Lemon Tree!

We got a lemon tree! I’m very excited. We got a Eureka Lemon Tree (basically a normal lemon tree) which can be kept in a pot! Teehee! It can be kept either indoors or outdoors or both, AND it creates fruit ALL. YEAR. LONG. How amazing is that? I had no idea, I though fruit trees only produced fruit in the summer. Anyway! I finally planted it in a very big pot and not it’s outside getting used to the warm weather. This post is just showing how I decided to plant it.

I started with a really tall (about 30″?), black metal pot from Ikea for only like $30. Sweet. But it only came in black and considering that it’s metal and it’s going to be outside even in (Northern) Virginia’s heat I wanted to paint it a slightly less hand-burning color. Here is the pot before painting, sorry, these aren’t the greatest photos.

I used Rustoleum’s Ultra Cover Primer first. I think the color spray paint I chose actually would have covered the black but it probably have taken more than one can.

This is the pot after being primed. Looks like a cloudy hill. Or… something.

I decided green is the obvious color to choose. If I’m going to have a lemon tree in the house producing fruit in the middle of January making me think of Spring then I want a giant bright green pot damnit! I used Rustoleum with a satin finish.

One problem I encountered when I started painting the green was a weird fuzzy finish (see the next photo). I think it happened because I didn’t wait long enough between the primer and the color coats. I left it alone for about an hour and started again and it painted on smoothly.

Voila! Pretty green planter!

Also from Ikea I got a small rolling platform for the pot to sit on top of so it can be moved around easily. I also used a trick from Pinterest to help keep the weight down. In the bottom of the planter I used packing peanuts (plastic, not cornstarch) instead of rocks. It will allow the soil to drain some without adding almost any weight.

Look how pretty she is! I only put the peanuts in about 8″ up so she has TONS of room to grow. She also smells INCREDIBLE, like, honeysuckle but even more intense!

Just one more picture, I promise! If you look a the base of what used to be a flower you’ll see a small green ball forming, that’s a lemon! Cool right?! There are three currently forming and the nice woman at the garden center told us that these trees will have lemons, blossoms, and just plain leaves all at the same time all throughout the year. 😀