Edibles in the Garden

[greenstorm]

So one of my intentions for both yards, front and back, is to have them produce food. The back will be a ot of veggies, while the shrubby stuff will need to find spots in front. Some things I want to put in:

o strawberries
o currants
o kiwis
o blueberries
o pawpaws
o rhubarb?
o gooseberries?
o native huckleberries
o cherries?

I'm actively hunting for more things that will work in the area. Know of anything? Doesn't have to be a berry/fruit, but I am looking for perennial plantings.

Comments

[darthmaus.livejournal.com]

Mmm, edibles.

I approve. I look forward to eating them. But what's a pawpaw?

[greenstorm.livejournal.com]

A custardy-like thing. Think vaguely bananaish, maybe? It's a weird tropical fruit, at any rate. :)

Edible Landscaping

[http://users.livejournal.com/_greenwitch_/]

Much as I usually avoid Walmart as an unecessary evil, I must mention that last year (when I had a garden), I found currant and gooseberry plants in their bins for a steal. The plants did wonderfully, and I had a few handfulls of fruit during their first summer! Be a little more careful about the blueberry plants - but that doesn't mean going to a nursery.....I found mine at a grocery store for seven bucks each (some of the nursery stock - same size was twenty plus), and I got fruit from those as well. Get at least two different varieties of blueberry, since they need to cross-polinate to produce fruit. Many books suggest getting three different plants in case one plant dies or fails to flower. Keep in mind that blueberries and huckleberries (and I think gooseberries) like acidic soil, so if you have any evergreens, azaleas or rhodos in the yard, they'll all be happy in the same soil. I don't know if you'll have much luck finding huckleberry plants, but if you're interested I'd be happy to have company while I do my picking this year (the jam is awesome!)

If you're looking for some perenial crops, you might also try jerusalem artichoke and maybe an asparagus patch. How about raspberries and dwarf fruit trees? It depends how much space you have.

Ask around your neighbourhood or family for rhubarb - most people that have it want to give some of the offshoots away, and for cherries, try the shrub varieties instead of trees - their production is just as good, and it gives you another level in the garden under the tree foliage. For information on perenial/edible landscaping you might want to find the book 'Gaia's Garden' - I still need to order a copy myself. It describes how to work with your yard/acreage whatever to build levels of foliage, plant companion plants, and encourage composting and benefical life in the garden. I have other books if you're interested.

I could go on forever, but I think you were just looking for some suggestions....

Happy planning
L

Re: Edible Landscaping

[greenstorm.livejournal.com]

I have the blueberries already, three varieties. I know pawpaws need multiples, to crosspolinate, as well. I'm not sure if there are enough cherries in the neighborhood to get good pollination? I didn't know that about them, but I definitely want one Very Big Tree and don't have room for more than three small ones total (one of which is a magnolia) so I don't think I'll be getting into many fruit trees. Well, maybe some on the back patio in tubs...

That's another plan, though, later.

I don't have room for asparagus, I don't think, but I really want jerusalem artichokes. Do you have a local source? I'm also looking for variegated horseradish.

I don't like raspberry plants much, and I'm going for an ornamental-style garden in front, so...

Where do you pick your huckleberries?

It's just a city lot, but keep going with the suggestions! It's neat to hear them, especially from someone who has the same sorts of food-enthusiasms that I do and is in the area. :D

Re: Edible Landscaping

[http://users.livejournal.com/_greenwitch_/]

You could go to the nursery and find a cherry tree that's been grafted with a second variety, so that the one tree cross-polinates itself - and I think you'll need to go to a nursery for the artichokes as well as the horseradish (I've seen pictures, and agree that the variegated is lovely). Keep in mind you have to dig up the plant to harvest the root. As for the huckleberry picking, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.......

Re: Edible Landscaping

[greenstorm.livejournal.com]

Great idea for the cherry. And for horseradish, the young leaves are great in soup and salad, they have that horseradish taste but a little milder. Variegated would look so pretty in a salad against green lettuce. :)

so, like, kiwis

[rainbowk.livejournal.com]

Strangely I have thirteen stalks of kiwi rooting in my kitchen right this minute. I may (or may not) have smuggled them illegally across the border... they're from my friend in Portland.

So, if you'd like a couple cuttings, I'd be pleased to provide them; they seem to be doing pretty well so far.

The catch is that they're clippings from both the male and the female plant, but I can't tell which is which. And you need both or you don't get fruit. So what to do?

Re: so, like, kiwis

[greenstorm.livejournal.com]

I have both a male and a female kiwi plant, bound in pots right now so I can control their size easily and because they were part of my container garden last year.

I guess you just have to plant all of them and see, right? I got flowers but no fruit last year, not sure if it's because I didn't hand-pollinate and it was a weird year, or if the plants weren't in synch, or if it was just a test run flower-wise. I couldn't tell the flowers (male, female) apart either. *sigh*

I suppose they could also have been mislabelled... and I could have two females or two males.