meyer lemon

Fruit trees such as peaches, plums and avocados are easy to grow in South Texas. Peaches and plums require colder weather for fruit production and with our mild winters we have to look for low chilling hour varieties. Somewhere between 100-250 hours is best. We make sure the varieties we sell are self pollinating so you do not have to buy two different varieties to insure fruit production. Citrus is a winner all the way around.

In December and more in January, Sally’s been harvesting lemons from her parent’s Meyer lemon trees by the bucket load and shipping them all over the country. We think they are the juiciest, best flavored lemons ever!

Several varieties of citrus can also be grown in pots if you have limited yard space. Mexican Limes and Meyer Lemons are the two most common.

Many Satsuma Oranges are considered dwarf varieties and are very cold hardy and great container trees as well. Avocado trees can be a little harder to grow, but once they become established they are easy to maintain. We have a great selection of all fruiting trees and now is a great time to plant.

-DeAnna

(Citrus × meyeri, the Meyer lemon, is a citrus fruit native to China thought to be a cross between a true lemon and either a mandarin or common orange, from Wikipedia)

What do you do when Sally Gill gives you lemons from her Meyer lemon tree? You make Ina Garten’s yogurt lemon cake, of course! And, since Meyer lemons are so big and juicy you’ll have plenty to make fresh lemonade, as well as squeeze and freeze for future use.

Here is a neat tip Sally gave me. You freeze the juice in ice cube trays, then store the cubes in freezer bags or containers ready for the next cake or concoction of your choice.

I’m also experimenting by zesting the lemons and freezing the lemon zest in bags, ready to measure and add to anything needing a hint of citrus flavor.

If you’ve been wanting to plant a citrus tree you won’t go wrong choosing Improved Meyer lemon. Plant it in the ground or in a large clay pot (like the Italians do) in a sunny spot in your yard. Before you know it you’ll be sharing fruit with your neighbors and friends.

-Kathy

It’s harvest time around my house and I have to admit the bounty is big this winter.

This past fall, I planted later than usual (Oct 13th) due to rainy days and a total kitchen remodel! Mother Nature was my advocate, though. Rain, sun, and many cool fronts did amazing work with little help from me, other than a feeding of Hasta Gro 4 weeks after planting and pulling a few weeds.

The end result is a fridge full of delicious broccoli, nice size cabbage, sweet carrots, good-for-you kale, a huge stand of cilantro (from seed), celery, and a freezer full of fresh squeezed Meyer Lemon juice. Our Brussels sprouts are looking good, still just a little small. We will wait patiently for these culinary jewels. Life is really good!

So, what’s next? Well, we’ll clean out the old, do a turn of the soil, and set our sights on tomatoes, peppers, basil, zucchini, and whatever else tickles our delight to try… like having fun with potatoes.

James Gill fondly tells a story about how much fun he and his boys had planting potatoes. They were young, so playing in the dirt was a given and harvest time even better as they dug into the dirt to pull out bunches of potatoes from just the one that they planted!

It’s time to plant potatoes now through the end of February, so here’s our recipe for success:

– Cut potato into 2-4 pieces…or you can plant the whole potato. Best to buy non-treated potatoes. We have Red Lasota seed potatoes for sale.
– Coat with dusting sulphur and let cure for a few days.
– Prepare an area to plant…mostly sun and good drainage is very important. Loosen the soil and work compost into the dirt. Or you can plant in large pots using potting soil.
– Work fertilizer into the soil 8-10” deep…Plant Tone is great. Do NOT fertilize after planting
– Plant potatoes 3” deep and space them about 12” apart
– In about 3 weeks bank 3-4” of fresh soil over the base of each plant. Continue mounding soil every few weeks as the plant grows
– Potatoes are ready to harvest when mature plants begin to yellow and die (around 3-4 months).
– Start digging and have fun!

The spring planting season is starting – see you soon!

-Debbie

P.S. – check our Spring Vegetable Planting Guide for more tips!

meyer lemon

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