June Garden Update

A month ago when I posted my May Garden Update,

I mentioned that I was having problems with my lemon tree.

Something was eating the leaves and I didn't know what!

Just days after posting the May Garden Update, 

I figured it out when I spotted a green little culprit!

I now knew what was eating the darn leaves!!!

See that lil sucker???

No wonder I couldn't find him for a long time!

He just blended right in with the leaves!

I'm not normally squeamish about bugs,

but this time I was for some reason!

I was scared it'd jump or fly at me and I'd freak out.

So I tried to use tongs and scissors to remove the leaf it was on,

with the hopes that I'd just remove the lil sucker from my tree.

I tried, more than once, but sadly I failed.

Shortly after, I recruited a neighbor kid to help me out.

He's in elementary school and bugs are no big deal to him.

He wasn't hesitant at all and went to work helping me.

He tried to pull the leaf the bug was on off of the tree.

The bug wasn't having it and just moved to another leaf!

So he tried cutting the leaf off and the bug moved again!!!

I was frustrated and just wanted the darn bug gone.

So when the neighbor kid asked "Can I just cut it in half?",

you can bet that I quickly replied with "YES!"

Two halves of the bug that was destroying my lemon tree!

A little gross, but both halves kept moving for a few minutes.

I'm not usually one to flat out kill bugs, but this one just had to go.

About a week after finding and getting ride of the leaf eater,

I decided that I needed to give a little TLC to my lemon tree.

It just didn't look happy with all the munched on leaves. 

So what'd I do?

Grabbed my pruners and went to town.

All the leaves that were affected would get pruned.

BEFORE PRUNING!

It looks okay from afar,

but close up you can see the damage!

AFTER PRUNING!

I'm aware it currently looks like a sad Charlie Brown tree.

But I'm hoping it starts to fill out again soon!

Shortly after I did all the pruning,

I noticed a few new buds appearing.

I hadn't seen new buds or blossoms in weeks!!!

While the lemon tree was needing some help,

that wasn't the case for my GIANT Christmas Tree.

This thing is huge and only keeps getting bigger!

Can you believe this was once less than a foot tall???

I recently moved it to a more shaded area of my balcony,

and I think it's actually doing even better than before.

While the jalapeno plant is still doing well,

it's not thriving like it was last month.

I keep hoping to see new buds, but I haven't recently.

As a reminder -

I will be blogging about garden updates 

every last day of each month.

It may not be a complete update each month,

but it will be about something in the garden.

So keep coming back to see what I have growing!