New blooms and new aloe

 My phal that I've had for 3 years now bloomed for the 4th time and John Meyer is chugging along too!

My friend Lisa came down to visit and gave us an aloe. I hope I don't kill it. For some reason they never seem to last with me.

A successful John Meyer season

It's been a full year since I got this bad boy at the Southern Christmas Show. He produced 5 hearty lemons. I found 3 recipes to make with them. First was a creamy avocado pasta dish:

Martha Stewart's Meyer Lemon Poundcake:

And the grande finale Cod baked with meyer lemons, shallots and dill. SO SO GOOD.

I hope next season I'll have 6. Hubster thinks we'll get 9. As for the key lime tree… He produced some buds and there is one out of the bunch that is standing. I'm not expecting much of this guy. He wasn't in good shape from the beginning. It would be a miracle if we get at least ONE from him next season. He'll need a good 2 years to recoup from the rescue. Here are the two side by side under sun lamps indoors now that it's a bit nippy out. 

Has it been that long?

Here's an overdue quick update on GRK. We have tons of new neighbors. The hood is filling up quick. We became friends with a couple, Allison and Zach. See... that's their house, photo taken from our deck.

The cool part is that they're also a Leo couple. Allison and I share the same birthday :) Zach and Tyler are 1 day apart.  No wonder we clicked immediately. She also started at the same yoga studio I attend. In other updates...
Hubster and I went to Home Depot a couple of months ago and scored a Fiddle Leaf Fig tree for HALF the price I got my first one. The plant on the floor is a Zamioculcus, aka ZZ plant. Supposedly they are indestructible. So it's a great plant for those who think they do not have a green thumb!

 

John Meyer is doing quite well. 5 fruits and a lot of new foliage. Right now they are in the ripening process.

  

I  picked up a Key Lime tree at a nursery about 15 miles out. I'm not so stoked about the tree. It seems very frail and not as hearty as when I bought my Meyer Lemon tree. I should've waited but I get so antsy and impatient sometimes. I guess I'll see how a year goes with this one. I don't even have a named picked out. Bleh.

 

At the same garden nursery,  I got a heavily desired Staghorn Fern. The owner gave me a few insider tips/tricks on how to mount it instead of using fishing wire. 

 

We ordered a storm door for the front door. That should be arriving and installed sometime in early October. Had to get a couple of things cleared with the HOA first. 

 

Golf balls

The first crops are doing well and getting bigger :) Can't wait!

Bigger than a quarter

So far I am having better success with a meyer lemon tree this time around *continuing to cross fingers*. The two big ones on top you see are bigger than a quarter coin. A few weeks ago they were the size of a finger nail.

They be poppin' off lately :) The bigger bulbs are about 1 centimeter. *happy dance*

Grow Light

 

*crossing fingers*

We have buds!

 

We also ordered a grow light to help the little guy while he's still inside since he only gets about 3 hours of FULL sun directed towards him everyday. *crossing fingers*

Sister's SIL's Meyer Lemon

My sister's sister in-law bought a Meyer Lemon tree from Lowe's 2 years ago. She lives down the street from my sister's house which is about a mile from where I live. If her's can grow and produce fruit, so can mine! :)

Meyer Lemon Tree: Take Deux

I've been thinking about getting another Meyer Lemon tree but couldn't find them at Lowe's or Home Depot this summer. Something about the local nurseries breaking out in disease. *shrug* So I took that as a sign not to get one, not even from online. Fast foward... Hubster and I went to check out the Southern Christmas Show this weekend and saw an old man carrying what appeared to be a lime tree (totally a sign for me to get one). I got really excited knowing there's a vendor in there selling citrus and tropical plants. We rushed to the exhibitor and gladly bought a Meyer Lemon tree for a whopping $12.95 :)  A gazillion $$ less than what I paid for when I ordered one online for the first one that eventually died before I could even get any full grown lemons out of. The exhibitor was a local nursery that get their citrus trees from Florida. I asked many questions making sure I was confident in successfully growing one this time around. Since it's winter season they advised me to keep it indoors during the cold months and bring it out in full sun sometime in March/April or when the weather gets spring season warm. Which I didn't do the first time. I kept it inside the whole time so it didn't get the right amount of warmth, sun and pollenation. However, it is possible to grow it indoors year round but I just didn't have that luck. So wish me luck this time around!

Meyer update

Late last month T and I left for a week so I asked my sister (who lives less than, if not AT MOST 1 mile from us) to Meyer-sit. He's needy. He likes DAILY misting, sun, temp above 65°F and humidity. Right before we left he had many mini lemon buds growing. When I came back he pretty much looked like death with leaves and buds all over the floor. I didn't have the heart to take a picture because I was so embarrassed and angry. This is him now:
He looked way worse when we got home. This is a few weeks of me giving him TLC again. *le sigh* I'm hoping Bokashi tea (if I end up with any from the scraps) will jolt him back to life.

Deck bed

On this side we planted 2 Sister Theresa Hydrangeas. You can also see my dying Meyer on the deck (will update about him later):
Peonies which recently bloomed (starting from the left: Kansas, Catharine Fontijn and Vogue):
The herbs & jalepeño plant as mentioned in a previous post:

Bokashi

A few green thumbs I know are into composting. I don't know how they do it. The thought of it makes me cringe a little because I don't want to open a bin full of wiggly worms making magic. Bokashi is a bit different. The first time I heard about this was through a *bicycle blog* I follow. Homegirl doesn't have a green thumb and no worms are needed. Check and check. Instead, microbes that look like grain are used, they make fermented "tea" and voila! Compost and magic plant juice! Check out the vid below. I'm really interested in getting one. Maybe it'll be like dessert for Meyer (my lemon tree).

[Meyer] Lemon Tree in Old Town Alexandria

T's mom works in Old Town and came across this home with a lemon tree loving the life. I'm so jelly. I hope mine will grow as happy as this fellow.

Meyer Lemon Tree

A little over 2 weeks after the last post. I can't tell if these are getting bigger. Can you?

Meyer Lemon Tree

The first buds all died. These are a new set. They're a tad bigger than the first ones so lets see if they'll continue to grow.

Itty bitteh lemon buds

hehe so cute...

Moving in

is CRAZY. It's overwhelming and so much to do you don't know where to begin. We're getting it though one thing at a time. First few days was just getting organized as much as we can putting the right boxes in the room they belong in. Then unpacking everything, taking the boxes to the recycling center then SLOWLY organizing each room. Our cable and internet didn't get installed until LATE LATE Friday so Tyler was mainly behind in work and I was behind in job hunting... one day at a time I guess.
Oh my Meyer lemon tree arrived! So far it's doing well. The leaves were all folded since it was crammed and shipped in a skinny little Christmas tree-like box but it's finally opening up. It even came with a bunch of flower buds. I'm crossing my fingers they make it and don't suffer shock.



Anywhoo... a few more sneak peak photos...
My current studio state. A WRECK. But at least I have a larger desk to fit my Mac, printer and sewing machines, and Tyler's work laptop!


Downstairs bathroom...


Dining room...
We were drooling over the Trestle set from Restoration Hardware

But it just didn't come close to our budget. Haha. So we found an awesome find at World Market!

Here's how it looks in our dining room. Area rug is from my old job, Couristan, and the candle heads are from Anthropologie...

We're still looking for a hutch and other accent pieces to fill in the room. I plan on sewing a table runner and maybe even placemats. The interior shutters should be arriving late December/early January.