Plant Now, Snack Later: The Sweet Perks of Growing Your Own Fruit

If you’ve ever grown vegetables in the garden, like peppers or tomatoes, or even simple herbs like basil or parsley, you have likely experienced the satisfaction of harvesting the foods you’ve worked to grow. Walking out to the garden to pick fresh tomatoes for salsa or basil to garnish pasta can be deeply fulfilling.  

Unfortunately, this connection to the land is difficult to find, and it keeps getting further and further away from many of us. We rely on the grocery store for virtually all of our food, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not like we all have the space and time to grow all these fruits and vegetables for ourselves. But if you’ve found vegetable gardening rewarding, you may find similar or even greater reward in growing your own fruit. 

The process of growing fruit, particularly from hardy fruiting trees and shrubs, is quite different from growing most common garden vegetables. They’re a much longer-term investment and have a number of care requirements. I won’t sugar-coat it – growing your own apples, blueberries, or other fruits isn’t easy. The plants do require regular, consistent care for years to maximize production. It isn’t the light container gardening on the front porch, with a few flowerpots you water every couple days, and then replace next year.  

If you’re up for the task, however, the rewards are that much sweeter (literally). Growing and nursing a longer-lived plant establishes a deeper connection between the garden and the gardener, and also allows the plants to provide more and more as they grow. It’s one of the best, simplest examples of a long-term investment: you put in the time and work, and the plants give you a bountiful return.  

Adding fruits to the garden doesn’t have to be half a dozen trees that take up half the yard (although it can be if you want). It can be as little as two blueberry bushes in big pots – that's how I started three years ago, and they’re still going strong. Raspberries, though not great in a container, are quite easy once they establish in a sunny corner by the edge of the yard. 

When you’re considering growing fruit trees or shrubs, it’s important to understand that these plants perform a very different role in the garden than the ornamental plants, including the trees and shrubs. The Knock Out rose, for example, was bred to be tough, easy, and beautiful. Its job is, simply put, to look pretty and not die. An apple tree, however, was bred for different characteristics, mainly its apples. This isn’t to say that apples or other fruit can’t be tough, easy, or beautiful, but that they require more deliberate care to help them achieve those things (many fruits, including apples, pears, peaches, and blueberries can compete with the best when it comes to garden beauty). Fruits are specialists, and they require certain conditions to do their job.  

Most of these conditions are common good gardening practices: lots of sun, good soil drainage, open air flow, etc. The key is in knowing the plants’ more specific needs. This could include pollination partners, particular soil conditions, or regular fungal treatments. This is where the experts come in; horticulture professionals like the team at Berns can provide the information and product recommendations that can help you and your plants succeed. 

These are some of the fruit trees and shrubs we carry in the spring, as well as some of their key needs: