Hi Josh! Yes, I use FP with every watering. Strangely, the leaves on the main branch have always looked like that. :( I bought the tree at the end of the season and it was a little neglected by then. I thought they would bounce back but never did. I twas hoping that at some point they would drop off and be replaced with healthier ones, but no. Those are the original leaves. I thought for a long while that the tree was not going to make it because of the way those leaves looked. Then it flowered! It appears to have put all its energy into the lower branch and the lemon. I am not too worried seeing how the lower branch looks so healthy. I am just hoping that any new branches and leaves on those branches as a result of my pruning in the spring will look as good as the lower branch does now. I agree with your suggestion. I think I am going to cut back the main stem to just above the second leaf and later remove the lower branch once a canopy is established. I am hoping to train it to a nice standard. But I will wait until later in the spring to do so. I plan on doing a few Espalier and Cordon Apples and Pears in my back yard this summer so I bought a book titled: "The American Horticultural Society Pruning and Training" by Christopher Brickell and David Joyce. (It just came out in paperback in August of 2011. It is an awesome reference! I highly suggest checking it out). There is even a section in there on Pruning a Meyer Lemon whip into a standard, so I am pretty confident that I can do it. :) The descriptions in the book are very clear and helpful. Hope you have a good harvest this winter too! Thanks for the input, it is good to hear from you. Happy new year. ~Jessica Thanks for the suggestion.

Thank you for the Dawn and Dusk tip mehitabel, I am always up early, and it is usually very calm, but in the evening it is usually windy this time of year until after dark. In answer to your post on 'What is blooming', I have nothing blooming at this time, I have a ton of things planted but no blooms at this time. I put out four feederz, as suggested by other members, a colorful windsock, even adding some red florescent tape that we had. I am sure that helped as we are on the very edge of town, and this little guy must have seen my red and decided to stop by. So glad he/she did. I will be watching this evening.

Hi Shaunab, More questions! LOL Is your thyme, creeping thyme? (There are some short upright ones too!) If so, you shouldnt need to ever do much to itexcept to control it to keep it from going all over the place. To do that, just pull or dig it out around the edges where you dont want it to go! If you want more, either transplant them elsewhere, or you can put it in pots to give away to friends, neighborsstrangers on the street! lol Sometimes the creeping thymes will look better if you shear the dead flowers off the top when its done blooming. Just wait and decide when the time comes. Spearmint and bee balmanything in the mint family (you can tell by feeling the stems; anything in the mint family will have a square stemyou can actually feel it and see itthe bigger the stem is the easier it is) is virtually indestructible! I recommend cutting them down to within an inch of the soil. Theyll come back thicker and better than ever. You DEFINITELY did not hurt them! Anything in the mint family is also going to spread EVERYWHERE, so either plant them somewhere where they can happily take over the area, or be prepared to control them from the very beginning. They spread underground, so theyre harder to control than the thyme. The lemon balm, Im not sure about! I dont believe that ones in the mint family, but you still shouldnt have hurt it by cutting it down. I think its another one you can cut all the way down. How far DID you cut these things down? Basil (all kinds) and rosemary arent hardy, and if they were outside all winter, theyre dead! RIP Basil, by the way, is VERY easy to start from seed, so if you want more, just start a few inside in small pots now and put them out after danger of frost. If you do, get seed for red basil too! Its pretty to grow (purple leaves and lavender flowers), and can be used for cooking too! Your sage should be fine too! Sage, btw, is really a salviaSalvia officinalis. How far did you cut it down? It should have been at least partly evergreen, so were you cutting off (not dried up) leaves, or just bare stems? I just cut mine down yesterdaya couple inches above the ground. If you look closely, you should be able to see the little leaf buds getting ready to grow. I have golden and tricolor. Go to this link, scroll down, and click on the links to those 2 to see pictures. Bet youll want them too. Golden and tricolor are sometimes considered not quite as hardy as the regular purple, so I tend to not cut them all the way down over winter. Also, since theyre usually evergreen, it adds interest to the garden over winter. http://www.mountainvalleygrowers.com/salofficinalisgarden.htm Were your pots inside or outside over winter? Things in pots outside can be difficult to overwinter because they tend to freeze and thaw over and over, and that can fairly easily kill things. Its not the cold that kills them, it's the temperature fluctuations. Because of all the snow and the fairly consistent temps, this would have been a better winter than most for things in pots. Its also more difficult to control the moisture in pots outside in winter. You cant leave them dry out all the way, but with the cold temps, its pretty easy to keep them TOO wet too. Your chocolate mint should be ok almost no matter what you do to it! Again, its mint! Put it in a sunny place, keep it wet, and give it a couple weeks. I bet itll be ok. There are a couple different things called "curry," so I dont know what you haveand I bet you dont eitherlolbut as far as I know, none of them are hardy, so if it was outside, youve probably lost it. And sweet marjoram is a "tender" perennial, so its probably gone! And Spanish lavender, Lavandula stoechas really isnt reliably hardy around here either, so its probably a gonnereven if it had been in the ground. Replace it with English lavender this year, Lavandula angustifolia. Munstead and Hidcote are two good varieties. Smaller flowers than Spanish, but at leat it'll come back for you---and reseed all over the place too! I think I got everything! Let me know if I missed something. And, just think, for the things that died, now youve got more room to put something else! Have fun, Skybird

Niiiiice!! Wanna come build some raised beds in my backyard? Grin. I don't have the shoulders or elbows left to do that heavy work any more. You and your wife have done a fabulous job! From your earlier post, I wanted to follow-up and advise that you need to mulch sooner rather than later. The soil is starting to warm up (cool spell next few days notwithstanding) and to keep your soil moist and weed free, mulch is your friend. It'll also break down and keep improving your soil. Remember too that your mushroom compost, while greatly improving your soil over time, isn't much of a fertilizer, so your plants will need food. At this stage in their growth, I use seaweed liquid feed to give the roots a great start. You'll want to consider some kind of food for your little plants. They'll drink it up! And you're right- your 'mater are really too close together. Since you've just planted them, you still have time to move them. Ideally you want 36" between your plants. I push the window a bit and place mine on 28-30" centers, just because I want too many. But you'll have a much better harvest and less disease if you'll move every other one to a place where those babies can GROW. Healthy indeterminate 'maters will vine 8-12 feet in a season, so they'll grow up and over your cages and they need a lot of room to get the nutrients they need and to avoid disease. If I have a chance tomorrow after work to take a photo of mine, I will and post it for you. You're doing great! You're going to have a wonderful garden this year!