March Blooms in my Georgia Garden: Fruit Shrubs and Trees

Before we can feast on the fruit from our growing collection of fruiting shrubs and trees, we get to enjoy the flowers. Some of the prettiest flowering trees in the South are fruit trees. 

Blueberry Flowers

Blueberry Bushes have cute little white blooms in clusters that attract pollinators. Blueberry Shrubs are all-around attractive, really. In Spring you have the blooms against newly developing blue-green leaves. In mid-spring the blueberry fruits develop, beginning as green drupes that gradually ripen into dark blue juicy fruits loved by people and wildlife. Attractive foliage remains until Fall when leaves turn all shades of orange, red, and burgundy. Some or all foliage remains into winter, depending on the temperatures of that particular winter or which part of the country you are in. Blueberry Bushes are gaining in popularity as the word gets out about how nutritious the fruit is and how easy the shrub is to grow. Homeowners are even incorporating Blueberry Bushes into their flower beds and foundation plantings. I've seen a few local businesses adding Blueberries to their commercial landscaping. How exciting!

Crabapple Trees have been used in landscaping for years. The flowers are beautiful, covering the tree canopy with loads of flowers in various shades of pink. But many Crabapple Trees produce a fruit that is not only loved by wildlife but edible for humans as well. 

Peach Trees are not known for being easy to grow. Some maintenance is required. But when you bite into that beautiful peach and feel the juice running down your chin, you know it was worth all that work. 

Plum Trees are beloved by children everywhere. We love to eat the plums either green or ripe, if we can get to them before the squirrels do. 

Our Ponderosa Lemon tree is huge. Originally purchased as a Meyer Lemon, this tree produces huge lemons that have a rough, knotty skin that is very thick. The fruit is very sour and the juice is great for a marinade. When I looked up recipes to decide what to do with the abundant fruits, I found that ours was not a Meyer Lemon after all, but a Ponderosa. Oh well, I'll keep looking for the hardy Meyer Lemon I guess.

Nanking Cherry in Bloom

Our newest fruiting plants are the Bush Cherry or Nanking Cherry. Not usually grown around here, the Nanking Cherry Bushes are growing well, and we are getting lots of fruit from them this year. These bushes will grow to be about 10 feet tall and just as wide, and they produce a small red cherry that is tart and delicious. 

We have other new fruit trees that haven't yet bloomed or produced fruit, and I intend to add as many new fruiting plants as I can until I run out of room.

May Blooms in my Georgia Garden: Pomegranate

Pomegranate Blooms

One of the showiest plants in my garden today is the Pomegranate Tree. As you can see, the large, fluffy many-petaled flowers resemble carnations. This cultivar is the very popular 'Wonderful.'

Exotic as it may seem, Pomegranates are very easy to grow in your own garden here in Georgia and Alabama. Pomegranates enjoy a hot dry summer even when planted in poor soil. In fact, Pomegranate just might be the easiest fruit tree to grow! 

Punica granatum, or as we know it, Pomegranate, loves hot sunny summers and dry, well-drained soil. It’s perfect for Georgia gardens, as long as we amend the soil for drainage. Pomegranate trees, or actually the growth habit is more like that of a shrub, require a cold winter to set fruit. That’s us—hot summers and a cold winter—at least cold enough for Pomegranates, because winter temperatures down into the 40’s is cold enough.

Pomegranate is a rapid growing plant that will ultimately be 10-20 feet tall. This large shrub can be somewhat prickly, so situate it where that won't be a problem. The large fruits are heavy, weighing down the branches.  It's best to prune the plant to keep it 10 feet or under, making it easier to pick the fruit and also to keep the branches from breaking with the weight of the fruit. 

The large fluffy bright orange blossoms appear in early summer. The fruit develops in late summer and matures into fall.  The foliage is attractive as well--new growth is red-tinged, and the leaves turn a golden yellow in fall.

With all the news lately regarding the health benefits of Pomegranate juice, we should all consider growing our own pomegranates!

April is National Gardening Month

Since April is National Gardening Month, now is a good time to get others interested in gardening. Over the years, I have become increasingly concerned about what contaminants might be in the food I am feeding to my family. Most store bought produce and meat contains some kind of germs or pesticides. And genetically modified foods are very scary to me, since I do not fully understand what all they entail. It is very important to know where our food comes from. I try more and more to grow as much of our own food as possible and what I can't grow, I try to purchase from another gardener in our area. Unfortunately, our year round farmer's market sells produce from all over the world, so I can't trust it for my dinner table. Our true farmer's markets are seasonal, open only from late Spring to early Fall.

Locally grown food from last summer

It would be difficult to be entirely self-sufficient and feed our families only what we can grow and produce ourselves. It's true that years ago, families did just that, only purchasing things like grain and sugar. But that was before the days of mothers working full time outside the home and before television, Facebook, and Netflix took over our lives. 

Still, we can grow much of what we eat ourselves, right in our own backyards. I don't have to worry anymore about where my eggs come from and whether or not some hen was mistreated while producing them, since we have our own backyard flock. But I do worry about salmonella, e-coli, or pesticides hitch hiking into my home and onto our dinner plate via salad greens and fruits I buy at the grocery store. 

I try to do what I can to encourage others to grow their own produce. I'm not suggesting you plow up your whole yard and turn it into a garden. Start small. Purchase a few plants from your locally owned garden center. Most of these home nursery owners grow the plants themselves from cuttings or seeds. You can help them grow their home business and grow food for your family at the same time. 

Children love planting veggies

Get the whole family involved. It is important to teach our children how to grow their own vegetables and fruit. Gardening can be hard work, but it is very rewarding. When your child sees fruits and vegetables actually growing on the plant and learns where food comes from, he will be excited to eat things he wouldn't normally try.

Although gardening can be hard work, some plants produce with little or no help from us. Plants like blueberries, plums, and blackberries don't require much intervention from us once they are planted in the ground.

How often have you turned around at the grocery store to find your child eating unwashed grapes or strawberries? That always horrified me when my children were small, but when you grow your own fruits and vegetables at home, your children can pick and eat right off the plant.