The Fruit Trees Were Nestled All Snug In Their Beds

Meet Simon (pomegranite), Theodore (Fuyu persimmon) and Alvin ("Dakota" miniature peach), who for the last three days have been living inside the garage. I was worried that the freezing temperatures might be harmful since permanent locations have not yet been found for them. Attending Northaven Garden's free fruit tree seminar in November convinced me that I could expand my agricultural pursuits to these three breeds with very little effort.

They join my other assortment of fruit trees, Miss Figgy (fig), Louie B. Meyer (lemon), and King Corona (lime). Why the names? Well I've found that once personalized, I'm more invested in seeing them succeed in our north/south/dry mixed climate. For example, I spent most of Monday morning freezing my size XX fanny building a "house" for King - he produced an amazing number of limes for such a little tree, it was the least I could do. It's PVC piping, painter's plastic and duct tape, and there are Christmas lights at the bottom to warm it up. So far it seems to be working.

And Louie has found a home in our living room during the winter, his first year produced about 2 dozen large lemons, I harvested the last of them after Thanksgiving. Now he's beginning to bloom again, so I wheel him out each day for a dose of sunshine, then back inside for the night.

We'll see how the new additions do, fruit-wise. Ms. Figgy set many fruit last year, but by the time they had ripened they had been stolen by those #!(@&#*&#$ squirrels. This year I've got two secret weapons, who are lately discovering the joy of hunting them down, right Deuce, Tres?

I learned so much from the 1 hour class at Northaven Gardens, if you are considering a home garden you might want to attend one of their (did I say FREE) classes. You too might come home with a few new friends.