News of a window box in New York City
From Bob:
I abhor the idea of using poisonous chemicals in my “garden” – we have a pair of (wild nyc) morning doves that nest and produce 1-2 chicks every yr in a nook above my balcony; there are many bees (especially bumble bees) and the wasps; and we have way too much poison in our environment – I wouldnt add more.
Fyi, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden has a help desk where they recommend non-toxic remedies for garden pests. For example, they suggested the use of Murphy’s Oil to rid scale from citrus and ficus (I had a grapefruit tree that I grew from the seeds of a grocery store grapefruit that I ate, that grew big and beautiful and thrived many years.)
Answer from Pat:
It sounds as if you have a whole farm going outside your own city window. Glad to know it’s an organic one! Thank you so much for the tip regarding the help desl of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Glad to know of that and thanks for the Murphy’s Oil idea too for citrus and ficus scale. Incredible to hear about your grapefruit tree from a seed. Did you grow it in a pot on a roof garden or where? Did it bear fruit? I have often seen lemons in pots in northern France. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette had an Orangerie for them with a glass south wall to keep them warm in winter.
my grapefruit tree never bore fruit (I think there was something about the way commercial grapefruits are produced), but it had tough, firm, deeply green lustrous leaves that gave off the scent of citrus when rubbed, and it grew to be 5′ high
I kept it in a pot indoors.
I also had a potted coffee tree – it *did* bear fruit: a handful of deep red coffee beans every year. I roasted them in my oven – enough for 1-2 cups of coffee (which sadly didnt taste like much – perhaps my roasting technique was lacking).
Both of these lived around 25 years until they succumbed to the ravages of age.