Iowa Lemons!

Lemons can be a lot of fun to grow in Iowa!  Wait, what!?  That can't be right...

Unless you live in a tropical or semitropical climate the idea of growing your own lemon tree might seem impossible.  It may not be possible to grow a citrus in the ground here (without some serious effort*) but we can easily grow them, in pots!

*Visit a Nebraska greenhouse that grows lemons and oranges

*Fruit Trenches: Cultivating Subtropical Plants in Freezing Temperatures

These wonderful trees can be a unique addition to any home.  By growing a small lemon tree in a container, you'll be able to get homegrown lemons with limited space, even in the Midwest.  In addition to lemons, the flowers are beautiful and smell amazing! 

Lemon trees actually have pretty good cold and heat tolerance, but our winters get cold, and they need to come indoors.  Growing lemon trees in pots allows them to be mobile.  Having a "mobile home" won't mean they can head south for the winter, but it does allow them to "migrate" to the inside. 

In summer you can put them on your patio, deck or an open area by your vegetable garden.  An apartment balcony can be great too, especially for those who have limited access to other kinds of gardening.  Besides a few citrus trees, I also keep lemongrass, rosemary and bay laurel on our deck.

Almost like a container food forest!

As the weather starts to cool off simply bring them indoors for the winter.  When the temperature gets down below 50°F I'll make plans to bring them in, a frost can be deadly to a potted citrus tree.  Check for aphids, spider mites and scale so you don't bring those in with your tree.  A spray with insecticidal soap usually does the trick.  If your citrus tree drops some or many of their leaves when moved indoors at the end of the growing season, don't worry!  This is a natural response as the tree adjusts to different light levels.

When the late winter months start to seem extra, extra-long you can enjoy the bright, citrus fragrance and think of warmer days soon to come.  With proper care, growing a lemon tree in a pot is easy enough that you can do so anywhere.  

Even in Iowa...

Go Big! Drake's Harkin Center - Phase 2

After the first stormwater basin was renovated, a bigger portion of the remaining original design was slated for renovation the following year.  The West entrance featured double stormwater collection basins with a curved sidewalk to the parking area.

Harkin Center ph2 the following May

Again, Kelly Norris was tasked with reimagining the space to take it the next level, and Abundant Design was chosen as the contractor.   Originally the surrounding areas were planted with prairie dropseed and echinacea, with sedges in the basin floors.  

Before pics

Most of the existing plants were removed.  The basin sedges were left in place, but we did get some of the weeds removed.  The turf lawn was removed, from the existing planted space to the west parking lot; this ground was so hard we tore up two sodcutters and had to use the tooth bucket on our Dingo™ to remove the turf grass.  

Many of these plants ended up transplanted at Sprout, between the garden fence and parking area.  Another bunch of them were donated to the DMACC Food Forest and Learning Garden to fill in some gaps.  

We also removed the turf from the open space south of the main entry lobby.

That's a LOT of plants!

The layout begins... yep, that's a lot of plants...

Planting, planting and more planting!

Just keep planting!  Time is short, called in a few reinforcements for the weekend.

Watering - Again this project was late in the season, but watering new plantings is critical to success.

Long days made for some late watering

Planting completed, but it was late enough in the season that any visual impact would just have to be anticipated...

After winter the plants were coming up nicely by May.  Several of the evergreens didn't make it however, guessing due to the late season planting and the drying winds funneled up University Avenue.  We replaced those as needed.

By year two the space is looking absolutely spectacular!

For MORE AMAZING PICTURES Visit Kelly's Project Page Here

Harkin Institute — Kelly D. Norris (kellydnorris.com)