the Austin Garden: My Lemon Tree / EZ Herbs for sale / re-wilding on the radio

Nursery notes: The Natural Gardener: 20% off sale on wind chimes and spinner stakes this weekend. Free classes - 'Preserving the Harvest' - on canning and preserving this Saturday and on Tuesday at 10 a.m. with Neil Schmidt. / The nursery is hiring for the fall season - full and part time.

Rewilding the garden: broadcaster Verity Sharp had read Isabella Tree's masterpiece 'Rewilding', a book about how to invite Nature into your garden, and decided to apply it to her small English garden. BBC ❦

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TreeFolks Seedsavers: join educator Colleen Dieter in the Barton Springs Greenbelt on Sept 21 at 10:30 a.m. or 1:30 p.m. to help collect seeds from local trees to donate to the Austin Seed Library (with a focus on black walnuts). TreeFolks ❦

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Austin Garden Club: meeting set for 7:30 p.m. Sept 26 at Zilker Botanical Gardens. Special guest Judith Craft: 'Herbs: from Garden to Kitchen.' TGCOA ❦

Ellen Zimmerman writes: 'EZ Herbs is still looking for the perfect person to buy my 25 year old, well-established and well respected herb business. You'll be able to continue a legacy that was built on integrity, solid herbal knowledge and the willing-ness to provide safe herbal products to the community.' Contact Ellen via email: ellen@ezherbs.net or phone: 512-663-2713. ❦

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Central Texas Gardener: explore large space designs with Mandi Golman from Yarrow Landscaping. On tour a visit to the gardens of the Vallejos. John offers advice on the best gloves to choose for a variety of chores: Sat. 4 p.m. Sun. 9 a.m. KLRU ❦

My Little Lemon Tree

by Grania Patterson

Twelve years ago I made the big move, driving all the way from Northern California to South Austin. My brand new home needed a brand new garden.

At the side of the house I had a long, west-facing wall, blank except for two little spice windows in my kitchen. It seemed to be inviting something.

The wall was painted yellow - and after a long period of ref-lection, it came to me: it was inviting a lemon tree.

Soon after this epiphany I visited It’s About Thyme - the wonder-ful nursery that used to be on Manchaca, just down the road from my house. I left the nursery with a pretty little Meyer lemon tree, about 2 foot tall, in the back of my car.

The Meyer lemon (Citrus×meyeri) was introduced to the US in 1908 by agricultural explorer Frank Meyer, who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He collected a sample of the plant during a trip to China.

Apart from looking beautiful on the branches of tree, this is a sweet lemon, thought to be a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange.

Against all advice, I dug the caliche out of the ground, put some decent soil in the hole, and planted my tree.

In the first season it produced a couple of lemons. A good start. When a late cold snap threatened I strung non-LED lights around it to keep it warm. But since it was March, I incurred the wrath of our HOA for 'unseasonable decorations.' They had to give me a pass on that one.

Lemons ripen by Christmas, and they make wonderful gifts for friends. I have also made beautiful Italian-style Della Robbia fruit wreaths with them. This indicates to me that our climate here must be akin to the area of the citrus groves of Italy. . . but I leave that to the experts.

My tree grew and grew as the years passed, and it now stands 12 feet tall and 12 feet wide. I can even see lemons growing from my little spice windows!

In 2017 it gave me 150 lemons. In 2018, due to cold weather conditions, my yield was down to 35. I now use a heat lamp under the tree as I am unable to lasso the lights around it, which has worked really well. Thanks to all the rain from this past winter, the tree has exploded. I had masses of blossoms, and the perfume was heavenly.

In May I was greeted by all the tiny bees that come around each season to pollinate, and have been rewarded with too many lemons to count. I am hoping to surpass the 150 lemon bonanza.

I have never fed the tree. However I give it a generous soaking whenever I feel it necessary - especially during the current hot weather, and I also added some Happy Frog Renovating Soil. This tree is definitely in its happy place. Happy gardening everyone.❦