Sharing all of the fresh and delicious fruits we're growing in our garden this year including a wide variety of berries, watermelon, a few fruit trees, plus some unexpected surprises. Most of these are being grown in containers proving you can fruit in a small space.
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Welcome to the fourth and final week of "what we're growing in our garden this summer." We're wrapping things up with the sweetest plants of all - fruit! Our fruit plant collection started off small last spring. This year, it's grown significantly (thanks to partnering with FastGrowingTrees). We have a crazy variety of berries, a couple fruit trees, and some unexpected additions growing in our yard.
There's nothing more fun - and tasty - than walking into your backyard and picking fruits from your own bushes and vines. The fruit is fresher, juicier, and packed with flavor. This year, it's the first year that some of our blueberry bushes produced fruit. The berries have been so good that they've hardly made it into the house after picking them.
All of our fruit is being grown in containers at the moment, but I hope to add more berries or small fruit trees to a patch of grass in our yard towards fall. In the meantime, we've been enjoying the berries we've picked so far this season and look forward to harvesting the other fruit varieties we're growing.
Fruit We're Growing in Our Garden this Year
Meyer Lemons
I bought this Meyer lemon tree from a garden center early last year. It was outside during the summer and inside during the winter. This year, it's doubled in size and we had our first lemon blossoms on it. Unfortunately, the blossoms - and a teeny-tiny lemon - got knocked off during a strong storm.
Hopefully, the tree adjusts well to the summer heat, plus the feedings we've been giving it (citrus trees need regular fertilizing). I'd absolutely love to have my own lemons - especially the sweeter Meyer variety.
Coratina Olives
Olives are botanically considered a fruit. An olive tree was one of the plants on my wishlist this year and I found the Coratina variety at a garden center my mom and I visited last month. It's a variety that can be grown in the ground or a container. And while we won't have olives for at least another couple years, its foliage is a pretty addition to the deck, and will look nice in the house during the winter months.
Peanuts
Did you know that peanuts are also botanically considered a fruit? We're growing them this year all because of a squirrel. I found a whole peanut starting to sprout in a pot (thanks squirrel!) and decided to plant it with some other peanuts. They've really taken off!
Now, we wait for them to flower and produce peanuts in the soil. One single peanut can produce 30-50 peanuts! The birds - and squirrels - I feed are going to be very happy!
Strawberries
We moved our strawberry plants from a large container to their own little patch earlier in the spring. So far, we've gotten a nice amount of strawberries off of them. Still pretty small in size, but hopefully the plants are just adjusting to their new home. I'm hoping that once they're reestablished, we'll have even more, slightly larger strawberries in our patch.
Duke Blueberries
We planted Duke blueberries last spring. I wanted fresh blueberries in the yard and this variety is cold hardy and produces bigger berries. Last year, the plant was establishing roots. This year, we've gotten so many large, delicious berries off of this plant! In fact, I'm actually thinking about adding another one of this blueberry bushes to the yard just because they're that good!
Midnight Cascade Blueberries
One of the first plants I ordered from FastGrowingTrees was Midnight Cascade blueberries. It's better to have more than one blueberry bush in your yard since it'll help the bushes produce higher yields of fruit. This berry variety stays compact so it can be grown in hanging baskets and smaller containers.
I had an urn planter to fill and planted these blueberries in it. I wasn't expecting much from the berries since it's the first year growing, but I've actually been finding small, but sweet berries growing on it. I can't wait to see how much we get off of this berry bush next year!
Pink Lemonade Blueberries
This is another blueberry bush I found on FastGrowingTrees. For a little extra variety, these Pink Lemonade blueberries stay a pinkish color when ripe. They're said to taste sweet with a slightly tart taste, giving them that "lemonade" name.
I don't expect fruit from this plant this year. It's going to spend the first year in our garden establishing roots and getting strong. But I look forward to hopefully picking berries off of this plant next year.
Stevens Cranberries
While I was shopping for plants on FastGrowingTrees, I came across Stevens Cranberries. It's a compact cranberry bush that's perfect for container gardening. The bush will eventually produce sweet and tart berries in mid-fall. I cannot wait to make my own fresh cranberry sauce!
Lingonberries
Adding lingonberries to our yard was an impulse decision that came from a random craving for lingonberry jam. So I ended up finding a live plant off of Etsy. The Red Candy variety I'm growing is very compact and doesn't need an extra large pot to grow in.
The berries are sweet and tart and contain loads of antioxidants. My plant is already flowering and while I can't wait to try these berries right off the bush, I'm really looking forward to making my own jam with them. A little lingonberry jam swirled into Greek yogurt is such a treat!
Captivator Gooseberries
Just like the lingonberries, I got a random craving for gooseberries one day and decided that I needed my own bush. So, once again, I found a plant on Etsy. I ended up with the Captivator gooseberry variety. It's cold hardy, has less thorns on it as other gooseberries, and produces sweet, red berries. We won't have berries for another couple of years, but I'm happy to have the plant growing in our yard.
Blackberries
We also have wild berries that popped up underneath our deck a few years ago. It's such a crazy spot for them to grow, but they come back year after year and actually produce fruit. Under one corner of our deck, we have a small blackberry bush. The thorns are wicked, but the berries are good.
Raspberries
We also have wild raspberries growing underneath our deck. There are actually a few of these bushes growing so we get a really decent amount of berries from them. I end up freezing a lot of them to use in jams and baked goods.
Bonanza Patio Peach Tree
Another one of my FastGrowingTree finds was this Bonanza Patio Peach Tree. I just thought it would be really cool to have fresh peaches in the yard. It's a container-friendly variety. And the plant doesn't seem to be doing much at the moment, it's establishing a root system and looks like it's just about to sprout some nice, green foliage. We should have peaches within a couple of years.
Olympian Figs
I bought a small fig tree late last summer. After such a harsh and brutal winter, I don't think the plant had enough time to adjust and establish a good root system. I put it out of its misery and bought a new Olympian fig tree in the spring. This little tree already has a fig on it, which has me hopeful for even more fruit during the growing season.
Sugar Baby Watermelon
One of the fruits I'm most excited to have growing in our yard again is watermelon. We grew the small Sugar Baby variety last year and it was so good that I knew I wanted to grow them again. This is a compact watermelon variety that can easily be grown vertically. The watermelon itself has bright pink flesh and is super sweet. I could honestly finish one of these watermelons all by myself.
So that's everything! It's funny seeing everything we're growing in writing because there's just so much. And we're growing it all in your average suburban backyard. This just proves that with the right planning and knowledge, you can grow an amazing variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers with just a small amount of space.
If you want to see how everything is filling in and starting to produce, make sure you're following me on Instagram. I share a lot of garden updates on that account.
