A Garden Challenge to End Hunger. Are You Ready?

Last night, after spending more than $160 at the grocery store, I quickly cleaned out the vegetable crisper, throwing away mushy asparagus, a hot house cucumber that looked like a science experiment, and three leeks that I intended to use in a recipe...that just never happened.

And then, this morning at 4 a.m. during my bout of insomnia, I watched A Place at the Table.

I'm ashamed.

A Place at the Table documents hunger in America. Hunger. Not the effort to eliminate GMOs or the fight against Monsanto, which tends to be at the forefront of food news. 

Hunger. 

The lack of real food for our kids' classmates. The inability of a working parent to feed his or her family. Mothers who tuck their children into bed, comforting them because their tummies are empty.

Have you experienced hunger? I haven't. My kids haven't. Right now, our refrigerator and pantry are overflowing with food. Real food. Fresh eggs from our chickens. A bowl of apples, pears, and bananas on the counter. And yes—some bad snacks in the pantry. All from my 30-minute shopping trip at Publix, which is less than five minutes away from our house.

But what if we lived in a food desert, where the nearest grocery store was 45 minutes away? What if I had to take two difference buses to get to that store after working all day? What if, after arriving at the store, my food budget was $3 dollars...a day?

It makes the McDonald's Dollar Menu seem awfully appealing, doesn't it?

Today, more than 200 food bloggers are dedicating their posts to fight hunger. While I consider myself a garden blogger rather than a food writer, the reality is that I write about growing food. (And flowers, but let's stick to the edibles today.)

The truth is, I knew hunger still existed. But don't we tend to think of images of malnourished children from third-world countries when we think of hunger? I don't think of hunger relating to my neighbors, community, or kids' friends.

I'm naïve. Or at least, I was. A Place at the Table opened my eyes.

Thirty percent of Americans have no idea when to expect their next meal.

30%.

One in three point three people.

And of those 48.8 million food insecure Americans, 16.2 million of them are children.

Kids, trying to focus in school while their tummies growl.

Kids, whose brains should be growing and thriving—but are not receiving the nutrition necessary for healthy development.

Kids, who are developing Type 2 diabetes at an alarming rate. According to U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, one in three children born in 2000 will develop diabetes due to poor nutrition.

The reality is that many of these families live in food deserts, where access to healthy food isn't an option. Grocery chains look to profits when evaluating their sites, and in our own community in Spartanburg, South Carolina, many chains abandoned the community. Without access to transportation, families rely on the closet source of food available—often convenience stores, where the inventory of chips and candy bars is high, and the nutritional value is nil.

Our community, though, is working on our food deserts. Our thriving Hub City Farmers' Market is located in an underserved area and accepts SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly Food Stamps) vouchers. Plans are underway for a Healthy Food Hub in a current food desert, housing the market, a café that will sell produce, and an urban farm, which will also employ community members. It's a start. There's a dedicated team in place, many grants written, and many community members involved who are determined to make it happen.

But what about the communities that aren't willing or able to step up? Will we allow Big Ag to continue to receive more than a quarter of a trillion dollars for food subsidies on corn and soybeans, which allows junk food to be affordable, while less than one percent of subsidies are delegated to farmers raising fruit, vegetables, and processed grains? Since 1980, when the American obesity epidemic began, the cost of fruit and vegetables increased by 40%, while the cost of processed food decreased by 40%, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

Isn't something wrong with this picture?

Something is also wrong when we try to help our youngest citizens with free school meals. The federal government reimburses schools $2.68 per meal. Now, out of the $2.68 budget, subtract costs for labor...administration...gas for deliveries...

What's left? Ninety cents. 90 cents to feed a child.

It's depressing. How can we claim to be a world leader, when America is ranked last among the IMF Advanced Economy countries for its inability to feed its people?

There's no easy solution. Families trying to earn a living lose federal assistance if their income exceeds $24,000—for a family of three.

Three people, trying to live on $24,000.

We know we can't snap our fingers and solve hunger. A blog post isn't going to make everyone have access to healthy food tomorrow.

But what can we do?

First, all of us can become more informed. Watch A Place at the Table. Visit No Kid Hungry. Read the information. It's heart-wrenching.

Then, make your voice heard here.

Finally, use your gardening power. What if, instead of buying that delicious-smelling witch hazel bush, we purchase a container, seeds, and soil, and taught a child how to grow a salad garden? What if we leverage the power of our community garden clubs and spend a meeting planting an edible garden at a local school stuck in a food desert, teaching the kids the power of growing food? What if we adopt an urban community center, helping them learn how to grow a community garden filled with healthy food?

Think what we could accomplish!

OK, I know I'm a little Pollyanna-ish.

Still, there's a quote that's been making the rounds on gardening sites and Facebook pages recently. “Growing your own food is like printing your own money.”

It's true.

When a pack of lettuce seeds cost $2 for several hundred seeds, and a single head of lettuce costs $2...it's a no-brainer.

Many food-insecure people may not have a yard for a garden. Still, a container placed on a stoop or balcony can provide an ongoing source of nutrition. Plus, many of the food deserts are found in rural areas, where there might be room for a backyard garden. That's where we gardeners can help. By providing our time, experience, and perhaps the tools to get started, we can make a difference in providing healthy food. 

One of the challenges for the Food Bloggers Against Hunger was to provide a nutritious recipe based on the food stamp allowance of $3-4 per day. While not exactly a recipe, a cut-and-come again salad bowl can provide an ongoing source of food. Some of the plants are perennials...

Swiss Chard

Kale

...while others are quick to grow from seed.

 Peas

 Lettuce

The ingredients I used were all grown from seed and include:

Red Russian Kale (3)

Rainbow Swiss Chard (3)

Speckled Lettuce (6)

Tom Thumb Peas (7)

Deeper containers can hold carrots, while 5 gallon buckets can support tomatoes and peppers. All require minimal space, and all provide good nutrition.

So what do you think? Are you up for the challenge? Can you commit to provide an edible container to a family in need, or to help a school supply nutrition to its children? If you have other ideas, please share them in the comments.

We gardeners are powerful. Let's teach people how to grow food—and let's help find a solution to hunger.

Thanks, friends.

XOXO ~

Julie

Alphabet Garden—You Can Grow That!

Is there anything better on a chilly day than to browse through seed catalogs, dreaming of spring blooms? Actually, I think there is—sharing those seed catalogs with kids and inspiring the next generation of garden gurus.

A...Azalea

Designing an alphabet garden with a child is a great way to get your gardening fix, while reinforcing ABCs with itty bitty gardeners or teaching older children about planning for edible and decorative landscapes. During the rainy, snowy, cool months, planning an alphabet garden is a fun, not-too-messy art activity. Let the child take the lead in picking plants and designing the garden on paper, while you provide gentle guidance about the plants' growing requirements (sun versus shade, for example.)

 B...Bleeding Heart

Several years ago, I designed and installed an alphabet garden at our children's elementary school. Alphabet gardens provide many learning opportunities that tie into a school's curriculum...but they provide an equally fun learning opportunity at home. In fact, by providing kids with their own plot to plant an alphabet garden, they're empowered to decide upon plants, creatively design the site, read about each plant's growing requirements, and learn the simple tasks of caring for a garden. Observation skills and wildlife care all tie into the learning opportunities with an alphabet garden. 

First, though, create the alphabet garden inside with the child.

Planning Supplies:

• Seed catalogs (or downloaded photos from seed suppliers, if (like me) you can't bear to part with your catalogs)
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Markers or crayons
• Paper or poster board (bigger is better!)
  

Remember to guide your child as he or she designs the garden. Together, decide upon a location in your garden, or determine where to install a new plot in your yard for the alphabet garden. Help the child sketch out the garden space on paper or poster board, allocating 26 spaces for plants.

C...Columbine

After the initial set-up of the paper garden plot, look through seed catalogs for plant photos from A to Z. (When designing an alphabet garden for children, I stick with common names to make gardening more accessible for kids. Not many children will understand Latin.)

Good seed catalogs will give you specific information about the plants' needs, so help your child pay attention to the following:

• Sun requirements
• Size of plants (tall plants may shade smaller plants or large plants may crowd out neighboring plants)
• Water needs
  

Once the plants are selected, have the child cut out pictures of the plants and arrange the pictures on the poster board. Let the child take the lead, but help ensure adequate spacing for the plants.

Combining edible plants with ornamentals is a terrific way to teach children about edible gardening. Some plants for an alphabet garden include:

Aster · Beans · Catmint · Daisy · Eggplant · Forget-me-not · Goldenrod · Hollyhock · Ice Plant · Johnny-jump-up · Kale · Lettuce · Milkweed · Nasturtium · Oregano · Peas · Queen Anne's Lace · Rosemary · Snapdragons · Tomato · Umbrella Plant · Violet · Wormwood · Xeranthemum · Yarrow · Zinnia

When the plan is complete and the weather begins to warm, check for your area's last expected frost date for spring planting here. Now, the real fun begins! 

Alphabet Garden Supplies:

• 26 different plants or seed varieties, one for each letter of the alphabet
• Gloves
• Trowel
• Prepared garden space
• 26 "ABC" plant markers—stones, wooden letters, handmade plant labels.
  

It's time to make the child's plan for the alphabet garden a reality! Order seeds to start indoors or direct sow, purchase transplants, or plant some transplants and start the others from seed—it's your call! Stress the importance of practicing organic gardening methods, both for the edible plants, as well as the health of pollinators and wildlife. It's never too early to teach kids the benefits of organic gardening. After all, planting dill to attract caterpillars doesn't make any sense if you douse the dill in pesticide, right?

Let the child take the lead in planting, but offer support and gentle guidance, such as reminding kids to handle seedlings carefully, as well as ensuring adequate spacing. Discuss the plants' needs for food and water, as well as sun, to help them grow strong.

Encourage creativity for the garden décor. Smooth stones painted with the letter and name of the plant make good markers. Wooden letters on dowels from craft stores are adorable, but they can be pricey. (I used these for our school alphabet garden.) Old metal spoons hammered flat and inscribed with the letter and plant name are good, durable, recycled options. Additionally, scare crows are fun decorations to add to an alphabet garden, along with rocks painted like ladybugs. A broken terra cotta pot turned upside down turns into a toad home, and natural decorations like pine cones, stones, and sticks can turn into a fairy home in the alphabet garden. Let the kids' creativity run wild!

Most importantly, have fun with the process of growing the plants, picking flowers, harvesting foods, and sharing time with kids in the garden. After all, who will grow our next generation of garden stewards if not us?

Z...Zinnia

Happy gardening!


Julie

One Potato, Two Potato...

When planning our summer gardens, homegrown tomatoes get all the glory. Pages and pages of tomato varieties fill catalogs, centerfolds of lush summer fruit. 

But potatoes deserve more love.  

 

Once you've grown your own potatoes, you'll never want to eat bland store-bought spuds again.

Honestly, why choose run-of-the-mill Russets when you can feast on French Fingerlings or savor Sangre? Along with beautiful, delicious varieties enticing you to grow your own, you also can harvest early to enjoy new potatoes, while allowing the vines to continue to produce larger potatoes for late season enjoyment or storage.

When I first considered growing potatoes, I worried that the crop would occupy too much space in our garden. After all, our kitchen garden's sunny space is at a premium, since our property is heavily forested. So, for my first attempt at growing potatoes, I chose to use Grow Bags. 

Grow Bags are fabric bags that function like a pot, allowing you to adjust the height by folding down the sides, and then unfolding them and adding soil as the plants grow. The beauty of Grow Bags is that water easily drains through the bag, helping to avoid soggy soil. The fabric bag allows good air circulation, helping regulate soil temperature. Additionally, the bags can be positioned on patios, balconies, or any sunny patch in your garden. I place our bags strategically to capture as much sun as possible.

Last year, with the construction of the raised beds for our kitchen garden, I decided to devote one of the beds to potatoes. Everything began beautifully. Perfect soil, lovely sprouts, and then suddenly--the vines died. Yes, I didn't think about adding a bottom layer of wire mesh when building the raised beds to keep out my arch nemesis...the vole. I know better, too. Those nasty creatures ate every potato.

This year, I'm back to the Grow Bags, which I purchased through Gardener's Supply. (I've also seen several people use burlap bags instead of Grow Bags, which might not be quite as sturdy, but it seems like a good, cost-effective option. Honestly? You can grow potatoes in any large container that drains well.) I found this cute option when on a garden tour last year at Sunnyside Cafe, where they grow a large kitchen garden to support the restaurant:

Whichever method you decide, you need to grow potatoes. Trust me. 

Getting Started

Seed Potatoes

Decide which varieties to grow and order early. Seed Savers Exchange, Sow True Seeds, Territorial Seeds, and Grow Organic are a few excellent sources for seed potatoes. You can also find seed potatoes in your local feed and seed shop.

Some gardeners pooh-pooh the purchase of seed potatoes and use sprouted potatoes from the pantry. However, certified organically grown seed potatoes help reduce the risk of diseases in your crop, plus you'll know that you're planting potatoes that are chemical-free.

If you're planting potatoes in bags or containers, you may want to recruit a friend to share seed potatoes so you can have a good variety without incurring too much expense. One pound of seed potatoes can yield approximately 10-15 pounds of potatoes to harvest under ideal conditions. 

Seed potatoes should be firm with good “eyes” or buds. Cut seed potatoes into 2-inch pieces, making certain that each piece has at least one eye. Allow the cut surfaces to heal, or callous, for two days prior to planting, which helps eliminate rotting in cold, moist soil. You can directly plant small seed potatoes. 

Planting

In our zone 7b garden, St. Patrick's Day is considered a good time to plant potatoes. Generally, late winter is ideal for planting, as potatoes will tolerate light frost. Hard freezes, though, will delay growth and can damage vines. Potatoes prefer a cool spring with adequate moisture and soil temperatures between 60-70 degrees. Tubers don't form when soil temperatures exceed 80 degrees, so plant early.

Fold the sides down on your Grow Bag, making a 4 inch cuff. Fill the bag with approximately 4 inches of high quality soil. Potatoes thrive in soil with a pH between 5.8 and 6.5, so a soil test is always a good idea. They're heavy feeders, preferring a soil rich in phosphorus. 

Plant the seed pieces cut side down/eye up on top of the soil, spacing the pieces approximately 12 inches apart. Don't overcrowd. (It's my worst habit. More is not always better.)

Cover the seed potato pieces with three inches of soil and water well. Add a high-nitrogen organic fertilizer approximately 6 weeks after planting, when the tubers are beginning to form. 

Growing

As the potato vines grow, maintain a good watering routine, particularly when blossoms form. Remove any weeds, which should be minimal in Grow Bags or containers. As the vines reach approximately 8 inches in height, add an additional layer of soil over the potatoes to avoid exposure to the sun, which causes scalding/green potatoes. Green parts of potatoes contain an alkaloid that's poisonous, causing the potato to taste bitter. Remove any green portions of potatoes before using.

After the vines grow an additional 8 inches, unfold the bag, add another 3 to 4 inches of soil, and water well. 

Harvest

Potatoes mature approximately 100 to 120 days after planting. If you want to eat fresh new potatoes, you can harvest a few small early potatoes, leaving the vines intact for continued growth. After the vines have died, it's time to harvest the main crop.

The best part of using a container or Grow Bag is the ease of harvest. We turn our bags over into a wheelbarrow, and the kids root around to remove the potatoes. When we're through, we wheel the soil over to the compost bin. Clean and simple! 

Storage

Late potatoes are best for storing. Place them in a cool, 40-50 degree area with high humidity, and they should last 6 to 8 months. 

Eating

Mashed, fried, boiled, roasted, hobo, gratin...so many choices! Still, one of our favorite ways to prepare potatoes is making Rösti...Peter's yummy recipe brought with him from Switzerland. Basically, Rösti is like a giant potato pancake, or hash browns formed into a big, yummy, crispy round cake of deliciousness. The secret ingredient? Bacon. You can't go wrong with bacon and potatoes! 

Rösti

Ingredients:

1 lb. Potatoes, peeled and shredded

½ lb. Bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 tbsp. butter

salt and pepper to taste.

1. Fry bacon, set aside.
2. Add 2 tbsp. butter to hot skillet, thoroughly coating the surface. (You may need to add more if potatoes stick.)
3. Add potatoes and cooked bacon, salt and pepper, stirring in skillet to mix bacon into potatoes well.
4. Form potatoes and bacon mixture into a large “cake” in the skillet, allowing the mixture to brown well, approximately 8-10 minutes.
5. With nerves of steel and a limber wrist, flip the cake in the skillet. (Peter is the flipper...I always end up make a mess of it.)
6. Allow second side to brown, approximately 5-7 minutes.
7. Slide onto plate and serve.

Really...you need to plant potatoes, just so you can enjoy Rösti.

Happy planting!

XOXO ~

Julie 

This post was shared with Wildcrafting Wednesday. Check out some other great blogs and ideas here.

Part of the Backyard Farming Connection blog hop!

The (Almost) Spring Garden--Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

Ah, South Carolina...how can you not love a place where the temperatures are 75 degrees one day, then 40 degrees the next? Our temperature fluctuations definitely keep us on our toes! 

March's longer days help combat my winter blues. The added hours of daylight into the evening foreshadow upcoming summer nights, when our family has no agenda besides playing in the pool past normal school bedtimes. The extra light promises that yes, spring is coming...only a few short days now, and my favorite--and busiest--season will arrive. 

Already, bulbs show their sweet, early blooms.

The first hyacinths appeared in a pastel rainbow, with more tardily planted hyacinth bulbs just beginning to emerge. (Of course, I planned it that way, so we'd have the sweet fragrance of hyacinths throughout the spring. My tardy planting had nothing to do with over-ordering bulbs and not finding time to plant them.)

Our sweet 'Icicle Follies' daffodils continue to charm, but many blooms look tired. I need to add more late-blooming daffodils to the garden. 

A few late-planted snow drops remain...

...as do equally late-planted paperwhites. What can I say? Procrastination paid off for March Bloom Day!

We left the leaves to serve as a protective mulch over the winter, and now we face the task of cleaning them out and ordering our hardwood mulch. Still, looking carefully through the layers of leaves, I spotted the first grape hyacinth peeking through its protective coat. Such adorable little blooms.

Also emerging through the leaves is the first sign of the peonies. I've only spotted one so far, and I can't wait for the others to emerge and fill the yard--and my vases--with their frilly beauty.

I've been eagerly anticipating the blooms of the fall-planted witchhazel. For such a young plant, it's putting on a nice show--and the scent is divine.

Hellebores continue to star in the garden. I'm amazed at the profusion of new plants and blooms I've found. From the original five plants purchased more than 10 years ago, we have hundreds of hellebores throughout the garden. They're practically invasive--and I love it! I just found dozens of new babies to transplant. Now, that's my kind of flower!

Oreo found something interesting in the patch of hellebores in our back garden.

Our camellias are bursting with buds and blooms. They deserve a better position in the garden, as the majority of our camellias reside on the side of the house where no one can enjoy their show.

The forsythia, on the other hand, greets visitors in the front yard with its showy splash of color. Forsythia bushes are scattered throughout the garden, and it's amazing how the different microclimates affect the appearance of blooms on forsythia. Some bushes are full of flowers, while others are just beginning to burst from their buds.

Buds are swelling everywhere in the garden, with a few early blossoms appearing on the cherry tree.
 

Next month, loropetalum blooms will be ready for Bloom Day.
 

Ah, the first blooms of fraise des bois! My mouth is watering for these tiny berries. Not much longer until we'll be harvesting fruits in the garden.



A sweet violet emerges from its leaf blanket. We find tiny violets throughout our forest. I can't wait for all of the forest wildflowers to emerge.

  

I think this is a turtlehead that I planted last fall, but with kids, cats, chickens, and our pups Chloe (left) and Sophie (right)...

...the marker disappeared. Ah well, such is the life of a busy garden!

To visit more gardens, please stop by May Dreams Gardens and say hello to Carol, who hosts Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

Happy Bloom Day to you!

XOXO ~

Julie

Sweet Citrus: How to Avoid a Sour Experience.

Today, I will be hiding out in the greenhouse. Don't tell anyone. I'll be there, with my trusty guard cat, Oreo, pretending to work, potting up my green babies. In actuality, I'm just avoiding the inevitable.

The Master Gardener police will be arriving any moment to revoke my membership.

I deserve it.

Because the truth is...

I am a plant murderer.

It wasn't intentional, I promise. There was no premeditation, no plan to off an ugly specimen to make way for a new, lovely purchase. If I'm guilty of anything, I loved my plants to death.

My remorse is overwhelming.

Last spring, I succumbed to temptation. (Isn't that how these sad stories always begin?) The desire to test my gardening mettle proved too great, and I obsessed with growing citrus for my family.

Citrus. In our zone 7b garden. Foolish, you say—and you're correct. But I had a plan.

In my mind, lovely containers of dwarf lemon, orange, and clementine trees, heavy with fruit and smelling of bliss, could easily move from garden to greenhouse when the weather proved too chilly. I would nurture them, baby them, and then feed my family heavenly doses of healthy vitamin C, grown with a mother's love.

All went well...for awhile. The six citrus trees thrived in the South Carolina heat with barely a pest in sight. When my friend Libby mentioned she was eating homegrown oranges in Charleston, I barely registered jealousy—knowing that soon we, too, would feast on deliciousness. As the fall days turned shorter and cooler, I moved the containers into the greenhouse to avoid frost.

And there they sat, patiently waiting for spring.

I visited them, inspecting for pests, checking their health, but letting them rest, too.

Then, this happened:

Stunning, divine blooms began appearing on one of the orange trees. Another began sporting tiny buds. I became obsessed with sniffing their scent, watching as miraculously blooms began opening and filling the greenhouse with fragrance.

Until this point, the greenhouse remained unheated. But seedling season began, and as soon as the tiny green babies began showing their heads, I turned the propane on full-throttle to a toasty 75 degrees.

Suddenly, one morning as I watered the seedlings, I heard strange noises. Fearing a furry critter resided in the greenhouse, I turned around and watched in horror as leaves dropped, one by one, into huge piles beneath each citrus tree's container.

My first reaction, of course, was to cover up the crime. Had I forgotten to water? Quick, let's give them a good drenching. Was it time to fertilize? Not sure, but let's add some organic Dr. Earth citrus tree nutrients. And then let's water a little more.

In my panic, I committed more crimes against these poor, defenseless trees...until they looked like this:

Gone were the beautiful blooms, filled with potential. The tiny buds dropped, unopened, into the mounds of leaves. Only thorny remnants remained to mock me.

I mourned my actions and researched what went wrong—then I had a blinding glimpse of the obvious and headed to the grower's website. (Please note: these trees arrived in beautiful condition from Four Winds Growers. They supplied detailed instructions on how to plant dwarf citrus trees in containers, and the trees thrived until they...didn't. I highly recommend them.)

Here's what I learned:

As any decent gardener knows, extreme shifts in temperature will adversely affect the plant. Ironically, less than two weeks ago, I lectured a class full of organic gardeners about the need to harden-off seedlings. Why did I think my citrus trees could handle the cold of an unheated greenhouse one day, and then bask happily in permanent 75 degrees? Of course they were going to revolt.

For further proof, here's a quote from the website:

“...dislikes abrupt temperature shifts.”

Oh, really? Sheesh. What was I thinking?

So, yes, I claim complete responsibility for my poor leafless, bloom-less sticks. 

However, the charges against me might change to reckless endangerment rather than murder. Apparently, the lovely people at Four Winds Growers anticipate distraught gardeners who've potentially murdered their plants. They kindly tell us that a naked citrus tree doesn't necessarily spell its demise. By lightly pruning it back, new growth might be encouraged to appear.

There is hope.

As part of my penance, I thought I'd share some of the tips provided by Four Winds Growers to help you avoid my painful path. Growing citrus should be a pleasure, not a crime.

How to Grow Dwarf Citrus in a Container

• Order trees from a reputable source. Dwarf varieties are grafted onto rootstock that maintain the tree's smaller size, which makes them perfect for containers. And containers mean that you can grow citrus, even if your zone says not—just bring the plant inside...slowly.
• Use a container that's twice the size of the root ball, and make certain it has good drainage.
• Fill the container with a slightly acidic, loam-based potting soil that allows good water flow. You don't want to use heavy garden soil, which can compact and cause root rot.
• Site the plant so that it receives 8-12 hours of sun.
• Maintain a temperature between 55-85, with 65 degrees as ideal. If you make a change, acclimate your tree slowly to the new temperature. (In other words, do not place it suddenly in front of propane heater.)
• Provide regular watering, but keep the plant drier in winter to avoid root rot. Citrus trees like moist air, which can be accomplished by using a humidifier or misting.
• Fertilize every three weeks in spring and summer with a high nitrogen organic fertilizer for citrus trees. In fall and winter, fertilize every six weeks.
• Move plants indoors before frost, slowly acclimating them to indoor conditions. Likewise, carefully acclimate the plants to the outdoors in spring, first positioning the plant in partial shade, later moving to full sun to avoid shocking the plant and scorching leaves.
• Watch for signs of pests or disease. Yellow foliage can indicate lack of fertilizer or over-watering, and some leaf drop is normal in hot summer months. However, monitor for severe problems to ensure the plant's health.

By following instructions and not murdering your plants, you can expect fruit and flowers on 2-3 year old dwarf trees. Harvest time varies, depending on the variety. Most lemons and limes require 6-9 months from bloom to edible fruit, while oranges take up to a year for harvest.

Now, you're ready to grow your own citrus. I hope the Master Gardener police will let me off with a warning, as I've shared my shame as part of my rehabilitation. I'm off to prune the trees, hoping to push that new growth.

One day, we will grow our own citrus.

Until then, thank goodness for The Orange Shop at LocalHarvest.

Hanging my head in shame...

Julie