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by Avis Licht
You can have great fruit growing in a small garden. Here are some of my favorite and easy to grow fruits. Each of them has their own particular needs, so be sure to look up which varieties are best for your climate.
Strawberries are at the top of my list. They can be grown in small areas, they can be planted in pots and they can be spread around the garden. Commercially strawberries are one of the most heavily sprayed plants both with herbicides and pesticides. It’s much better to grow your own.
Can you have too many strawberry plants?
If you want a fruit tree for a small space, consider a genetic dwarf fruit tree. They are bred to be smaller without pruning. You can have a full sized apple, cherry, nectarine and more that is only 6 ft tall.
An espaliered tree can be trained to grow against a wall or fence and take up very little room. This requires some real attention and work to keep the tree properly pruned and still produce fruit. But once you learn how, it can be incredibly productive in a small space.
Citrus trees can be grown in large pots in a sunny spot near the house or on a deck. Choose naturally dwarf varieties so that they won’t outgrow their containers.
It's easy to grow citrus in a pot
Citrus are wonderful for the edible landscape because they are evergreen, fragrant, produce fruit and look beautiful. Another winner.
Whenever plants are put in pots, be sure they get enough fertilizer to keep them healthy, and regular water. Pots can dry out quickly because they are exposed to the sun and wind.
Surprisingly, fig trees can be happily grown in pots. Normally a fig will grow quite big, but it can be tamed to fit your small garden in a pot and still be healthy and produce plenty of fruit.
Figs thrive in planting containers
Dwarf blueberries stay small in the ground and are good for container plantings.
These are a few of my favorite fruits for the small edible landscape. Enjoy!
4 Responses to “Fruits for the Small Yard Edible Landscape”
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[…] recently wrote about fruits that you can grow in small yards. At the top of the list was strawberries. Here are some easy tips to get the best fruit from your […]
This was a good one. Okay, now I can’t wait for the spring/summer to come. What is winter doing here!!?? That strawberry bush seriously looks lovely, but why does it have a fence? They don’t climb, do they? If I didn’t have dogs, I was going to mow away all the grass and replace it with strawberry plants. Then, it was going to be heavenly like a fairy tale – walk around in the garden, stoop, pick and eat :-).
Well, you hit the nail on the head. Where my strawberries are now, used to be the lawn. I sheet mulched the lawn (check out sheet mulch post), and planted strawberries,raspberries and more. It is like a fairy tale. We harvest bowls and bowls of strawberries, where once I had to mow the lawn.
The little fence, believe it or not, is to keep out my 70 lb lab/retriever dog. He used to walk into the strawberries and do his doggy do there. With the little fence he just stopped walking through and went around. That’s why I said about dogs, it just depends on their nature, whether they jump over or walk around obstacles.
Is this your strawberry patch? They look wonderful! We’re still learning how to properly care for the Ozark Beauties we planted 2 1/2 years ago. So far we’ve lost nearly half. Can you offer suggestions on how to help them multiply? Thanks!