View from thep Vegetable atch
Stop and smell the lemons: It’s fun to grow citrus fruits that will add a little zing to your life
There’s nothing quite like the scent of fresh lemon to conjure up summer.
If you are prepared to spend time and effort on looking after a potted lemon tree then you could currently be picking your own fruits for refreshing drinks and zesty desserts.
Trees that have spent winter and spring indoors can be put outside this month in a warm, sheltered spot where they can remain until September and by now you should be watering yours regularly with high nitrogen citrus feed, only switching back to winter feed during the colder months.
Lemons need lots of feeding and watering and they can grow quickly, which can result in spindly growth, but if you keep pinching out the ends of stems then the crown will become bushier.
An alternative way to get that same fresh, citrus taste is by growing lemon balm, a hardy herb that grows happily in this climate and can withstand even the coldest winter. It can be grown from seed and will thrive in a sunny spot in any reasonable soil. Plant it in the flower border or in a pot and snip a few leaves to add flavour to summer drinks.
Lemon verbena is another citrusy herb, but this is much more tender and needs winter protection. If you have a greenhouse then you should dig it up, put it in a pot and move it under glass, but alternatively you can take cuttings this month, grow them on and then keep them on a sunny windowsill for planting out next year.
And then of course there is lemon grass, an essential ingredient of Thai cooking. This is easy to grow from seed and can spend the summer outdoors in a large pot, but needs to be cut down and then moved indoors in autumn.
You may be tempted to try to grow an entire lemon tree from seed and it is fun to try, although it might be 10 years before your little tree is large enough to start producing fruit. Even then, there is no guarantee that the tree will fruit or that it will produce lemons because of the grafting process that can involve oranges and grapefruit. But don’t let that stop you from having a go, so next time you slice into a lemon hold onto some of the pips, pop then into a little pot of compost and watch them grow.