lemon love
last week a friend asked if i would like a plant? being a gardener, of course i said yes. i knew it was a meyer lemon tree, how hard could it be?
let's just say that on a scale of 1-10 (one being ignore it and ten alot of attention) lemon trees indoors for oregon winters are a 20+. the all reigning high maintenance princess of citrus horticulture.
lulu (what my friend named her) now resides in my room at school. lots of kids have class pets and i decided that it would be much more fun for my mindlab problem-solving class to help me care for the tree and learn together along the way. so now we have a class plant.
more than an hour and seventy dollars at the garden center later, lulu has everything she needs and more: special 2-1-1 organic fertilizer, NEEM leaf spray, porous well-draining soil of slightly acidic cactus/succulent blend & peat moss, a 9-gallon pot with drainage holes, a tray filled with rocks and a spray bottle for extra humidity, a sunny spot by a window, a special blue-light plant bulb, bottled water, a fan by the open window for circulating air, and a happy temperature range of 55-70.
"can i have the first lemon?!" is a popular question, to which i answer, "let's help her flourish first and then we can make lemonade for everyone to share." a student pipes up and says, "it's liking having a baby or something!" to which another responds wittily, "yeah, except raising kids is easier!"
we have a good laugh and talk to lulu, sometimes playing classical music for the three lemons she already has, awaiting the day we must self-pollinate her with a fine-hair paintbrush (really, we don't have anything else to do!?) and wait.
when life hands you a lemon tree, enroll in a master gardening class. or, just wing it with the kids and me. we'll keep you posted!
let's just say that on a scale of 1-10 (one being ignore it and ten alot of attention) lemon trees indoors for oregon winters are a 20+. the all reigning high maintenance princess of citrus horticulture.
lulu (what my friend named her) now resides in my room at school. lots of kids have class pets and i decided that it would be much more fun for my mindlab problem-solving class to help me care for the tree and learn together along the way. so now we have a class plant.
more than an hour and seventy dollars at the garden center later, lulu has everything she needs and more: special 2-1-1 organic fertilizer, NEEM leaf spray, porous well-draining soil of slightly acidic cactus/succulent blend & peat moss, a 9-gallon pot with drainage holes, a tray filled with rocks and a spray bottle for extra humidity, a sunny spot by a window, a special blue-light plant bulb, bottled water, a fan by the open window for circulating air, and a happy temperature range of 55-70.
"can i have the first lemon?!" is a popular question, to which i answer, "let's help her flourish first and then we can make lemonade for everyone to share." a student pipes up and says, "it's liking having a baby or something!" to which another responds wittily, "yeah, except raising kids is easier!"
we have a good laugh and talk to lulu, sometimes playing classical music for the three lemons she already has, awaiting the day we must self-pollinate her with a fine-hair paintbrush (really, we don't have anything else to do!?) and wait.
when life hands you a lemon tree, enroll in a master gardening class. or, just wing it with the kids and me. we'll keep you posted!
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