One Hundred Dollars a Month

It’s that time again. You ask, and I pretend to know things and answer your burning questions. It really is so much fun to open my inbox and see the wide variety of questions you guys have. Reminds me that my readers are so diverse and pretty dang awesome. So keep those questions coming and I’ll keep racking my brain for answers.

Hi Mavis, My son (age 7) is determined to grow an orange tree! Whenever he is eating an orange or satsuma and finds a seed he will plant it. He takes great care in watering it and taking the pot inside and outside depending on the weather.

Unfortunately, I don’t think he is going to have success with this method. I was wondering if you or your readers have tried growing a satsuma tree in a pot. We live in Southern Oregon, so we would need to keep it inside during the winter (I’m assuming). I’d like to know how long do they take to grow fruit (if grown inside/outside) and are they fairly hardy? I wouldn’t want to get this for him and have it die in 6 months. Any help you can provide would be much appreciated! Thank you!

~Julie

Hi Julie,

Well, I don’t have any experience growing satsumas but we have grown Meyer lemon trees before and we kept those in pots. I wrote a little tutorial a few years ago that you can find HERE. There are all sorts of tips from planting a tree to keeping it fertilized. I hope that helps. But please….. If anyone out there has experience growing a satsuma tree, chime in.

If I’m remembering correctly, I think we planted our lemon tree in late January and a year later, we were picking lemons off our tree. We overwintered our tree in an unheated greenhouse during the winter months in the PNW. My friend Heather, who lives just outside of Boston has had great luck growing citrus indoors as well. I think you should give it a go. After all, you won’t know unless you try.

Hi Mavis, long time follower here with an unusual question. My friend/co-worker has raised chickens ( beloved ) for years… loved these birds! Recently, despite her best efforts, a fox has killed all of her hens… I want to do/say something other than “ I’m sorry” but not sure what … help?? Especially as she has decided to give up raising chickens as a result…

~Sam

Oh Sam, that is AWFUL!!! A few years ago we had a raccoon wipe out 3 of our hens over the course of one summer and it was pretty tragic.  To have an entire flock decimated all at once, I don’t know what I would be able to say or do that would be comforting to a friend. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we just can’t seem to keep them safe. Hopefully someone here on the blog will chime in and offer some advice. 🙁

How do you keep up with the garden maintenance? I always get so excited to put my garden in, then when it comes to the maintenance, especially when the days are hot, I just can’t get myself out there to do it regularly.

Do you mulch your vegetable beds? I saw a post once about landscaping fabric, do you reuse it? What about Lucy? My dogs would probably shred landscape fabric. Is there a tool you love for weeding or is my only option to suck it up and get out there and weed the beds?

~Oliva

Gardening in hot weather is no fun at all that’s for sure, so I try to get out to the garden bright and early to tackle the weeds. Which of course is easier said than done some weeks. 😉 I don’t know…. I think you’ve just got to do the best that you can and try not to beat yourself up about it too much.

You asked about landscape fabric. A couple of houses ago we placed landscape fabric pretty much around the entire backyard and then tossed a little bark over the top. Did it keep the weeds away?

You betcha!!! Do Lucy mess with it? Nope. Not even once. I can’t say enough good things about landscape fabric. That being said, I probably won’t be using it here at our new place. This fall we plan to mulch the garden and flower beds with wood chips once the leaves drop.  Every property is a little different, but if the area you want to lay landscape fabric isn’t too big, I say go for it.

As far as my favorite weeding tool goes…. I probably use my Flexrake the most.

Have a question for me? Submit them HERE and I’ll try to answer them.

Have a great weekend everyone,

~Mavis