Preserving my Lemon Tree

After killing my Meyer Lemon tree last year, I bought another one. This time from a healthier nursery. Well, it paid off, very quickly my little Lemon tree bloomed, (the flowers smelled amazing.)

 And then little green lemons grew. I was getting nervous, they were still so small and it was August. The warmth and dry growing season would not last long.

 And of course, now it is cold and wet. I think I killed my lemon tree last year by bringing it inside, and essentially shocking it. It dropped all its leaves without even going brown. The little lemons keep getting bigger so I am motivated to try to save it this year.

I am experimenting with keeping the tree wrapped in clear plastic and against the south facing wall of my front balcony, right beside my Bay Laurel. The wall is white and offers the best light and possibility of warmth out in my garden. The plastic should help keep the roots dry, which I've read is even more important for Lemons than being warm. It looks a little ugly, but I'm interested to see if it works.

Zone bending!

After a cold spring, like the one we had this year, where we wonder whether even one pepper will mature past green. I can't help but feel a little jealous of the warmer climates. To curb some of the envy, I have bought a few of the more hardy warm climate plants, I suppose you can call it Zone bending. All of these live outside in the sunny half of the year, and inside for the cloudy bit of it.

My Olive Tree. Its tiny, and these trees grow oh so slowly, but given the very right conditions, most likely against a south facing wall with very well draining soil, some olives trees have and do fruit in Southern BC. Don't believe me? Check out http://olivetrees.ca/

 The Meyer Lemon. I watched a man who worked at a reputable garden centre essentially call a lady stupid because she was curious about growing citrus here. I'm shy, but if I wasn't I would have sent her here aGrowingTradition a top notch garden blog based out of snowy New England. My humble tree needs a bit of love before it gets there, but don't think it can't happen.

 The Tea plant of course, which actually prefers shade and moisture, but cannot tolerate cold. Hopefully more people in BC will try growing this, so that we'll have more inspiring photos to refer to. Til then, about.com it is growing tea at home

Wasabi! Another one that prefers cool, shady and damp, but not cold. I found this cool pdf put out in the states that was trying to guide farmers in how to grow Wasabi for market, check it out here Growing Wasabi in the Pacific Northwest

Lemongrass. This one is new, and truly lovely. My baby shreds it to pieces every once in awhile, and it just keeps growing back strong and fragrant. I keep it moist all summer long, but in the winter I will cut the leaves right back (makes a lovely tea) and keep it almost bone dry in a nice dormant state.

I don't expect to stop here, I saw this great video on growing ginger and I have a cardamom plant that my camera just keeps neglecting. I've seen cocoa trees with pods (growing out of the trunks) at the Vancouver Aquarium, Coffee with cherries at the Bloedel Conservatory, Banana trees with Bananas at the Calgary Zoo and my partner and Love of my life sprouts Avocados compulsively. An Orangery was a common site in the mansions of the rich not to long ago (but before our food system was globalized to the minute.) But possibly what I'm after is more what this lovely family who live in an Earthship in Ontario have, PINEAPPLES!