It was June and I was catching up with the real gardening jobs, the ones that cause back ache and force dirt under your finger nails.
I’d tried wilding in a plot where my friend D had removed a rose and small cherry tree. Having read ‘Wilding’ by Isabella Tree, now there’s a name for a gardener, I left this small plot in the lawn unmown. But when doing the Big Butterfly Count there seemed no shortage of bees in our garden and I generally tend to leave wild flowers such as buttercup, daisies and herb Robert to grow. Maybe my patch wasn’t necessary? I’ll rethink my wilding ideas for next year. My garden isn’t immaculate nor devoid of non-cultivated plants…In other words there are wild areas already. I’ll work out the best way of keeping a wild area alive without the garden running riot.
Thinking, now, of the other extreme: the cultivar. Neighbours had given us a beautiful lemon tree for our Ruby Wedding. As May had been so cold I was minded to follow the care instructions for this plant more closely than usual. And there were a lot of them.
When I read that watering had to be done using water that was room temperature and how a lemon tree doesn’t like cold or shocks I wrapped it in bubble wrap and ensured its compost didn’t dry out. I was also trying hard not to overwater it. The watering can was kept indoors, close by, so the water wasn’t too cold for the tree. And I kept it in the same place, wrapped, waiting for temperatures outside to grow more seasonable. Naturally - as it’s a Mediterranean plant - I made sure it was close to the window in the insulated shed.
This way I avoided the commonest mistakes people make when tending a lemon tree: Over-watering or under-watering, temperature changes, poor light and nutrients.
My friend had kept his lemon tree indoors throughout the winter but there isn’t much space in our house unless it stays in a bathroom. I also noted citrus trees need good ventilation, away from drafts but also away from radiators. Although conservatories and hallways are ideal we have neither a hall nor a conservatory. But we do have three well-lit bathrooms.
All that was planning for the future. I had already bought chicken manure pellets and phosphate feed. The watering regime and feed had encouraged new growth, blossom and the formation of tiny lemons. At least it had grown some on my watch.
If a citrus isn’t getting nutrients the leaves turn to different colours, and mine were all still green. If the leaves do turn the tree is likely to be starved of iron, magnesium or nitrogen. I think the phosphate feed I was using did the trick. I just needed to feed the tree weekly. Although the potash I have says once a season. It takes some nurturing this tree!
Another issue was pests. Lemon trees can suffer from aphids, gall wasps and citrus leaf miner. I can’t say I was familiar at dealing with any of these pests. Apparently the eggs from the bugs have to be lifted by hand and leaves cut to remove any damage from miners. The lemon tree seemed somewhat high maintenance. But I persevered!
I knew lemon trees were sensitive to frost but little did I know that once moved to the sunny outdoors they needed shade for the first few days. As I don’t have a conservatory I moved the tree to full sun but for a whole week I gave it its own parasol and base to shade it. Neighbours couldn’t understand why my parasol was only 4 foot off the ground…
In June the sun is, of course, at its highest and strongest. I also loosely draped bubble wrap over the leaves so they didn’t scorch. After a week of this treatment I let the lemon tree cope with the elements. It was finally on its own. And at last we were enjoying summer temperatures.
Thus far the tree has continued to produce flowers, fruits and new leaves. l read it can cope with dry conditions - it is from much hotter countries than ours - but I felt I must feed it more often.
Meanwhile - in early June - I watched a You Tube video on the best ways to build wigwams for my climbing beans. I wound string around one wigwam to encourage the climbers to cling on. In the second wigwam I used only beans in toilet roll inners but not string for the tendrils to grasp. And for a third wigwam I decided not to put mesh around the young plants. For the other two wigwams I protected the plants with mesh against slug damage.
For up to a week after intensely caring for the citrus tree I hardened off my beans. They survived!
After hardening off, a little more exposure to the outdoors every day, I planted dwarf French beans in my raised beds. In another raised bed overwintering cabbages were heartening up and I covered them against cabbage white butterfly grubs. In another raised bed I sowed spinach.
At that point my greenhouse was almost empty and all my tomato plants could take up residence there. Finally I felt like a gardener once more!
But that didn’t last long.
We were back to the hardware. Our local electrician had found a way of using old cables buried in our flower beds to create a circuit up to the garage, new shed and greenhouse.
It took him a couple of days to resurrect the switch and socket in the garage. He got a new strip light working in there and put the whole in waterproof casings. The greenhouse was given its own frost stat heater(one that could cope with rain and leaks) and the shed had a couple of sockets for a kettle and a lamp or even a heater. Everything was waterproofed and although it was too late for this year’s crops and flowering plants it meant the lemon tree need never suffer from frost and overwintering plants should survive in the green house, although they may need extra protection from a few layers of bubble wrap.Even the late, great Percy Thrower suggests covering plants (or greenhouse windows) in the very coldest months. Even with heat.
The month of June was a month of achievement. It saw that I had a safe, working greenhouse heater, a useful thermometer, double glazing and space for tomato plants. The roof window was letting in less rain but I opened it on much drier days to allow the tomatoes get the ventilation they needed.
I could charge the battery pack to my new mower in the socket in the new shed. And the mower was so light I could easily lift it. And there was no longer the need for unwinding a cable extension every time I cut the lawn. At long last there was a return to light in the garage. If we do put the car in there on some very cold nights we can see what we are doing without the need for torches. Blow me we were getting sophisticated!
By the 12th June everything was growing away and I felt I’d cracked it for this year. I was equally proud of the petunias which had grown from tiny plugs to cascading beauties in patio pots and in the front garden. And we’d had our two jabs against covid-19.
Phew! Busy but successful!
Time for a holiday in Devon!
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