Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts: 50 Easy-to-Grow Plants for the Organic Home Garden or Landscape

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Rhubarb tastes best when baked or added to jams or jellies. I make a delicious strawberry-rhubarb jam in the spring and a sour cream rhubarb pound cake that everyone loves. You can easily add a rhubarb plant or two in an empty garden bed spot. You can grow bush cherry cultivars in pots. This fruiting plant prefers a mild climate but fluctuating temperatures and drought can damage the plant. Grow cherry in well-draining soil composed of organic matter. 12. Aronia Berry Plant Grow Harvest Repeat: Grow a Bounty of Vegetables, Fruits, and Flowers by Mastering the Art of Succession Planting

This semi-evergreen to deciduous shrub grows up to 6-10 feet tall. Sweet-tart fruits are juicy that can be consumed fresh or cooked. Hardy in zones 3-7, but some says it’s hardy in zone 2 as well. Lingonberry ( Vaccinium vitis-idaea)

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Once common in coastal regions from the mid-Atlantic states to Canada, Beach Plums have been wiped out by coastal development and population explosions. It is rare in many states. Cornelian cherry shrubs are slow-growing; it takes up to 10 years to reach the maximum height of 15 feet. They need full sunlight to partial shade with well-draining soil in the acidic to slightly alkaline range (5.0 to 8.0). This hardy vine produces lemon-musk scented blooms and light green fruits with a tart apricot flavor. Grow the tree in full sun in the northern parts, and little dappled afternoon shade is good in southern hot locations. The fruit can be eaten raw or used in jams and jellies. 5. Plums living4media The second plant is the familiar almond. If you have disease problems with peaches, plums or cherries, think twice. If you have room for a few large trees, consider growing a few Dunstan blight-resistant chestnuts, and helping the restoration of the great American chestnut. Or plant pecans, choosing varieties suited to your location. Wait up to ten years for nuts. One of the easiest fruit bushes for beginners is gooseberries; they’re underrated and too often forgotten. They grow well in most soils, self-pollinate, prune easily, and produce large harvests. What’s not to love?

Most importantly, grapes need a support system, typically an arbor, for the vines to grow upward. Spend time learning how to properly train the vines if you want to grow grapes successfully. As a member of the walnut family, Shellbark nuts are the largest out of all the trees. With the husk on, the nuts measure up to 2.5 inches in length. The leaves on this tree also are large, stretching up to 22 inches. Shellbarks are slow-growing trees, growing less than 12 inches per year and reaching 60-80 feet at full maturity. Thimbleberries look like raspberries yet wider and flatter. The fruits are soft and delicate and spoil fast after damaging. Damaging and bruising often happens at harvest time, so fresh eating is how most are used. In some states, Chinese chestnut trees are grown regularly, such as Iowa. You have to add at least two different trees to your property to produce an adequate harvest. The trees need healthy, fertile soil with good drainage. Space the trees around 30 feet apart; they grow wide.

Planning your home orchard

While tart, Beach Plums are rich in antioxidants and can be turned into delicious jams. Some use these fruits in cordials and wines. Expect these stone pine trees to bear 20lbs of nuts or more, starting five years after planting. At full maturity, the trees measure 60-70ft. Since they’re self-fertile, only plant one tree until you want tons of pine nuts.

Currants harvest in mid to late summer. They grow areas with full sunlight and a pH range of 5.5 to 7.0. Currant bushes reach 3-6 feet tall, producing large amounts of berries.This book is filled with enthusiasm for growing uncommon fruits and nuts and I can’t agree more. Allyson and Scott give honest assessments of each plant based on years of hands-on experience. Along with the detailed plant and fruit descriptions, I particularly like their ‘Growth Difficulty Rating’ and ‘Taste Profile and Uses’ sections to help readers decide what to grow. They have me dreaming of growing Himalayan chocolate berries and Korean stone pines.” —Charlie Nardozzi, author of Foodscaping This hardy feather-leaf palm has a slow to medium growth rate. During mid-late summer beautiful flower spikes emerge and yield hundred of fruits one month after flowering. The sweet-flavored fruit can be consumed fresh or used in making jam or jelly. 4. Passion Fruit Elderberries are a native plant in North America, growing wild in many parts of the country, and you can grow elderberries as well. They’re among the easiest berries to grow because they tolerate a wide range of conditions, from too wet areas to poor soil. Elderberries won’t tolerate drought. Typically used as a landscape shrub, nannyberry is a bush or small tree that can reach 20 feet tall. It’s a Midwest native plant found in woodlands.