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February 2008
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Soon after I moved back to Austin, I bought a small Mexican Lime tree and planted it in a pot. We put it on casters and rolled it inside during the winter and outside in the spring summer and fall, because I was concerned the delicate citrus would not survive a winter freeze. I had reason to be concerned. I accidentally forgot to bring "Limey" inside during a cold night last year, and the little tree dropped all of its leaves. It spent the next YEAR recovering, and is only now starting to flower and produce fruit. But this year, Limey won't be coming inside. We have a 15-month-old in the house this winter -- who's into EVERYTHING -- and there's just no safe place for Limey, which is covered in long SHARP thorns. This year we made the decision to risk planting Limey outside. The best place to plant a citrus tree is in a warm, sunny place along a south-facing wall. We already disregarded that piece of advice. The south of my house is shaded by a huge pecan tree, and it stays very cool, even in the summer. Instead, I found a spot on the north side that gets sun most of the day, but is a little more shielded from a steady wind that blows almost continually out of the southeast. We cut down the bushes that were growing there -- red-tipped photinia, which are way over planted in the area and are totally inappropriate for the space because they grow so high. Then Limey got his new home. The tree is close enough to the wall where we can drape some plastic down and create a little greenhouse around Limey should it get really cold.
I'm not sure what will happen, but I've seen other citrus trees growing in the neighborhood and I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I really like eating little Mexican limes fresh off the tree -- there's nothing better than fresh lime sorbet on the hot summer day. We just have to make it through the winter first. |
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