Antoine is so kind. He knows I have the skills to turn things brown that should be green. Yet and still he bought me something we’ve wanted for a very long time. Every day in order for me to drink water, I drink it with some kind of citrus – either lemon or lime. Do you know how much those things are costing in the store now days? Good lord, way too much. Yet, I spend the money because otherwise apparently I’ll dehydrate because I won’t drink water like I should.
Well, not anymore! In a few weeks, I won’t have to be suckered into buying lemons or limes for my water. Oh! And I won’t have to run back to the store to get limes to make Crema for our homemade tacos! We will have our own lemons and limes. My wonderful hubby bought me a Meyers Lemon and Mexican Key Lime tree. They are so cute.
What’s great about Meyers lemons is that they fruit year round, and they are a more sweet type of tart lemon. According to the nursery worker, they should be pretty easy to care for and since they are citrus, we have to keep them potted. The reason being, our winters, although we are in the south, are too cold for them to stay outside. I did more research and it also looks like I’ll need to get my hands on some citrus fertilizer once a month. The great thing though about these trees is that they are self-pollinating. That way I won’t need to get two trees and have an over abundance of fruit. Special care: These suckers have thorns! OUCH. Who knew? After doing a little research I found out that it’s because Meyer Lemons are a cross between a true lemon tree and a Mandarin orange tree. The true lemon tree has thorns, so the hybrid Meyer can have them too (some don’t but we got lucky…yay. Note my sarcasm). If the thorns are growing below the graft point it is suggested to cut them off since they won’t grow lemons and are wasting the tree’s energy. But, if they are in the bush, it’s best to leave them there and just wear some good gloves when harvesting lemons.
The lime tree however is thornless (YAY! Note my excitement! LOL) and fruits year round. This tree seems a little more high maintenance than what the grower told us, but that’s just with my initial research. It might not be that bad. I’ll ask around at other local nurseries and see what they say. I’m excited for the blossoms. They will produce white and fragrant flowers when it blooms. Our house is going to smell so fresh!
Well, I said four additions didn’t I? We also got two “Pitcher Plants”. We tried our hands at Venus Fly Traps a few years back and they worked ok. They weren’t as exciting as we thought they’d be and sometimes flies would land on the sensors and they wouldn’t trigger. Fun fact, did you know that Venus Fly Traps are native to our North and South Carolina? This whole time I thought they were some exotic plant from the Amazon or where things kill you in Australia! So anyway, we are going to try these. These plants get their nutrients from bugs that go into their pitcher looking for water and drown. They have special enzymes that break the bug down and that’s how they are fed. We just have to make sure the plant and pitchers stay watered. With summer weather being here we are going to have to stay on top of that. Also, now that we don’t have our resident neighborhood chicken poking around in our backyard, the pesky insects are in abundance. Hopefully these plants will get well fed hanging in our backyard. If they do well, we may invest in a few more. I’d love to have a few hanging in the house. With everyone going in and out of the house, we always get a few flies zooming around in here. I love these plants because not only are they beautiful, but they WORK. Any and everything that we bring into our home now has to have a job and do it well. If it won’t work, it can’t come to our house.
Well that’s it. I’ll let you know how the lemons and limes taste when they come in. If you have any great lemon or lime recipes, let me know. I’m thinking maybe I can even make some extracts!
~Deidra