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

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There’s no need to align all the fruit trees in a row as in a commercial orchard. With a little thought, you can fit fruit trees well into your overall landscape design. You can use them in at least six different ways: 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.” Sweet cherries are what you see in the supermarket for fresh eating. It takes between 4-7 years to bear fruit.

Note: This publication doesn’t recommend specific pesticides. Recommendations and regulations change frequently. See your local Extension agent or local garden store personnel. Also, see EC 631, Managing Diseases and Insects in Home Orchards (see “For more information”).In recent years, Ginkgo biloba started to make a name for itself, touted as a remedy for memory loss. The trees produce fruits with a distinct odor, so many people don’t realize they’re considered edible. When the fruits drop to the ground and squash, the unpleasant smell is released. Teaberry plants are native to New England, peaking in mid-October. For years, teaberries were used commercially to make chewing gum, and it’s also been used medicinally for centuries. You can use the berries to make tea and wine as well.

Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts offers practical experience and useful information on a great diversity of species, including a few surprises. A great place to turn for anyone developing a perennial edible landscape, one of the world’s highest-carbon forms of gardening and farming.” —Eric Toensmeier, coauthor of Edible Forest Gardens, author of Perennial VegetablesCloudberry, sometimes called bakeberry, is a creeping plant native to the Arctic and subarctic regions in the north temperate zone. Natives throughout Canada and North America collected these berries for their juiciness. Growing strawberries is an excellent introduction to fruit growing for beginners. They can be used in thousands of recipes, so it’s worth adding a few to your garden.

Cherry plums are a particular group of Asian plum trees, and some are a hybrid between plums and cherries. Prunus cerasifera is a native tree typically grown as a small, ornamental tree that produces fruit if there is another pollinator nearby. The Cornelian cherry (a species of dogwood trees) are a multi-stemmed deciduous shrub with green foliage measuring 2-4 inches long. The shrub produces yellow flowers clusters at the end of winter or early spring, and those flowers turn into edible red fruits. Most importantly, grapes need a support system, typically an arbor, for the vines to grow upward. Spend time learning how to properly train the vines if you want to grow grapes successfully. Grow More Food: A Vegetable Gardener’s Guide to Getting the Biggest Harvest Possible from a Space of Any SizeThe principal variety, Montmor- ency, doesn’t require a pollinizer. Trees are smaller, bear earlier, and have fewer disease problems than sweet cherries. Sweet varieties Beautifully and profusely illustrated, Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nut is impressively and comprehensively informative, exceptionally well written, and thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation. Especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library." — Midwest Book Review Siberian pea trees gained popularity in the permaculture world recently. By September, the seeds are ready, contained in pods; each pod has 4-6 seeds, just like peas. The seeds have a mild pea flavor, but eating them raw isn’t recommended. You can cook them, and it creates a lentil-like seed for dishes.

Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts covers a full range of edible plants for the home landscape—from the familiar to the lesser known to the truly exotic. Highly recommended for its great level of detail. The authors’ deep research into botanical history and descriptions both satisfies my curiosity and makes me want to delve even deeper into the information they provide.” —Robert Kourik, author of Sustainable Food Gardens and Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally Our permaculture homestead is in a cold zone 4, with temps that occasionally dip as low as -27 F in the winter. While we won’t be harvesting mangoes anytime soon, there are still plenty of options for temperature climate permaculture food forest plantings.After planting, expect it to take 2-3 years before you receive any sizable harvest, but they’re worth the wait. While waiting, blueberry bushes are attractive, with leaves turning several shades in the fall. Chinese chestnut trees are a deciduous tree that grows nuts you can eat through September and October. While similar, these are different from the American chestnut trees that, unfortunately, have been destroyed. My great-great-grandmother planted grapevines when she became a mother, and those same grape vines are growing and prolific today. The plant is over 100 years old and, because they’re well-tended, produce a sizable harvest each year. Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts is a one-stop compendium of the most productive, edible fruit-and nut-bearing crops that push the boundaries of what can survive winters in cold-temperate growing regions. While most nurseries and guidebooks feature plants that are riddled with pest problems (such as apples and peaches), veteran growers and founders of the Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano, focus on both common and unfamiliar fruits that have few, if any, pest or disease problems and an overall higher level of resilience. Expect these stone pine trees to bear 20lbs of nuts or more, starting five years after planting. At full maturity, the trees measure 60-70ft. Since they’re self-fertile, only plant one tree until you want tons of pine nuts.