Welcome to Outdoor Wednesday! Thank you Susan for being a lovely Hostess, and allowing me to share my Outdoor "Country Wings" with you and all of the Outdoor Wednesday Bloggers. Please stop by and visit Susan at http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com

My OutDoor Wednesday is a beautiful story that will take you to the most magnificent tree you have ever seen. The door banged loudly as the little feet came through the front door. A child voice came straight to the kitchen. "Mom, Mom wait until you see this." She held in her hand a paper towel, and when the paper towel was unfolded, there lay a lemon seed.

She said she was going to grow a tree for our yard. A yard that was yet to be, as we were still renting a house from the move from Oklahoma. The little girl in the story is my Daughter, Heidi, and she was in the 4th grade. At school she was given a lemon seed, and she was convinced that she herself was going to grow this beautiful, magnificent tree that would provide lemons and shade for all of us. I smiled and told her sure we could do this. She laid the seed upon the paper towel and wet the paper towel, and kept it wet for days. One morning when she went and looked, the seed had sprouted, and there were two little tiny leaves. I got into the cupboard, found an old small plastic butter container, put some soil from the yard into the container, and we planted her seed.

Now she watered this plant and loved this plant. She even talked to this plant, because she had read somewhere this made plants happy, and she wanted the plant happy so it would produce this wonderful magnificent tree that her little heart so desired. Her brothers laughed and laughed at her, telling her she wasn't going to ever grow anything, that she couldn't even keep a fish alive. Ofcourse I didn't have the heart either to tell her that this probably was not going to happen. She was so happy, and I figured she would tire of it, it would die, and the butter container and dead plant would go to the trash. That did not happen. Pretty soon, the little tree had outgrown the small plastic butter container. I got back into the cupboard and found a larger one. We replanted the little tree. It grew and grew and grew and grew, until one day we had to plant the tree in a 5 gallon bucket.

The tree remained there, and Heidi continued to love that tree and nourish that tree. Tony and I finally decided it needed some plant food so we bought nourishment for the tree. It thrived in the Arizona sun. When the afternoons were hot, we would move the tree to a shady place, when the winter came and we had freeze warnings (and yes, we do occasionally get a freeze warning), the tree was moved inside where it would be safe. 6 years went by before that tree would be planted into a yard, our yard to be exact. The first thing to be planted, was Heidi's lemon tree. She was so proud of that tree. It needed the ground to mature and grow, as the bucket had limited its growth. With Heidi's approval we chose a special place in the backyard for the tree. We went to the nursery and bought some new plant growth soil to work in the ground. While there, we talked to the nursery attendant about the tree. He laughed and laughed. He said you know this tree may grow, and it will provide shade, but you will never have lemons without a graft, it just "Ain't gonna happen." Ofcourse we were disheartened as the tree had been grown with so much love, and had been nourished so, we just never dreamt it had to be some special process to make it produce lemons. Time went on and our precious tree continued to grow and thrive. Heidi grew up, got married and had (2) girls of her own. They played in the shade of that lemon tree. The one that Heidi said one day would be magnificent. Yes it was magnificent. It kept us shaded many a day, and withstood several really bad monsoon storms, that almost laid that tree over on the ground. One day while doing dishes in the kitchen, I thought I saw something in our tree, and I couldn't imagine what in the world it was.

When I went into the backyard, there upon the tree was (1) lemon. Yes (1) lemon came upon that tree. I called Heidi that night and she and her two girls, Destiny and Isabel, came over and we took pictures of them under that tree, Heidi holding the lemon that was never supposed to be. We were so excited to be able to get 1 lemon from the tree. The next Spring, we had over 2 dozen lemons. Now we are up to 100+ lemons that come off that tree two times a year. I have made lemon pies, lemon cakes, lemon cookies, lemonade. My husband and I both have hauled boxes of lemons to work for co-workers to share, as we now have way more than we can use. It is so amazing to me to look at that tree, and I chuckle inside as the guy at the Nursery, said "It ain't gonna happen, no way." Boy was he stupid. A little love and water, and prayers brought us one MAGNIFICENT lemon tree.

This picture I took of the top area so that you could see how big the tree has grown. It is such a big conversation piece among our family. Heidi's Magnificent Tree. The picture below is of one of the limbs showing the lemons that are on the tree now. We are just waiting for them to ripen again.

I hope you have enjoyed my story today for Outdoor Wednesday, and that you have enjoyed your time here in my little piece of heaven in the desert that I call home. Please stop by again soon and see what else I am up to. I love to have company, and remember: "Backdoor Guests Are Best". Country Hugs, Sherry