Fruit

The last several years as my interest in gardening has blossomed I've somehow acquired a few fruit trees. It was never a conscience decision, but I'm happy to have a few fruit trees to our name.  I'd even like a few more, but we are running out of space in our small yard and house.

For today's garden post I thought I'd walk through how I acquired these plants and how they are currently doing.



This one started it all. Actually, my grandmother and dad got the notion to have lime trees several years ago. When my grandmother moved to assisted living my dad ended up with her limes as well as his and I offered to take one off his hands. This lime has lived with me two, going on three years now. It produced a few limes each summer and is always a pleasure to watch blossom and grow.



Having a lime tree ignited the desire to have a lemon tree. A couple years ago Kroger had some small "trees" on sale and I bought this "lemon" for $5. I potted it in the same pot as my lime and put it next to it on the front porch. As it grew and started producing fruit it was obvious it was a lime.  Oh well. We enjoy the limes we get off this tree as well.  It's especially interesting to me see the different structures and characteristics of each lime.


I purchased this meyer lemon tree at the 2013 Lichterman Nature Native Plant Sale. It was only three leaves when I brought it home. Earlier this spring we repotted it into this pot and it's been growing by leaps and bounds since. No blossoms or fruit yet, but I anticipate we will see some next spring/summer. I keep this one on the back patio so it doesn't cross contaminate with the limes. I don't even know if that's possible, but I'm preventing it even so.

A note about citrus: I live in zone 7 which gets too cold for citrus to be planted in the ground. My citrus lives outside about 80% of the time, but does have to be brought in when the temperatures are at or below freezing. We repotted the limes into the much larger red pots yesterday and it will be extremely interesting to see where they will go in the house this winter!



This is my fig tree. I purchased it this year at the Lichterman Native Plant Sale for no other reason than I have a serious plant problem. My parents have a fig tree and it's big and beautiful. I'm not even that crazy about figs, but for some reason I felt like I needed to have my very own fig tree. Eventually I will plant it in the ground, but I'm not sure where yet.



Earlier this year my grandfather asked if I wanted a pear tree. I've never been known to turn down a plant, particularly an edible one. So this kieffer pear tree was planted last March and has been doing well since. It is the only tree that is actually planted in the ground.

I dream of one day living on a small hobby farm where I can have an orchard of various fruit trees. But until then I love my orchard in the heart of Midtown Memphis. Who knows what other fruit trees I'll bring home next year!