Never give up

It may only compare to a small/medium egg on my egg scale,

but the lemon tree is in full production.... I actually have a harvest of four lemons this year! 

A number of years ago at a local nursery, I came across a lemon tree.  It was beautiful.  With glossy, dark green leaves.  But it was rather expensive for a house plant... $50.00.  Much to my surprise, my husband and kids gave it to me for Mother's Day that year.  A few weeks later it was covered with white, fuzzy things.  The nursery said to dab rubbing alcohol onto each fuzzy growth, that it was some kind of mites.  To my dismay it kept going downhill.  Fast forward to summer's end and all the leaves were gone, just a collection of bare sticks remained.  Sadly, I placed the pot of dirt and the sticks outside.  The following spring I decided to reuse the pot that had sat outdoors all winter and cut off what was left of the plant to just above the dirt line.  A few weeks later, when I was about to dump out the left over dirt and the "stump", I was shocked to notice a small growth of green!  The lemon tree was recovering! 

Years later, it produces up to a half dozen lemons a year.... and when it blossoms, well lets just say you can smell the fragrance throughout the house.  It is amazing.   I really like the look of all citrus plants and have also acquired an orange tree, a lime tree and a kumquat topiary over the years.  But that spindly lemon tree, well it is still a favorite.  And when it, like life, gives me lemons...  I do make lemonade.

Enjoy your weekend,
Chris at Red Gate Farm