Bitters, Lime and Lemon

Ventured out to the backyard the other day (don't get me wrong, my backyard is not very big. It  was just a matter of braving the cold to open the backdoor once we huddled inside to warm up upon our return from Darwin).
With a glimmer of sunshine, I was delighted to see just how wonderful my two Meyer lemons and two lime trees had fared while I wasn't looking.
There were lemons and limes everywhere.
It's amazing what your garden gets up to in the chilly months when you take your eyes off it.
What a delight. I had planted the trees about eight years.
Heavily pregnant, with the birth of my third child, Lucy, imminent I was madly nesting.
"Come on," I cajoled my husband. "Let's get this backyard sorted."
There was the small matter of a great block of concrete buried underneath the garden bed. It was so big we feared there must be a body buried underneath it. We think it may have been a clothesline foundation or some such thing. But it took many hours of jackhammering for it to be removed.
We got some nice herringbone brick paving and left a garden bed about a metre wide along the back fence.
We nourished that old soil like we were feeding a sickly child. Mushroom compost, cow manure and pea straw.The plan had been to espalier the trees.
I planted them carefully, tying branches against the lines of wire we had attached to the fence. It felt mean to chop off perfectly healthy branches and force the remaining branches against the wall. But it was inspired by the likes of garden designer Paul Bangay. In front of the citrus trees I planted a row of sweetly scented gardenias. In front of them a low hedge of hidcote lavender bushes. The garden flourished. But all this time later some things have fallen by the wayside. For instance, I couldn't bear to chop my verdant lemons and limes and they started to grow a little bit crazy. The gardenias flourished for a long time but then they lost their light source when the lemons and limes went a bit wild. They started looking spindly. Some died. I re-potted a few into big tubs. Then the lavender looked leggy with big woody bits. That had to go, replaced by a hedge of rosemary. That, too, looked lovely for a while. These days. The lemons and limes rule. And I'm OK with that. I have planted a few hellebores underneath them. They are still finding their feet. But what to do with all that citrus?