Don't have much of a garden at my principal residence which is my late father's house ( my own house sits empty and my niece crashes there usually ). My dad used to have a huge garden, about 15'x40', consisting mostly of plum tomatoes, various kinds of peppers, eggplant, green beans and garlic. I may start again, myself once I retire, but for now, I just keep a planter with parsley, mint, oregano, rosemary and basil ( hey, I'm Italian ).

I do have a lemon tree which is a lot of work in this climate. My dad took care of it before me for about 12 yrs, and I have for the last 8 yrs. I don't have a sunroom, so I move it outside in the warm months ( it was stolen once, but recovered ) and inside a large south facing window in the winter. It is about 6' tall and weighs about 250 lbs. Unfortunately, dragging it through doorways knock a lot of buds and flowers off, but it still produces about a dozen sweet, fragrant lemons.

I use the citrus tree fertilizer sticks for convenience. Does anyone know of an organic fertilizer that is suitable ( and not offensive smell-wise ) for citrus trees ?

"The Stolen Lemon Tree" - sounds like a title to an off-beat novel or sadly whimsical european film

Giuseppe Cremona pushed through the crowd to the ship's rail and with a mixture of hope and homesickness glimpsed the country where he would spend the rest of his days. He looked across the waters of the St. Lawrence towards the homesteads of Nova Scotia twinking in the early morning sun as all around tearful travellers gave thanks for the end of a fraught Atlantic crossing. My father was by no means the poorest of the immigrants on the Duca D'Abruzzi but he was quite possibly the worst prepared – aside from the clothes he stood up in – he had nothing except a small wrap of newspaper holding a dozen precious lemon pips. Now Giuseppe knew that the fruit from a tree grown from these pips would one day be fragrant and sweet...

 

Apologies in advance

No need to apologise. Just need a little period music in the background to set the mood.

 

Although 'The stolen lemon tree' incident is funny now, at the time I was rather distraught, as it was only a year after my dad passed.