Fruit Time!

Check your fruit trees and bushes. All kinds of buds, flowers, and young fruit are showing off this season! Hopefully, you have fertilized this spring already. Another good options to keep in mind when planting fruit plants and trees is to create a fruit guild around your fruit areas.

A fruit guild is basically a way of companion planting around your fruit bearing plants. It creates a self-sustaining environment that helps to support soil health, rid the area of weeds, and deter pests while attracting pollinators. Plants in the guild can also contribute to the nutrition of your fruit plants.

How to do it:

• Plant nitrogen fixers such as clover, lupine (a beautiful summer flower) or vetch to assure your fruit plants have a balanced amount of nitrogen.

• Add comfrey and yarrow that are dynamic accumulators and bring the nutrients to your fruit plants with their deep tap roots.

• Herbs and flowers of all types bring in pollinators.

• Low groundcover plants such as nasturtium ow low growing herbs like oregano and thyme help to mulch the ground and keep in moisture.

• Garlic, onions and chives help to keep away pests.

Many fruit trees are very susceptible to critters that get in the fruit while it is still forming. Instead of spraying chemicals, consider bagging your fruit with net bags that are available online. Here is an example Net Bags

Here are some of the early fruit in my garden:

Cherries. This is a two year old tree. I have two of them. This is the first year I may have some cherries.

Red Gala Apple. Two year old tree. I love how apples start upside down and then fall as they get heavier, to hang on the tree!

A little blurry, but the pinkish at the bottom center is one of the plums on this large tree. This is a three year old tree and gives the best tasting plums!

Raspberries! Love, love, love these! These are Heritage Raspberries. I am trying another species as well this year and, of course the black raspberries. You will never buy store-bought raspberries once you grow your own. But beware- they do not stay in a container. They spread EVERYWHERE!

The beloved peach! I am allergic, but my family loves the jams and peach deserts I make with them. My husband, in particular, likes peach tea made with fresh peaches! I definitely have to bag these because the bugs love getting in them and eating them from the inside out.

Concord grapes are such a joy to grow! They love the sun. These are three year old vines and have become more prolific each year. The tiny grapes here are so cute, and mid summer, become full and ripe with sweet, dark purple grapes. I bag these to, as the birds and I love them equally!

Tied for my favorite, the blueberries. These bushes are 6 years old and still producing well. They love acidic soil and every June provide me a year's worth of blueberries. Some we eat and many we freeze to eat throughout the year and add in muffins, juice, pancakes and waffles!

Wild blackberries! Their vines are sharp and end up entangled everywhere but the berries are so delicious they are worth it. We eat these fresh and also freeze these to have throughout the year! I was enjoying a bowl of them this morning while working in the garden (my hand was the bowl!).

I also have a beautiful fig tree. And if you know me, that while I enjoy the figs and make fig jam with homemade biscuits, my favorite is the fig leaves. They smell like almonds and vanilla and make the best tea! I also have young pear trees that I hope will give me a couple of pears this year! I also have cultivated blackberries. My bees love the flowers and the berries are large and juicy! Strawberries are in various beds and bloom at different time during the spring and summer as I have various species.

I never imagined growing this much fruit, but they integrate so nicely in a garden, it has been easy and I have quickly expanded to including a wide variety of fruit throughout my garden, even in my front yard! It's not too late to add a fruit option to your garden this year. Strawberries grow great in containers, and there are many dwarf size fruit trees that are also container happy!