This one was getting pretty good for a while, but now we must all be spending too much time working in our gardens to post here. I'm surprised how slow it's been since summer hit.

These days, I spend more time in the Rocky Mountain Gardening forum here on GW. There are several Utahns who post there, and the Colorado people deal with similar climate issues. It's a good community of gardeners.

I am still here. I only visit Garden Web about once a week now. To busy with other stuff. What happened to songbirdmommy? She kept this forum going for a long time. Maybe it is just back to that Utah attitude that I dis-like so much.

Bill

I still browse here, along with the Rocky Mountain Gardening, Fruits, and Lawncare forums. I've also been taking an interest in citrus. Did you know that, for the most part, citrus seeds are true to the parent? Not the case with most other fruit (apples, peaches, etc). I've got a valencia orange start that I purchased, but I think I will add a key lime from seed and maybe a lemon. In time (at least a couple of years) it will be good to have lime and lemon on demand (in season, of course) and the scent from the leaves/blossoms until then...

Cycler, I assume you'll be bringing those citrus trees indoors for the winter? Or do you have a greenhouse?

By the way, did you get any cherries this year? I got my first good crop of them in June. Didn't spray enough to keep all the worms out, though.

Stevation,

You mean I can't grow citrus outdoors in Utah? JK. I have a second story room with a large south-facing window that I turned into my seedling/green-room. It gets really hot in the summer though, so there's nothing there right now except the orange.

I came across this site about geodesic greenhouse kits, that's really got me tempted, except for the price... starting at over $4K for 110 sq ft floor area. My sister always built geodesic domes with our nieces and nephews out of toothpicks and gumballs, so I was curious to see the greenhouse design. It's an "off the grid" system so I was fascinated by it, not to mention they are based in Colorado so they know what cold winters are like. They use a lot of insulation, under-plant-bed air ducts powered by solar cells, automated opening panels and a huge water tank to keep temperatures moderate in the summer and winter.

As for the cherries, I think anything that started to develop quickly fell off the "older" cherry tree, but at least it has kept it's leaves and there are no bugs ...now that I know what a cherry leaf looks like! It still looks pretty weak to me overall. Also, something attacked the "new" cherry tree and ate off most of the newest growth, but it seemed to recover while I was out of town with more new growth.

Here is a link that might be useful: Geodesic greenhouse

I have an orange tree in a large pot that stays out on the patio all winter. I wrap it with white christmas lights in the fall and then if its forcasted to drop below freezing (happens a few times each winter) I plug the chrismas lights in and leave them on overnight. The slight warmth prevents my tree from freezing :)
I deal with a lot of fruit drop in the summer though because of the dry heat :(

There is a lady in town with an orange tree planted by her front door that is about 12 feet tall by 10 feet wide. Im jealous :)