et about 50 so far. Fruits on this years wood.

Violette de Bordeaux (x2) (one arrived with the top broken off and Raintree replaced it, the broken one sprouted!) bought this year. No fruit this year, fruits on last years wood. Raintree.

Petite Negri fig this year and produced 3 medium figs, delicious, and there are a 3- 4 second crop on the way. Fruits on last years wood. Raintree.

I ordered a Chicago fig but it was tiny and pitiful and never leafed out. Raintree.

I keep them in a heated garage in winter (barely, 45o). I move them out as soon as possible in spring when no more hard frosts are likely.  I have them where they get the longest sun each day which is a trick because that peeling green wall is the house next door!  My backyard is only 25' x 25' and divided into a run for the dogs, a spa, a koi pond, a sitting area, a greenhouse and several raised flower beds one with edible bing cherries.  There is a 1 story house and a big apple and BIG pine tree on the south side of most of my yard.  (

I started the figs out in the big tubs with a bag of manure on the bottom, bag of soil on top. I drilled many large 1" holes in the bottom of each tub and put the tubs directly on the dirt hoping the fig roots will find their way down into the soil they are sitting on, soil the dogs "fertilize" all year. When I move them back into the garage I will find out if they put roots down into this soil.  I dont mulch so I can see when they are dry. I water almost every day. When in the garage they will get some water to keep the roots and stems plump.