The Little Wee Lemon Tree

My lemon tree. So sweet, so innocent. Look at those tiny little green lemons just beginning their lives. Someday, they will be squeezed into my Bloody Mary and mixed with fresh tomato juice and jalapeno vodka, both made from my garden.

To give you an idea of how small my "tree" is, here it is in context. The lemon tree is in the grey pot in the bottom right corner. (Top row, L-R: blueberry, blueberry, potato; Bottom row: onions, mystery beanies, lemon tree)

This little dude is a Dwarf Meyer Lemon tree, a variety of lemon brought to America from China in 1908. I chose him because he will stay whatever size I want: as long as I keep him in a pot, he will be small enough to bring indoors during the colder months. When I finally move to California to work for Disney, I can permanently plant him in my yard where it's warm all year round and he will grow to be 15 feet tall.

This tree will actually produce the most fruit during the winter months, whether it's indoors in Brooklyn or outdoors in CA. Once it finishes it's first round of fruit bearing, I'll need to prune it back considerably to help the trunk of the tree become stronger. The stronger the trunk, the more fruit it can hold, the more lemons for my cocktails!

I didn't plant my Meyer Lemon tree from seed like most of my other plants, largely because it doesn't start bearing fruit until it's at least 3 years old. I couldn't wait that long, so I bought a 4-year old sapling in the Spring and he's already grown considerably in his new home.

Now I'm just trying to figure out how to turn the lemons into Pink Lemonade. Maybe I need to grow a Dwarf Pink Tree?

Comments

[Sarah Kiernan]

One day beneath the lemon tree, my love and I did lie.

A girl so sweet that when she smiled the stars rose in the sky.

We passed that summer lost in love beneath the lemon tree.

The music of her laughter hid my father's words from me:

Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet.

But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.

[cat tree]

This tree will actually produce the most fruit during the winter months...lemon juice also very tasty..