Growing Your Own Fruit
With the economy as it is, maybe you have thought about growing your own food, including putting in your own fruit trees. Growing your own fruit is fun, but there are a few things to know about the process. First, you need to decide what type of fruit you want. To get your tree to pollinate may require planting two fruit trees, ideally fifteen to twenty feet of each other. The two fruit trees do not need to be the same. For example you can plant Macintosh apples and Galas. If you buy a tree that is labeled to be self-pollinating, it is still better to veer on the safe side by planting more than one variety. Also, you will want to plant your trees in either the spring or fall. And remember, if you are planting seedlings, it could take a few years before it starts to produce fruit. To give your fruit tree a healthy start, dig your hole about 18″ in depth and with a pitchfork, fork the bottom and sides of the hole to loosen the soil. Now place some compost at the bottom of the hole and then shovel a little dirt back into the hole. Now you can set your tree in the hole with the root ball on top of the mound you have now created. Spread roots evenly in all directions. Now fill your hole with soil and press the ground down gently with your foot. Check that the tree is vertical. Be sure to ‘overfill’ the hole so the soil is an inch or two above ground level. The soil will compress when watered, and settle to ground level.It may be necessary to stake your tree, this will help keep it stable during windstorms. Tie your tree to the stake with a rubber tie or piece of cloth. The tie should be loose so as not to girdle the tree. You also want to allow plenty of room for the trunk to grow and thicken. Now water your tree thoroughly and pack the soil again. You can now apply shredded bark mulch or pine needles to the circle around the tree to discourage weed growth and help the soil remain a consistent temperature.As you wait for your fruit tree to grow and mature you can give it some extra help by maintaining much around the base of the tree, fertilize it with any lawn fertilizerin the spring and in the fall, and protect its tender, emerging branches from deer, mice and other wildlife.In the spring of the second year, your tree may produce some flowers, which, if left on would develop into fruit. It is better to pinch these flowers off and let the tree have another full year to develop its root system.Once you are ready to let your tree bear fruit, when the fruit gets to be about the size of your thumbnail, you may want to thin it out some. If you let your fruit grow to closely together it will not get as big in size as you may like. Unless freezing spring temperatures reduces the number of viable fruit blossoms, your fruit trees will set more fruit than they can grow to optimum size. These overabundant number of fruitlets will compete for limited plant resources—this is why you will want to thin. Individuals who grow fruit for a hobby say they experiment with numbers of fruit removed and thinning timings. A “rule of thumb” is to space peaches six inches apart and apples six to eight inches apart, leaving only one apple per spur. Since an apple tree can develop an alternate bearing habit (a heavy crop of small fruit one year followed by no or few fruit the next), it is important to thin within a month after bloom. With experience, you will learn to balance crop load to tree growth.Growing fruit trees is not only a fun challenge but in the end, is, well, quite fruitful.
Fruits to grow in your Garden from A (Apple) to Z (Zest)
A is for Apple, the fruit of autumn that grows on trees and is delicious fresh, in pies, or as cider.
B is for Blueberry, that are indeed berries which are blue and grow on bushes both low and high.
C is for Cranberry, the tart red fruit that is grown in bogs and made into juice or a jellied sauce.
D is for Date, the sweet fruit that grows up near the top of date palm trees.
E is for Elderberry, which grows on shrubs and is used to make wines, cordials, and marmalade.
F is for Fig, which grow on the small Ficus carica tree.
G is for Grapes, which grow on vines and can be eaten fresh or made into wine.
H is for Honeydew Melon, which are sweet green melons that grow on vines.
I is for Inedible, which some fruits are including Holly, Mistletoe, Privet, and, Wahoo.
J is for Jam, which can be made from the pulp and juice of many fruits including strawberries and blueberries.
K is for Kiwifruit, which are the bright green berry from woody Actinidia deliciosa vines.
L is for Lemon and Lime, which are both acidic citrus fruits used to flavor many foods.
M is for Mango, a fruit with bright orange flesh that is grown on trees in tropical regions.
N is for Nectarine, which is actually a cultivar of Peach without the fuzzy skin.
O is for Orange, the citrus with varieties like navel for eating and Valencia for making juice.
P is for Peach, the sweet yellow and red fruit of summer that gives the state of Georgia it’s nickname.
Q is for Quince, which grown on trees and generally must be cooked before eaten.
R is for Raspberry, the delicate red berry that grows on prickley vines.
S is for Strawberry, the red fruit of early summer that grow on small plants with runners.
T is for Tangerine, the small bright orange sweet citrus with thin easily peeled skin.
U is for Ugli Fruit, which is a tangelo hybrid grown in Jamacia.
V is for Vinegar, which is often made from apples or grapes.
W is for Watermelon, the large green melons of summer with bright sweet red flesh.
X is for X, as in cross, where two fruit varieties are bred together in hopes of making a better fruit.
Y is for Yangmei, a fruit native to China that is eaten fresh, dried, canned, fermented, or in juice.
Z is for Zest, which are strips of citrus peel used in preparing a variety of foods and drinks.
See more resources for buying and growing Fruit Bushes and Trees with listings of local garden centers and specialty mail order nurseries at www.GardeningWithLarry.com.
Garden Fencing Solutions For Growing Vegetables
Things were going great in the early stages. I had just recently started growing vegetables in my back yard and things were moving along very well. Certain vegetables were growing somewhat slowly, and I didn’t expect things to be so smooth forever, but I had faith things would turn out well no matter what obstacles I would have to face. It wasn’t long before I faced one of the first setbacks in cultivating a vegetable garden and discovered that I would have to put in garden fencing.
I had grown vegetables in the past but it was a communal garden and it was ages ago so when the rabbits started to ruin my garden, I was totally caught off guard. Luckily, because of my experience, I not only knew the answer was garden fencing but I also knew exactly what kind of garden fencing was required.
Straightaway I went and purchased the wire garden fencing and had it put in as soon as possible. It’s not necessarily a job you need to hire someone for as anyone with basic construction skills should be able to handle it. Personally my construction skills could use some work but luckily I had the help of my husband. The first thing we did was we checked the border of the garden to determine what length of garden fencing we needed. I decided to include a somewhat larger area than the actual vegetable garden because I knew I would be adding more vegetables when things were under control. Now what we used was wire garden fencing with a green vinyl coating. It wasn’t panels but a rolled up sheet of fencing that was unraveled around metal posts. We had each post installed on the border of the garden and then had the wire fencing affixed around the garden.
One thing you may want to be sure of is that there are no spaces within the garden fencing. Shortly after having the fence put in, I went into the yard to discover a rabbit trapped inside of the garden. The rabbit must’ve gotten in through a gap but couldn’t find its way out! What we did was check the fencing and make sure all gaps were gotten rid of and we also made sure that the fencing was firm against the ground so that no rabbit would be able to sneak under the garden fencing either.
The wire garden fencing turned out great and not only did it keep animals from ruining my garden, but some vegetables ended up developing better with the fence as support. Wire garden fencing is very functional and practical but after we had it for a while I found some time to have it replaced. In the end I put in a much more visually appealing one that still protects my vegetables. Not all garden fencing can be used for keeping rabbits away from your vegetables but there is garden fencing available that can do the job of protecting vegetable gardens and is also much nicer looking than simple wire garden fencing.
