Utah Fruit Grower

Tl;dr: strawberries, raspberries, dwarf everbearing mulberry. One of my goals for my garden is to have snackable fruits available all season. I though it would take a lot of different plants with different ripening times to achieve it, but it turns out it only takes 3 plants to have a near-continuous supply of fruits to snack on from your own garden. Small and delicious Alpine Strawberries. 3 low-maintenance perennial plants to have fruit from May to October: Strawberries: Choose day-neutral strawberry varieties (or delicious and tiny alpine strawberries) for fruits that ripen May-June. Strawberries are immediate payoff because they will fruit in the first year. There may be a few extra berries that ripen when the temperatures cool in the fall too. Raspberries: Raspberries can be harvested in June from the second-year canes; this is called the Floricane method of growing raspberries. The canes are biennial so they will die after their second year    and need to be pruned out...

 Lonicera genus fruits Honeyberry, or Haskap, has been growing in popularity as a tasty cold hardy fruit. It's a tart-sweet soft early-ripening fruit. The blossoms are more cold tolerant than most blossoms, so you are unlikely to lose fruit due to a late freeze. And some of the early-ripening varieties can ripen as early as strawberries so it is one of the first fruits you can enjoy in the spring. Honeyberries are one of several subspecies of Lonicera caerulea, or hybrids of those subspecies. Even though these plants have been in breeding programs since 1950 there are still new varieties being created. Lonicera caerulea,  Honeyberry/Haskap USDA zones 2-7 There are a few more Honeysuckle plants that are in the same genus as honeyberry that have edible fruits. They may not be as cultivated for flavor as Honeyberries are and people have told me that some of them have a bitterness (which remains in some types of honeyberries too). But there are also some that are known to be sweet...

 Cold Desert Permaculture Ideas, USDA Zone 6. This is my list of low water (some extremely low water, others just very drought tolerant) and cold hardy (to at least USDA zone 6) plant ideas for a desert permaculture garden. So many permaculture gardens are in tropical or subtropical areas, growing things like citrus and avocados, but not everyone lives in an area that stays warm all year. That's why I have made my lists of cold-hardy perennial fruiting plants for all the gardeners looking for more options in temperate zones. But my own garden, in Utah, would quickly die if I wasn't irrigating it regularly. So that has inspired me to collect a list of cold-hardy plants that are also have low water needs. A garden that you could hypothetically plant in Utah/Colorado/Wyoming and anywhere nearby that will be able to survive for generations. This list includes cactuses, a category that is often overlooked in fruiting plants. These plants would also be great for just a dry part of yo...

Growing Cold Hardy Cactus Fruit There are many types of cactuses that are cold hardy to USDA zone 6, and many that are hardy to USDA zones 4 and 5. Some opuntias cactuses even grow in USDA zone 3. So there are options. Usually cactuses that are cold hardy will be smaller and stay low to the ground rather than growing tall or wide, but there are some like Cylindropuntia leptocaulis, which grows upright and has edible buds and fruits.  There is a lot of conflicting information about the cold hardiness of certain species and varieties of cactuses on the internet. Many cactuses are hardier than described by cactus growers in warm zones. I have seen cactuses listed as USDA zones 9-10 when they are actually very cold hardy species. It could be possible that the hardiness varies significantly within a species, or they could be mistakenly labeled. The best bet is to get cold hardy cactuses from a person or nursery that is growing in a cold zone so you know it can handle the winter. As an e...

This is a list I've compiled of perennial cold-hardy fruiting plants. Hardiness USDA Zone 6. 0' F. If you know of any species I have left out or mistakes in the details please let me know in a comment. The abbreviation "ssp." is used to indicate that there are "several species" in the genus that fall under the same common name. Common Name Scientific Name USDA Zones Soil Water Size Note Maple fruit/seeds Acer ssp. 2-10 10-45 m, 33-148 ft Hardy Kiwi or "Tara Vine" Actinida arguta 3-8 12-40 ft tall, 3-5 ft wide Fast growing, sensitive to freeze-thaw cycle in spring. Chocolate vine Akebia quinata 5-9 20-40 ft tall Serviceberry Amelanchier ssp. 4-9 15-25 ft Porcelain berry vine, Amur peppervine Ampelopsis brevipedunculata 4-8 20-25 ft Known to be invasive in some parts of the US. Bearberry, Kinnikinnick Arctostaphylos uva-ursi 2-7 5-30 cm, 2-12 inches Evergreen groundcover. Chokeberry Aronia melanocarpa 3-8 3-6 ft Pawpaw Asimina triloba 5-9 Moist, slig...