We've talked about fruit for the edible landscape here before, but I think it warrants another mention. So often fruits seem to be forgotten when it comes to gardening, perhaps because they seem a little more difficult to grow than annual vegetable plants like lettuce and tomatoes. But with a little planning and some basic tools in your gardening knowledge toolshed, you can have great success growing delicious fruits in addition to all those veggies, herbs and flowers. I wanted to remind you of a few links that will really help you plan and maintain fruit plantings in your edible landscape. They're produced by the University of Minnesota, but will apply to gardens in many areas around the country. Oh, and I also want to point out the new page tab up above that will be devoted to fruit info. That way you won't have to search and search through the blog for it. Enjoy!
Selected fruit varieties for Minnesota gardens
Strawberries for the home garden
Apples and pears in Minnesota home gardens
Currants and gooseberries in the home garden
Blueberries for home landscapes
Raspberries for the home garden
Hardy kiwifruit in Minnesota gardens
Container gardening with fruit
Hi Emily. I notice that you haven't listed lingonberries at all. Is there a reason that they aren't included? My husband and I were thinking of putting some in this year. We like the idea of a low-growing evergreen that bears wonderful fruit. We live in the Quad Cities, IL region.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much!
Nicole
Hi Nicole, I'm SO glad you mentioned lingonberries. The only reason I haven't mentioned them is because I haven't gotten around to growing them yet. But thanks to you I'll include them in my edible landscape demo garden this year. They would make a great groundcover! Lingonberry will be plenty hardy in your area. The main thing you need to be sure of is soil pH. Lingonberry is in the Vaccinium genus, along with blueberry and cranberry, and all of these require acidic soil. So you'll want to mix in peat and possibly some elemental sulfur when you plant, depending on the pH of your soil. You may want to give them a small annual dose of an organic acid fertilizer as well. Mulch the plants with a few inches of extra peat, partially decomposed sawdust or bark mulch. Other than that I understand they're very easy to grow. Make sure to pull any weeds until the plants are well-established. After that, your lingonberry plants will likely be dense enough to prevent weeds. The flowers are mostly self-fertile, but they'll produce more fruit if you have two different varieties. They can be grown in full sun or partial shade. Here's a nice growing guide from UMass. Good luck with your lingonberries. Let me know how it goes! Happy growing. :)
ReplyDelete