Growing Citrus in Los Angeles

Growing citrus in Los Angeles is a little bit like growing nails or hair. Or a beard. It pretty much happens on its own or does not. That means that you cannot will them to grow if they don't want to any more than you can stop them from growing if they are in the mind to do that.

At least in my experience. I've tried both. I've tried to restrain the growth of my lemon tree to no avail, and I've also tried to do mouth to mouth resuscitation of other trees with no success.

One of your trees will get every disease in the book. An others will thrive. Why? Who knows. There are people who might know but not me. Ask someone else if you want actual usable advice on gardening of any kind.

In the San Fernando Valley where I live, temperatures can reach 115 degrees for several consecutive days. Young citrus can't cope. Older citrus think it's a walk in the park.

This is what my lemon tree looks like in February. All these flowers might turn to lemons or maybe none will. I've had years where branches broke under the weight of too many lemons and years where the lemons turn black, shrivel and fall off when they are no larger than a penny.




This is later in the year, around December, I think:

Lemons at its pinnacle, with lemons at every stage of development. One of our best year and we don't have a clue as to what we did did differently. 

Here you see the lemon tree at its mysterious pinnacle, with lemons at every stage of development throughout the tree. Ripe ones, green ones, flowers. One of our best years despite the heat, and I have no clue as to why it worked. You're welcome.

Earth Worms: The Final Frontier

Earth Worms are amazing. We did not add them to the garden, they just arrived.  They were undoubtedly beamed up from another dimension/universe. Or else they found their way into our vegetable beds after waiting in the depth of the Earth for a thousand years, because we sure as hell never saw one back when we had a lawn.

This is what earth worms do: they are able to somehow gnaw on solid rock and convert that into plant-accessible trace minerals. They also eat everything that is gross, abject, rotted, stinky, and all around revolting and covert it into nutrient rich worm poop aka worm gold.

It is my very scientific observation that they do all this despite zero eyesight and little brains to speak of. Only a mouth, a butt hole and very little in between.



We don't use pesticide or fertilizer. Only worm casting and worm tea. Some time, I'll explain more. If anyone is interested, leave a question in the comments section.