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How to Plant Fruit Trees to Save Money in Groceries

It was spring (5-14-22) as I walked through the front yard garden, I shared how to grow some of your own vegetable and fruit trees to save money on groceries.

The reason of our front yard garden was to grow our own fruits and vegetables to reduce our grocery budget.

The following are the fruit trees in the front yard garden:

Trees planted in 2015

Black currant (Ribes rubrum) Black September

Red Currant (Ribes rubrum) Red Jade

White Currant (Ribes rubrum) Swedish White

Ruby Autumn Olive (Eleagnus umbellate): It Produced fruit in 2021 but flowered two years before that. It is a nitrogen fixer. The fruit is said to be high in antioxidant that could help prevent prostate cancer.

Honey Berry (Lonicera caerulea var. edulis) Blue Moon: It started to fruit in 2017.

Honey Berry (Lonicera caerulea var. edulis) Blue Pacific: It started to fruit in 2017.

Both honey berry shrubs have grown bushy during 2020 and 2021. They produce a lot of fruit. The fruit is said to contain the same antioxidant as blue berry.

European Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) Emerald Lace–Fern Leaf Elder: The fruit is not eaten raw. It can be used to make cold syrup for winter use a natural remedy.

European Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) Goldbeere: Elderberry fruit is not eaten raw. It can be used as medicinal to make cold syrup for winter use a natural remedy.

Trees planted in 2016

Italian Plum (Prunus domestica): It started to fruit in 2022.

Wealthy Apple (Malus pumila): It started to fruit the 1st time in 2021 and produced 2 fruits. In 2022, it has more flowers in spring. The tree trunk is still slender, but it is growing tall. It is semi-dwarf, bud 118 rootstock.

I purchased most trees as semi-dwarf on 118 rootstock or M111rootstock.

Concord Seeded Grape (Vitis labrusca) produces a lot.

Northland Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum): I have 2 different varieties in the front yard but only one is producing at the moment. This year it produced a lot of flowers in spring. It started to produce in 2021.

Trees planted in 2017

Honeycrisp Apple (M. pumila)

Scarlet Sentinel Apple (M. pumila)

North pole Columnar Apple (Malus pumila)

One of the North pole and Scarlet Sentinel apple flowered in Spring 2022. It first fruited in 2020 but not in 2021.

Online fruit tree nurseries

A nursery I purchased fruit trees from is Burnt Ridge Nursery. They share information on health benefits of fruits on their website (https://www.burntridgenursery.com/).

The second nursery I have purchased from is One Green World Nursery (https://onegreenworld.com/) a little pricier, gives an idea on how tall the fruit trees they sell can grow and the maximum of fruit they can produce when they reach maturity as well as how long it takes for the trees to start producing.

When selecting fruit trees, I like to purchase trees hardy to our zone 5A. I pay attention to the health benefits of the fruit the tree produces. It is good to consider how tall the tree can grow at maturity to have an idea how and where to plant your trees in your garden. Especially, if you plan to plant more than one fruit tree, it is good to know what part of your garden to plant tall trees to avoid shading your garden as they grow. It is good to know where to put small trees or shrubs to avoid shading them. You might to know if the tree is self-pollinated or you might need 2. If you want to plant apple tree for instance, and don’t want 2 varieties for pollinating purposes, if your neighbors have crab apple trees for decoration purposes in their yard, there is a lot of chance some will flower at the same time as your tree and pollinate it for you. Either way, it requires more planning when you want to introduce fruit trees in your garden.

I like to draft a spreadsheet and record information the nursery provide I found important on a particular tree I plan to purchase.

I like to purchase rootstock dormant in spring to plant.

How many fruit trees can you plant in your city garden?

Our property is 10,000 square ft with the house been around 1,000 sq ft and the garage about 600 sq ft.

In 2014, we planted 7 fruit trees.

In 2015, 21 fruit trees were planted.

In 2016, 7 fruit trees were planted.

In 2017, 31 fruit trees were planted.

By fruit trees, I included tall trees like persimmon, shrubs like honey berry, vines like grape, ground cover like strawberries.

In total, between the front yard and the backyard gardens, about 66 fruit trees were planted from May 2014 to May 2017. For instance, 25 strawberry root crowns of 1 variety are counted as 1. Black currant, red currant, and white currant are counted as 3 trees. We propagated black currant from pruning the mother tree in spring and have about 4 black currant shrubs growing beside the mother tree, but it is counted as 1 tree among the 66 trees we have.

We lost many trees to deer and bunny damage.

As of 2022, there are about 30 fruit trees growing in our city garden.

Fruit trees cost more that vegetable seeds. If you have deer and bunnies roaming around your property, it might be a good idea to fence your garden to give a chance to your trees to grow.

Fruit trees take years to produce. But once they start fruiting, you will harvest healthy, natural, and organic fruits from your own garden for years. You could learn how to preserve them for your winter use as well.

1-How to Grow your Own Food to Save Money in Groceries?