At least that is what I am planning on doing with my lemons this summer. If you remember from a previous blog post, I recently invested on a lemon tree. Yes. I am growing a lemon tree. On my balcony. In the middle of a big city. How'd you like them apples.. err.. lemons?
There she is. Isn't she beautiful? I picked her out at a nursery in VA called Merrifield Gardens. She was one of a few container lemon trees they had for sale. I had to choose between Meyer lemon trees and Eureka. I was leaning towards Meyer and my boyfriend was leaning towards the Eureka. I never knew lemons came in different varieties, and I now know the difference between those two kinds.
You're wondering the same thing, aren't you? What's the difference?
Well Meyer lemons are a little less acidic than Eureka lemons. They are also more frost resistant and have much thinner skins. These types of lemons are thought to be a cross between a "true" lemon and an orange or a mandarin and are more delicate to ship and less commonly found. Eureka lemons are the more common lemons you buy at a supermarket. They grow year round through all four seasons and have a thicker skin and are more acidic than Meyer lemons.
So naturally, after learning about the two varieties my next question was, which is the better choice for baking? Meyer lemons won that round because of their sweeter taste. So I insisted that we buy a Meyer lemon tree. However, my boyfriend kept pushing for Eureka, saying we could use it for much more than just baking. And although the Meyer would be great for making lemonade and lemon bars, a more acidic lemon would be better for fish and tomato sauces. So I went ahead and reluctantly agreed to buy a Eureka lemon tree. I figured I could always sweetened whatever I was baking with some raw blue agave syrup if i needed to. Plus the boyfriend agreed to pay for the tree, which wasn't cheap to begin with! $60 for that healthy tree.. we better get some good lemons this season!
Which is why we took every step necessary to ensure our lemon tree would thrive this season. We bought the extra good organic soil with worm castings to plant it in, we bought gravel to prevent over-watering, and we bought organic citrus feed (we mix 1 scoop with 1 gallon of water) which we give the tree once every 10 days. All while it gets to chill on a nice sunny spot on my balcony. This tree is loving life right now, and after a few weeks, it has already began to sprout some blossoms and new leaves. This is great news to us new parents. It means our tree is happy and healthy and growing and before we know it we will have tons of lemons!
Which is more than I can say for this little fellow...
Any guesses as to what this is?? It is a blackberry stick. Well... I bought a blackberry plant and planted it as an experiment this season to see if I could grow it and what that would entail and so far, I have a stick growing out of a pot.. and it's been that way for about a month now. I saw some gorgeous blackberry plants at the nursery but they too were $60 and I couldn't afford $60 on that when I needed to pay for all of my other herbs and vegetables too. So I am hoping this stick turns into something soon.. otherwise I may have to wash some cars to earn enough cash to go buy a blackberry bush.
In the meantime, I will continue to fall in love with my lemon tree and dream of summer days full of lemon bars, lemonades, and hopefully blackberry pies.
Anyone have experience growing blackberries or other citrus trees? What are your tips?
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