5 Tips for Planting Lemon Trees in your Garden
Lemons are one of the most popular fruits in households all around the world, whether for seasoning, jellos, cakes or drinks. So, today we’re going to give you some advice on how to grow lemon trees in your garden. There are several different factors to think about before you plant your lemon seeds.
Planting lemon trees, watching them grow, caring for them and using the fruit is really satisfying. Their vibrant yellow color and bright green leaves will brighten up those forgotten corners of your garden beautifully. Next, we’ll show you how to grow lemon trees in five simple steps.
Planting lemon trees
In this section, we’ll show you how to plant lemon trees, harvest them and eat the fruit.
1. Sowing your lemon seeds
There are several different ways to plant lemon trees in your garden. You can collect the seeds yourself, or buy a young lemon tree from a garden center if you want to speed up the process.
If you want to collect them yourself, you’ll need to keep the seeds from the lemons you’ve used for cooking at home. Wash the seeds thoroughly with water to clean off the pulp and juice. Try to make sure you’ve not left any pulp attached to your seeds. Finally, put them in a damp cloth, and leave them for a couple of days.
2. Germinate your seeds in flower pots
An alternative is to germinate your lemon seeds in flower pots and then, once they’re big enough, transfer them directly to your garden. Lemons don’t grow well in the cold, so if you decide to plant them in winter, it’s better to keep them inside in flower pots or on a sheltered patio, to begin with.
Lemons love warm climates, but they also need good drainage, which is why you should put a decent amount of fertile soil in your flower pots for your lemons to grow in. If you place them on an outdoor patio, even if it has a roof, the cold winter temperatures will affect them. To avoid this, try covering them with plastic to protect them from cold and frost.
3. Prepare the soil in your garden and transfer your plants
Once your seeds have germinated and grown big enough, you can transfer them to your garden. To do this, you need to carefully prepare the soil. First, choose the ideal spot for your lemon trees. If you have more than one lemon tree, or you have other plants growing in your garden, you can section off part of the area. This will help you to identify the different plant species so you don’t mix them up.
So that your lemon trees grow to be strong and healthy, you should use a generous amount of fertilizer in your garden. Try to avoid toxic, chemical fertilizers that might damage your tree or cause disease.
As well as fertile soil, you’ll need a good drainage system. If you need to, you can make a few holes so that the water can drain more easily. This means it will be able to permeate through the soil, down to the roots. Once you’ve prepared the soil, you can go ahead and transfer your lemon trees to your garden.
4. Give your lemon trees plenty of water
Lemons need plenty of water, and even more so in the summer. You should water them periodically during the winter, about once a week.
5. Harvest your lemons
After a few years, your lemon trees will be fully grown, and they will flower and bear fruit. You’ll need to be consistent – water them, fertilize them, and most importantly of all, be patient. You’ll discover just how satisfying it is to see the first fruit on your tree, and remember those little seeds that you collected, germinated and cared for yourself.
Once your lemons are big enough and are bright yellow in color, they’re ready to be harvested. Use trimmers to carefully remove them, and prune back the branches of your tree when you need to. Now you’ll be able to enjoy delicious recipes, jello and drinks all year round with the lemons you pick from your own garden.