The first fruit tree I ever planted
Almost everyone’s first tree experience has some embarrassing moments. Nobody can be an expert right away, right? We all make mistakes that sometimes haunt us for years afterwards (not necessarily just gardening mistakes either!) Some of us make worse mistakes than others, though. I think that if there was an award for being the most naïve person to ever attempt growing a tree, I would win.
When I decided to plant a tree of my own, I had the perfect spot in mind. There was a gap in a garden bed up close to the side of the garage. It was probably the least pretty area of what laughingly gets called the front lawn, and I thought I could put something useful in there. Maybe if I had a good looking tree there, the resale value of my house would go up (we were hoping to sell in a couple of years). I envisioned a gorgeous, lush tree covered in bright yellow lemons in about six months. Boy was I wrong.
I decided on a meyer lemon tree. Despite the risk of lemons all over the 'lawn', I thought it would be a great treat in summer to drink bucket loads of delicious home grown lemonade. Just the thought of this was enough to send me quickly driving local nursery and buying the first half way decent lemon tree I spotted. I didn't know enough about trees to look at the roots or any of the signs that it could be an unhealthy tree. I spent the required amount of money, placed the tree on the front seat of my ancient car (it wasn't a very big tree) and headed for home.
I dug the hole right where I wanted the tree. Actually, I told my husband where I wanted the hole dug and HE dug it. Ahem.This took a bit more time than he/I anticipated. Holes are an easy thing to underestimate, it turns out. It’s easy to say that a hole will only take twenty minutes or so, but once you actually start digging it usually progresses a lot slower than you would like. By the time the hole actually got big enough to fit the ball of roots, he certainly didn't feel like digging another few feet around the perimeter as I was suggesting, thanks to a very basic tree planting guide. He'd had enough and so, I was ready to place the tree. With the help of my three year old son, I lifted extracted the tree from it's over size pot and plopped it into the hole. Then, it was time to fill in the hole, which is something the three year old enjoyed,
I couldn't have been happier once that last shovel of dirt went in. I stood back to admire my work. That was when my small son said something that brought reality crushing down, and still stands true today. “Mom, that tree is wonky!” "Oh, really?" I said. "Uh huh" he answered. I convinced myself it was a visual trick created by the uneven edges of the garden bed, and told myself...and my son...that after a good watering and a few days to settle in the tree would be standing straight and upright
So, thinking this was a problem that the tree would naturally outgrow, that, and the weird lumps on some of the branches, I decided to leave it for a while to see what would happen. Every day I went out to check on the progress of the tree; to see if it had was looking straighter than it was the day before, or was providing me with any lemons. Nope, it appeared that it had not improved at all. Not wanting to bother with the effort of digging it up and re-seating it in the hole, I decided to just forget about it. I didn't often go to that particular garden area anyway, so I almost completely pushed the tree from my mind. I decided that if any problem ever came about from leaving the tree 'wonky', I would blame subsidence from the drought we were currently experiencing. The lumps on the branches I thought would disappear once the tree got a few more leaves. Yup, for someone who thought they would have a natural green thumb, it was a pretty good way of advertising how much I didn't know about gardening.
After a couple years of completely ignoring that the tree ever existed, I was sitting inside one day and my son, now five years old, and his younger brother, had been down the side of the house close to the 'lawn' where the wonky lemon tree lived. "There's yellow things all over the tree!" they came inside shouting.
Huh?
I was thinking wasps so I raced out. But the tree, still wonky, was covered in ripe lemons.
This years crop, just ripening up.
On closer inspection the lumps on the branches were still there too, I now know they are caused by gall wasps and can cause the branches to grow in odd directions. A wonky tree, and, one with branches growing out at all angles. Not what I'd envisaged when it came to re-sale value.
Now, I'm not sure what was more embarrassing, that my sons didn't appear to know what a lemon was or that the tree, despite my lack of green thumb and obvious neglect, had come through for me and produced the lemons I had dreamed of.
Tree guilt, anyone?
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