Your Victory Garden II: Planting Fruits

I mentioned Victory Gardens a month or so ago, then I got distracted and didn't do any more on the subject. So, here goes!

Victory Gardens in the U.S. started in World War I, and continued in World War II. People were somewhat slow to put them in, until Eleanor Roosevelt had some of the White House lawn dug up for one.
There were several reasons for them, especially as the war ground on and food rationing started. One was to save commercially-produced foods for the G.I.s. A second was to supplement food choices limited by rationing. And the third was to give people something REAL they could do to support the war effort, even if they were children or the elderly.

We're in a war now, but we're not being asked to do anything other than keep quiet about it. And oh yes, keep spending. But that's not the war and the victory I mean.

Your Victory Garden is a victory over industrial food, GMOs, pesticides, herbicides. It's a victory over climate change and peak oil. After all, the closest you can get food is your own garden. How about a 100-yard diet? The cost for transporting those fruits and vegetables to your refrigerator is your walk from the garden into the house. Nothing could be fresher or tastier than a tomato or a head of lettuce you just picked.

The first few posts will be for people who have a yard that they can plant in. After that, I'll look at some options for renters and apartment dwellers.

So, you have a yard? It's probably planted mostly in grass, which requires lots of water, weed-n-feed to keep down the dandelions (that's herbicide, folks), mowing, fertilizer, etc. etc. Next time I'll discuss turning some of that into garden. But for now, let's look at FRUIT.

You can pay $25 for a beautiful baby fruit tree: apples, plums and cherries do particularly well around here. Plant a baby apple tree carefully, keep the grass out from under it, and take care of it. In a couple of years it will start making apples for you.

We are lucky enough to have three mature apple trees. We're getting 500 pounds of delicious apples from each tree! We pick them and give almost all of them away. If you get semi-dwarf trees, the harvest size will be a little more manageable. We have four plum trees (I planted two, the bear planted two as far as I can tell). One old Montmorency cherry, which has had a number of seedling children also bearing cherries now.

You can grow peaches here in northern Colorado, especially if you put them on the north side of a building, to convince them it's not Spring YET. The big problem with peaches here is that they break dormancy on a warm winter day and get zapped with a frost.

For $100 or so, you can have a nice selection of fruit trees that will feed you, your family, and your neighbors for decades to come. Now THAT's an economical use of your food dollars. They can be worked into your landscaping. Fruit trees are beautiful. They bloom in the spring. They give bee forage.

You can get into more unusual trees too: why stop with apple, peaches, plum and cherry? Pear, mulberry, sweet cherry, mountain ash (pick one with tasty berries), hawthorn; you could try persimmon and pawpaw. And there are nut trees: English and black walnuts do pretty well around here, especially the black walnuts.

You don't need to stop with trees. There are a large number of fruit-bearing shrubs that grow around here, looking even more like landscaping. Nanking cherry, serviceberry, gooseberry, currants (some native), blackberry, raspberry, elderberry, and more. Chokecherry if you like to make jelly or wine. Wild plum grows wild in our yard, and would almost certainly grow in yours. Take a look at the nursery catalogs. Some grapes grow well here too, either Concord or table grapes. And you can plant a few hazelnut shrubs to provide yourself some nuts in a few years.

As our Plant Hardiness Zone moves from 4 bordering on 5, to 5 bordering on 6, lots of new choices are opening up. See the new plant hardiness zone map here. You can also enter a zip code and get your hardiness zone on this page.

Blueberries are very difficult here (though possible, from what I hear), because they want an acid soil. Likewise cranberries, which like it acid and very damp. But there are so many other choices, you don't have to feel forlorn. Of course, if you live in Massachusetts, Michigan, Maine, etc., not a problem!

Finally, you can plant strawberries on a little plot of land, or in a terrace or a strawberry pot. When have you last tasted a "real" strawberry, bursting with flavor? You won't find that at the store, from California or Argentina or China. They are very easy to grow.

Here are a few of my favorite nurseries:

One Green World
Raintree Nursery
Burnt Ridge Nursery

And there are plenty more good ones. Bsides that, there are a lot of local nurseries that also have nice fruit trees and assorted berry bushes.

There are a large number of excellent gardening books out there. One I particularly like is "Gaia's Garden" by Toby Hemenway. This is a very accessible introduction to Permaculture, which is in part a regenerative landscaping that meets human needs, and much more. See the Permaculture Activist for more on Permaculture; there is a lot of information out there.

When you get your tree or shrub, dig a big enough hole that you can spread out the roots straight. The last thing you want is a circling root. Don't put fertilizer in the bottom of the hole. Fill in the hole with the native dirt the tree will live in. Otherwise you might find that the roots just stay in that little hole where everything is pleasant, and don't move out into the challenging soil around them. Tamp down the soil gently but firmly. Water the newly planted tree or shrub well.

You don't generally need to stake a baby tree. Landscapers do this when they put in a big tree with a small rootball, to keep the poor thing from tipping over. With a more modest tree and good roots, the tree benefits from the slight pushing the wind gives.

Around here, you'll need to do supplemental watering of your new trees or shrubs as they get established, and during dry periods, especially in a winter warm spell. Raspberries and blackberries do best located under other fruit trees, shaded from the hot afternoon sun.

Fruit trees and shrubs are beautiful, easy to care for, and productive. Even a small lot has room for a couple of trees and some shrubs, especially since you can layer the shrubs under the trees. Every patio has room for a strawberry pot or planter. So, open your home and yard to the bounty of Mother Nature this year.