Growing Fruit at Home: How to Do It

According to a leading health authority, an adult should ideally eat from 1.5 to 2.5 cups of fruit every day for the sake of his or her health. It, therefore, makes good sense to grow fruits at your home to supplement what you buy at the supermarket. However, to most people, growing fruit at home seems like an unattainable feat.

If asked why they don’t grow fruits in their gardens, a majority of people would claim that they don’t have enough room in their gardens or that flowers look prettier, or even that the birds will eat all the fruits before harvest. If you are one of the people with such excuses, you are indeed wrong because growing fruit at home is easier than you think. It all depends on the type of fruit you want to grow in your garden.

There are in fact many types of fruits that a beginner gardener can successfully grow. A few examples include apples, cherries, plums, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, kiwi berries, cherries, apricots, nectarines, currants, peaches, and many more. With a little more effort, you can even grow bananas, avocadoes, and citrus in your home garden.

Most fruits will also look as pretty in your garden as your typical flowers. I’m sure most of us would cherish the elegance and beauty of crab apple or ornamental cherry growing in our garden.

If beauty and aesthetic appeal are a concern, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t grow a fruit tree that not only provides perfect autumn leaf colour and blossom but gives you a bumper harvest of edible fruits as well.

Best Fruit Trees and Plants to Grow at Home

There are a few things you need to know when growing fruits at home. For instance, sweet-tasting fruits need plenty of sun. That means grapes, strawberries, apricots, kiwi berries, figs, cherries, greengages, peaches, and nectarines are good candidates for suntraps.

Some fruit plants such as kiwi berries and grapes can be grown over archways while strawberries can be planted on pots or vertical pouches.

Most of the other fruits mentioned above can be grown with branches evenly spread out against a wall. Remember to cut out some of the old branches and tie together new ones as the years go by. Your goal should be to ensure that the fruits get enough sunlight to ripen and increase the amount of sugar in the fruit.

It is also worth knowing that you don’t really need an orchard to grow fruit at home. Even with limited space, you can still grow your fruit in pots and containers. Some fruit varieties such as strawberries can even be grown in hanging baskets. All you need is the desire to grow fruit at home and a little creativity.

To get you started, here are a few ways to grow different types of fruits in homes with limited spaces:

1. Strawberries can easily and conveniently be planted in hanging baskets, containers, window boxes, or directly on the ground if you have enough space. They thrive well in places with enough sun and well-drained soils.
2. Raspberries can be raised in beds or containers and pots. They also thrive well in soils with good drainage and in areas with sufficient sunlight. They are easy to grow and maintain. Just make sure to shear the plants at ground level every February. Raspberries can be harvested from late summer to autumn.
3. Figs are another popular home garden fruit. The deliciously sweet and chewy fruit loves plenty of sun to produce that unique Mediterranean taste. You can grow figs in containers placed in a sunny south or west-facing wall. The fruit container will also help in restricting the plant’s roots from spreading wide.
4. If you are looking for a hardy low maintenance fruit to grow at home, gooseberries are a good option. The juicy succulent fruits are used in a wide range of recipes and desserts. You can harvest them early to create a wide range of savoury sauces or leave them to ripen for baking cakes and crumbles. They grow well in fertile soils in a semi-shade or sunny area.
5. Apples are best grown directly on the ground in well-drained soil and on sunny areas. An apple tree is a great asset to have in your home. It will not only save you money spent on fruits during the harvest season but keep your family healthy as well. You also have a wide range of apple varieties to choose from depending on your taste and size of the garden. If you have enough space you can plant two types that will easily pollinate each other but for small gardens, you can grow one of the three varieties of the dwarf apple family on a container or a pot on your patio.
6. Blackberries are also quite popular in the small gardens. They can grow almost anywhere and require minimal maintenance. Blackberries are also a favourite for many people because of the bumper harvest they deliver in summer months. The gorgeous berries thrive well in moist slightly acidic soil. They can be grown along the hedge, over your green fence, or in a corner behind the shade. To make it easier to harvest the fruit, you can tame the stems by training them along wires.
7. Honeyberries can also be easily grown at home. These tough hardy plants provide you with a good harvest of chewy delicious berries packed with antioxidants and vitamins. They grow well in areas with full sun and well-drained soil. You can easily grow them in containers placed off the ground for good circulation of air. It is recommended to grow honeyberries in pairs to enhance pollination.
8. Another popular fruit you can grow at home is currants. There are three main types of currants namely black, white, and red currants. Each type of currants makes delicious fruity snacks or jams and jellies. You can grow currants under full sun or in a semi-sheltered area. If space is a problem, you can grow Rovada redcurrants in containers.

Final Thoughts

There are many types of simple-to-grow fruits for your home garden.

Most of them are easy to maintain and can even be grown in containers, pots, and vertical baskets. Just remember to use the right insecticides as you grow your fruits to keep them healthy and pest-free.

Growing fruit at home may take some work at first but you’ll definitely love the rewarding feeling of harvesting your own delicious home-grown fruits.