Sublime

Having a fruitful lemon tree is sublime and the thought of having a fruitful lime tree even more so. It has the special taste important to a margarita and a mojito. Unfortunately, my lime tree is looking decidedly subpar. It was planted in 2019 when the vegetable garden was extended into the lawn. I carefully removed any fruit for the first year to let the roots establish. In subsequent years, it has never had more than six limes and it has remained small.

This year, there were quite a few limes but they began to drop off when quite small. Then the leaves began to turn yellow and to drop. I had fed it as usual, so gave it epsom salts as a boost, but it did not improve. The garden centre people thought it might have been over-watered. That’s possible, as I often tossed a bucket of water on it after cleaning up after the chooks and water from the garden sprinkler does tend to run down into that corner. We have also had a lot of rain.

On Friday, I called in at a very nice garden centre – just to look – and came away with a new lime tree, a large pot (half price) and potting mix. I put stones and bark at the bottom of the pot to ensure good drainage. My thinking is that a pot might prove more successful. I also dug up the old lime tree, made a new hole, filled it with stones for drainage, then potting mix and replanted it just in case it might recover.

Today, I bought some companion plants and put them around the new lime tree in its pot. There’s alyssum, silver thyme and dill. It looks sublime. Fingers crossed.