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

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Many gardeners grow chocolate vines only for the beautiful purple flowers, but they also produce fruits that look like little eggplants in the late summer. These fruits are edible, yet not the most delicious thing. This cold-hardy, deciduous tree needs 140-160 frost-free days and winter chill. The tree grows up to 12-20 feet tall and prefers slightly acidic, well-draining, moist, fertile soil.

Cold climate gardening can seem limiting, and you just can’t grow many common supermarket fruits. That just means you have to get creative because there are literally dozens of delicious cold hard fruits you’ve probably never tried. This book is a delight for the landscaper, plantsperson, and fruit connoisseur. Here are profiles of 50 fruits and nuts, almost certainly including at least one or two you haven’t heard of. Che, akibia, medlar, schisandra. . . they are all resilient, low-maintenance cold-hardy plants for growing in temperate zones. And growing trees is, as Eric Toensmeier points out “one of the world’s highest-carbon forms of gardening and farming.” Grow More Food: A Vegetable Gardener’s Guide to Getting the Biggest Harvest Possible from a Space of Any Size The authors are the founders of the Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in New York’s Hudson Valley, a garden they created to provide inspiration for their work in visual arts. As the garden grew to 11 acres, their main passion evolved into growing and selling ornamental and edible plant collections with a focus on underutilized species, and sharing their gardens with the public through classes and open days. With beautiful and instructive color photographs throughout, the book is also full of concise, clearly written botanical and cultural information based on the authors’ years of growing experience. The fifty fruits and nuts featured provide a nice balance of the familiar and the exotic: from almonds and pecans to more unexpected fruits like maypop and Himalayan chocolate berry. Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts gives adventurous gardeners all they need to get growing.European plums can be grown in cold climates. The key rule to keep the plant healthy is to make sure its branches receive sunlight, so prune the ones that shade the other parts of the tree. Also, plant them in spring, when the frost in your area goes away. Most wild butternuts are threatened because of a disease called butternut canker that’s causing their numbers to dwindle. Trees planted in isolation, however, in areas without butternuts present stand a good chance of reaching fruiting age without becoming infected. One of the things I really love about permaculture is how the design manuals really think outside the box when it comes to perennial plant varieties.

Yes, the fruit itself is edible if you can get over the scent. Most people prefer to eat the nuts inside of the fruit, which are considered a delicacy. Ginkgo nuts look similar to pistachio with a soft, dense texture, but they’re mildly toxic, so eat small amounts at a time. In Japan, Korea, and China, Ginkgo nuts are sold as a seed as the “silver apricot nut.”

Dwarf apples, pears, and some plums are espaliered easily, but most other kinds of fruit trees are not.

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. Native to colder regions in Asia, the Manchurian bush apricot is very hardy. The trees naturally stay small, growing about 12 feet high and 12-18 feet across at the widest point. If you live in a region where you can grow the American Paw Paw, make sure you add one. The fruits have a delicious, creamy fruit, growing on a tree with tropical-looking leaves and gorgeous blooms. You’ll find that the fruits have a custard-like texture, making them perfect for desserts. Honeyberry has a sweet blueberry-like taste, you can eat it raw or in processed form in jams, yogurt, and ice cream. 9. PeachesYou can grow this shrub in any type of soil from acidic to alkaline and sand to clay. The plant favors full sun or partial shade and can also survive in the salty sea air. 7. Pear Nuts, on the whole, are regarded as warm-weather crops. Most commercially grown nuts, such as almonds, cashews, macadamias, and pistachios, are grown in warm climates and native to them. If you are a nut for nuts and live in a colder climate, there are some nut trees that will thrive in zones 3 and 4. While many varieties of peaches are only hardy to zone 5, there are several zone 4 hardy peaches that have recently come on the market.

Nuts fall to the ground when mature. For best quality, gather chestnuts and walnuts and dry them as they fall.

Can Walnut Trees Survive Winter?

Alongside apples, pears, and raspberries, you’ll find mention of Cornelian cherries, lingonberries, beach plums, and spicebush —all manner of food forest crops to keep things interesting in the kitchen year-round. Originated near the town of Airlie in western Oregon, this fruit tree features pink blossoms during spring. Grow this tree in full sun and use well-draining soil. Here’s everything you need to know about growing apple in pots 3. Jelly Palm Many apricot trees are hardy to zone 3, but they’re still not common here in Central Vermont. I asked a nurseryman why, and he told me they don’t do well here because of our wet summers. Apricots are susceptible to fungal diseases, and they do better with less humidity and heavy rains. Nonetheless, we’re trying a few out.