Let me start by saying that while I love flower and veggie gardening, I don’t really know much about trees. I produced some amazing tomatoes in large containers on the patio of my condo, I had some awesome raised beds (made by my awesome hubby) for veggies and flowers in the teeny-tiny back yard of our previous house, but I have never had reason or opportunity to select, plant and grow a tree. Last October Frank and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary (that’s Fruits and Flowers for you modern gift givers). We had also just bought a house that had a yard roughly three times the size of our previous yard. In an attempt at romantic and clever gift-giving, I bought Frank the gift of three fruit trees—a Bearss Lime, Meyer Lemon and Bacon Avocado. Tiny little tender trees. Right before the Godzilla El Niño winter.

We moved those trees in their nursery pots all around our patio/yard through the winter—under the awning when there was a threat of frost, into the fully exposed area for sun and rain, closer to the house when the wind was strong. You get the idea. The lime tree tolerated all this very well, the avocado tree looked a bit roughed up and the lemon tree, well…. I thought it was a goner after it up and dropped all its leaves about two months ago. We transplanted them into the giant wine barrel planters, gave them a shot of fertilizer and stepped back to wait and see what would happen. About three weeks ago, wee little leaf sprouts appeared on that lemon tree. This week, it is fully leafed and is even making an attempt at flowering. A serious attempt—there are flower buds ALL OVER! Woo hoo!

Now we’re looking forward to homemade lemonade/limeade and lemon bars on the regular. And I’m researching how to take better care of citrus trees…