The Lemon Tree

We had lemon trees at Gembrook and it was always a pleasant thing, to go out and a pick a lemon, or several, whenever they were needed. Also I supplied my friend Ralphie for some years and after Maria left her farm and moved into Emerald I regularly took her lemons. To me it's comforting to look out the window to a tree laden with lemons. If for seasonal reasons lemons were a scarce on my trees there were a few mature ones at the farm and I had friends with trees.

When we moved to McCracken I was well aware our house had no lemon tree. After seeing the price of of them in shops over the years I was resigned to paying high to get lemons. So one of the first things we did after the unpacking and organizing was to find a nursery and buy a lemon tree. We bought a 'Eureka' and left it in its pot on our concrete patio, against the house, over winter. It blew over a few times in strong winds and I was itching to get it in the ground. We planted it late August, when I hoped danger of frost biting the new growth had passed.

It now stands in pride of place behind where the large sycamore was before we had it removed, a nice sunny position. Lib has made a garden around it with blocks and I've planted some thyme, sage, oregano, chives and garlic chives, and mint at the back, in the hope that these will thrive in the years it will take for the lemon tree to obtain size.  

 

       The pot obscures the lemon tree but this pic shows the garden. The garlic in the pot in the foreground seems to be doing well. I planted them in a pot in April, having brought some bulbs from Gembrook, and not having any place yet organized in the garden for them. I also planted some mint we brought with us in the pot left of the garlic and it's jumping now with the warmer weather. The other is silver beet I planted at the same time. That big Chinese pot we brought with us, now standing on the stump of the removed sycamore. Thousands of baby sycamore seedlings are coming up everywhere but they're easily weeded. Not in the pic but I have parsley, basil, dill and coriander coming up in pots. Behind the lemon tree, if you look closely you can see a tomato staked beside the fence.

We are enjoying this early gardening. In the foreground of the pic below is Gord's osmanthus that he brought. That section was there already as a garden but was dominated by arum lillies, grasses, and agapanthus which we removed. Lib wanted a path through it hence the pavers and we planted two purple hop bushes on the fence, a red cordyline, a bangalay palm, a mandarin, an eriostemon (now known as philotheca) and a small tree/shrub whose name escapes me but it supposedly has fragrant flowers in summer. This area is much a work in progress, we'll have to see what does well and prune and discover as we learn our new environment. In this lower shot you can see a planter box at the back. There are three of these, for annual herbs and vegies as the season goes. The beech tree is in the middle of the grassed area, but has not yet shot to leaf. It'll be an interesting first season. I planted some pumpkin seeds in pots in August and yesterday planted the seedlings, which were doing well, outside in the gully yesterday where they can be rampant (if they grow, I'm dubious about the soil out there).