Backyard Garden Plot Pictures – Week 50 of 52
The last couple of weeks here in Western Washington have been a bit of a roller coaster. We woke up to nearly 2 weeks of temperatures below 30 degrees, with pretty much everything frozen solid in the garden. For awhile there I thought it was never going to warm up around here.
A few plants in the garden didn’t make it,but lucky for us, the Swiss chard did. 😉 Once the outer leaves are trimmed away we should be back to making Swiss chard smoothies and picking leaves for our backyard chickens to snack on.
Lucy puggle will show you around.
The turnips. Yep, they survived. Apparently they can handle being frozen solid. Who knew?
I guess they don’t call it winter kale for nothing because it survived as well.
The fruits and vegetables in the greenhouse however, are a totally different story.
Our 3-tiered pot of lettuce didn’t survive, but the young lettuce starts we started from seed in the galvanized tubs did.
All 8 of my Meyer Lemons died.
Can you believe that? After nurturing Lemon, the Lemon tree for eleven months, all her little lemon babies died. I haven’t had the heart to pluck them yet, but they are all soft and mushy so I know they are total gonners.
Perhaps a proper burial is in order?
A view from the back deck.
Are you still thinking about poor Lemon? I am. 🙁
I guess to everything there is a season. And if we lived in Florida, I’d have a boatload of lemons on my tree right now. {Or if I would have had enough common sense to bring the freakin’ tree indoors that might have helped as well}. So is life.
I guess all we can really do is learn from our mistakes, and try again next year. Right?
Are you trying to grow any citrus fruit this winter? How are your trees coming along?
Mavis wants to know.
This years garden is being sponsored by the awesome folks at Botanical Interests Seed Company. You can check out their website HERE, order their new 2013 Garden Seed Catalog HERE, or visit my online boyfriend Ryan’s blog HERE.
Up for a tour? Read about our behind the scenes tour of Botanical Interests Seed Company.
Pam P says
I grow limes all year round in Ohio and I simply bring them in during the winter months. This year, my newest lime started blooming like mad when we put it under a florescent light in the basement. It’s cool but not freezing down there and there are little limes growing. I’m pretty happy and we will see if they grow to full size. Inside is better with tropical fruit in the winter when you live where it freezes and snows. More snow for us tonight but my limes will be safe and sound! Try to start some seeds from your lemons if they have any!
Margaret Thele says
I’ve got a little Meyer Lemon that I got this spring. It has just started to bud – not really looking for a lemon crop, but can’t wait to inhale the fragrance of the blooms. It has taken residence in my cool greenhouse, which typically goes down to about 35-39F at night here in SE Michigan
Jezibels says
Are you going to move the lemon tree inside?
Laura Z says
I live in NC, so collard greens are sort of a typical thing to eat around here, but I bet they would do fine where you are, too. They are actually sweeter after a good, hard frost!
Jean Kennedy says
I moved my Meyer Lemon into what is basically a Walk in Refrigerator that has no compressor. We use it to grow Shiitake Mushrooms in. So a big insulated box. I picked almost all the ripe Lemons. It had over a hundred this year. Last year it had five. Still waiting to see if the tree lives or not. Since I forgot to turn on any heat and one night it was minus ten here. Coast Range of Oregon. It looks pretty good actually I see some damage but nothing black or indicators that it is totally dead. So maybe I will get away with just a little damage? I hope?
Rosaleen says
I’m sorry to read that the lemons didn’t make it. Can their juice be saved? Having the lettuce in the tubs survive but not the pots? Curious! What was the advantage in the tub? Sheer size and depth of soil holding more heat? Lower to the ground than the pots? I hope that you can solve that puzzle and share the resulting info. Good Luck!
Becca Gordon says
I have been growing a Valencia Orange tree in a pot for a few years now (hasn’t fruited yet but working on that problem). Living in Northeastern Washington, I have to move my tree back inside the house in the fall because we just get way to cold. Would love to keep it outside, as I’m sure it would do much better and actually give me some oranges, but without a heated greenhouse (someday!) there is just no way it would survive. Sorry about your lemons-I know your pain from my failed attempts years ago with a lime tree. 🙁
PattyB says
Can you bring the little lemon tree in now? Maybe it will feel better and blossom again. I had a lemon tree in the yard in SoCal and it blossomed all the time. I had lemons at various stages of ripeness on that one.
Dianna says
All my beets are still covered in snow. It’s been down to 0° here several days so I’m sure they’re dead, along with everything else. I hope my daughter’s carrots will survive under their covering of leaves; if not she’ll be heartbroken!
I read that the dead outside leaves of the Swiss chard plant help insulate it, so you might want to think about just leaving them there. I don’t know if you should cut them off or not.
Your garden looks great! Condolences on the lemons.
Elise says
Oh poor Lemon 🙁 that’s SO sad. I have a tiny bush of a Meyer Lemon tree that’s now 3 years old (hasn’t grown more than 6 inches taller since we planted it, just wider – Hm, sounds like me 🙂 ). It finally has a bunch of good lemons on it, but here near San Francisco we rarely freeze, and never at our house, too much wind for that. We have probably 30 on it. I feel bad even mentioning it, like I’m rubbing it or something 🙁
Sarah G. says
I’m in Shoreline and my Meyer tree still has green fruit on it. We wrapped the fruit in some of those air pillow things you get in your packages from Amazon and moved the tree into the garage for a few days. I’m still hopeful they will ripen!
suzanne hissung says
I moved my lemon and lime into the house around October, not much transport shock then. I got two lemons off the tree yesterday and the dogs got about 10 🙁 my lime has a baby on it and I’m hoping the fruit stealers won’t notice it. Puppies!!! They are both blooming but alas not pollenated. Glad I didn’t keep mine in the greenhouse after all. I’m in Kingston, Wa.
Audrey says
We’re in Florida and for a few days it hit in the 20’s! SO not expecting that. We don’t have a tv or cable…and have no excuse for not checking the weather on line, either way we lost our share as well. We have a lemon tree and she seems to be doing ok. Granted for months we thought they were giant limes until finally they started to turn. They aren’t deelish meyer lemons though, just odd tasting not very lemony ones.
Jude says
My tree has both lemons and limes on it and both will go yellow eventually. Could they be limes that were just left on too long?
Jody Graves says
Amazing that you normally have mild winters…but the weather sure is changing- here in Vermont it has been extremely cold and we received about 10 inches of snow….two of my kale plants were sticking up still green and leafy through the snow! Amazing-
I grew a lemon tree from a seed…it took about 3 years…never did get any fruit (maybe I needed two trees?) …but I finally put it on the compost heap because it had thorns and I was sick and tired of getting pricked by the thorns, no matter how much I loved it…all of my cactus plants were thrown out the same week…even one that had come from my grandmother and been nurtured almost 30 yrs. I did have a bit of regret and now realize my sister has a plant from the same cactus that I am going to take a little start from…a few pricks and sticks shouldn’t hurt too bad.
Sorry you lost your lemons!
Erin M says
Oh Mavis….not lemon. My deepest sympathy. I agree with a person above…if you started feeding it, you probably could shoot it into another bloom period…hand pollinate and hopefully get some lemons. Mine is flowering right now and setting tiny fruit. Bob Duncan, our local Citrus Dude, winds Christmas lights throughout the lemon branches. They have to be those large old school hot outdoor light, has them set on a thermometer and they turn on when it hits a degree or two Celcius. So come on at about 33F or so. Then he wraps his outdoor lemons in a double layer of Reemay, or frost cloth. It holds the heat in from the lights. He has a huge Meyer Lemon at the front of his house. It is about twenty years old, so his system really works well. Good luck.
Kelly F says
Aw man, sorry about Lemon! My Meyer lemon tree is indoors here in Oregon right now but it must not have liked the dry heater air running during that cold stretch because some of its leaves are falling off! Temperamental little things! So sorry yours got so cold 🙁
Wendy Steele says
OMG!!! I feel so bad about Lemon!!!! My mouth actually dropped open with dismay when I read that….Crap!!!
Jude says
I’m sorry to hear about Lemon. I have a small potted lemon and had 5 perfect lemons on it. I waited one day too long and a squirrel bit deeply into all five. I’m in FL and it got chilly for a few days, but only enough to kill off a couple tomato plants.
Diane says
Here in Portland (OR) we move our Meyer into our small (6-by-8) greenhouse once the nights start getting down around 50 degrees, since the tree will go dormant at 48 degrees. We keep a small space heater on a thermostat in the greenhouse, to keep the temp at least in the upper 40s during really cold weather. It doesn’t cost an awful lot for us to do that, and it keeps the lemons coming during their peak maturing time of Dec. through early February. It would probably cost a pile to heat your big greenhouse, though, Mavis. Maybe some passive solar heat would help – plastic barrels filled with water or concrete blocks that could absorb solar energy during the day, and radiate it into the greenhouse at night. The easiest thing, though, if you have room and your tree isn’t too big, is to bring it indoors in the winter.
Jen M says
Last spring I bought a Meyer lemon, Valencia orange and Key lime. They did great all summer long outdoors but when the temps began to get around 50 at night I brought them in for the winter. They seem to be doing “OK”. Not near as happy as when they were out by the greenhouse all summer and no fruit yet :(. My little olive tree is a different story. After I brought it indoors it lost almost all of it’s leaves apparently due to stress. Hopefully it will pop back into shape in the spring. Its been a hard cold fall here in the mid-west. I don’t think any of my potted trees would have had a chance making in in the outdoor greenhouse!
Onilee says
Sorry to hear that your lemons didn’t make it, but wasn’t it fun watching them grow?? The eager anticipation of fresh squeezed lemonade is so fun. I still have three lemons hanging in there. And, a whole new set of blossoms coming on. Seems funny that I have green fruit and new blossoms going on at the same time. Perhaps I’ll lose my lemons too. Guess it’s better than losing my marbles.
Carol says
Mavis, I live on the Olympic Peninsula, so am in the same zone as you. I have also been nursing along a Meyer lemon. The first year, I moved it inside during the winter, and it was not happy. Last year, I read a tip to string C-7, old fashioned, clear Christmas tree lights on the tree and around the pot to provide some warmth. I also covered the whole thing with 2 layers of row cover on cold nights and days. Well, the tree did make it through the winter but with only one good lemon! I’m kind of persistant, though, so this year, I put the whole thing, lights and all, under a cage covered with a tent made out of transparent window insulation film. It’s under the eaves on the south side of the house. So far, so good. The little tree seems a lot happier this year. Nothing has frozen, although I did move it inside the garage for a few days, when we had that really cold weather in the teens. You do have to be careful to not let the lights touch the leaves or lemons. I had some burned leaves and a burned lemon last year. The lights really heat up! This year, I just draped the pot with the lights, with the idea that heat rises… Stay tuned!