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Growing plants in your backyard is one of the most popular spring and summer activities. You can personalize your garden with different plant varieties and colors to enhance the look of your home. Even if you grow new plants that are more challenging than what you’ve tried in past years, you may want to explore the world of edible gardens.
Start with something simple so that you experience the reward of eating fresh food on your first try. Check out this list of the 15 easiest fruits to grow in your garden for inspiration. You’ll still have a colorful world of plants to admire as you sip your morning coffee, but they’ll result in future snacks and meals you can be proud of.
Berries are a great way to begin your adventure into the world of fruits. Blackberries are super simple and work in jams, pies and smoothies after they ripen. As long as you plant blackberry bushes in full sun and let the soil completely dry between waterings, they’ll blossom into white flowers and change into berries.
Strawberries are another favorite fruit of many gardeners. They require little care other than nightly coverings during frost season in the spring. Be careful — deer and small animals will try to eat any berries you grow, so enclose them in fencing to keep them safe until it’s time to harvest.
Depending on where you live, certain types of blueberries will grow better than others because of the local weather and soil type in your yard. After choosing the right kind based on your location, plant blueberry bushes in a place with great soil drainage and water them regularly to form a robust root system that improves berry growth.
Anyone can grow grapes in their backyard if they build a homemade arbor or trellis for the vines to grow on. Again, small animals love grapes, so your biggest struggle will be keeping them away from your fruit as they ripen.
Like blackberries, raspberries require full sun and adequate soil drainage. As long as you don’t overwater and leave the soil soaked every day, you’ll snack on juicy raspberries in no time.
Plant a cherry tree in your garden this summer, and you’ll harvest an abundance of fruit every year. The average tree produces more than 7,000 cherries every 12 months, so save a few new recipes and plan to give away a few baskets before their growing season ends.
If you want to know the secret to eating apples from your backyard, you have to choose the right kind and get them when they’re about one to two years old. Apple trees take longer to start fruiting, so you should get older trees if you want to eat their fruit during their first season in your garden.
Fig trees also take a few years to grow before they produce fruit. Plant a tree that’s four to six years old and give it full sunshine to harvest figs for all your favorite recipes.
Peaches might make you think of Georgia, but they thrive all over the U.S., which makes them perfect for your garden. As they ripen, you’ll have to save them from curious deer and small animals that could snatch them from the branches before you can pick them.
Some people are surprised to learn that watermelon is a fruit, but it is! Each watermelon plant will need lots of space to sprawl and grow unless you train them to grow vertically, which is easy for beginners.
Tomatoes are a classic fruit to add to your garden because they’re some of the easiest fruits to grow. They’re especially delicious when you harvest them under the summer sun, so plant a few and add them to your sandwiches and salads.
If you have extra space in your garden and want something sweet, grow a few cantaloupe plants. They need about three months to mature before harvesting, so it’s better to plant them towards the end of spring to enjoy them before the fall.
Call your local plant nursery and ask if they have orange trees that are about three years old. Once you plant a sapling, you can water it briefly every week and pluck fresh oranges from the branches right away.
Lemons are another citrus fruit that’s easy to grow. You can plant lemon trees in your garden or start them in pots before transplanting them in the spring if you start one later in the year.
Fresh pears are a treat, especially when they grow in your backyard. Find a sapling and give it the best care so that you can pick Asian, European or hybrid pears whenever you like.
The best and easiest fruits to grow will depend on what you enjoy. Think about your favorite fruits and try adding them to your garden. You’ll love experiencing the sense of pride that comes from growing food on your own.
