Selections for an Edible Landscape | Volunteer Gardener

Fruit-bearing trees and shrubs that don’t flower until after last frost are more likely to produce fruit. Learn more about mulberry, paw paw, persimmon, June berry, figs, and trifoliate orange.

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– Well, I am just the luckiest person today because I’ve come out to Jackson County, past Cookeville, to Hidden Springs Nursery, where there’s all kinds of edible landscape. And Diana Lalani is here to tell me all about this. And the first thing I wonder is,

Can you grow fruit in Tennessee without it being difficult, and are there really native things? – Yeah, there’s plenty of native things. They’re easier to grow than most things because they tend to come out, they bloom after frost, generally, so you always get fruit and there’s very few pests.

And we here grow, because we’re organic, so we don’t like to spray, well, we don’t like to spray, but we don’t spray, and we don’t much care for dealing with the bugs and so forth, we grow things that people can actually grow without spraying.

So that’s why we got a nice mulberry tree here. – [Host] And that’s what these fruits are here? – [Diana] Yeah, yeah. – [Host] These are wonderful. – [Diana] And they’re the first fruits of the season. If we’re lucky end May, all through June, and most of July. Tastes like blackberries but better.

– Fantastic. And it makes a great shade tree, something someone would want by their house. A dog enjoys the shade. And are there fruits that you would just reach up and pick off? – Yeah, usually. We just pruned this so it’s not quite as much like that, but the kids,

Whenever there’s people that come by to visit, they always stop under the mulberry tree first and gorge themselves. – Oh, a tree that anyone would love to have, especially grandkids coming to visit. And now there’s this beautiful bush over here. Tell me about it. – That’s the highbush cranberry tree,

Which is of the viburnum family. And it has incredibly beautiful blooms in the spring. It also blooms relatively quick after you plant it. They taste like cranberries, and it makes a really good jam. It’s got one seed in it and the way we like it best

Is to just let it dry on the plant and then eat it as we go by in the winter. And also let the birds have some. – [Host] Oh, it’s a real multi-use plant. Well, let’s go see what else you’ve got. – [Diana] Okay. – [Host] These are the most amazing fruits.

And the tree looks familiar ’cause I’ve seen it out in the woods. It’s a pawpaw? – [Diana] That’s right, pawpaw tree. – [Host] Now, out in the woods I have never seen fruit on it. Why do you have fruit? – [Diana] Well, probably because it’s in full sun.

Probably because it has a pollinator, which sometimes whole stands don’t. They’re just all one clone of each other, so you have to have two different clones. And also it’s good to plant them in full sun. – [Host] Well, Diana, when you first get a pawpaw tree,

For example, about how big is it gonna be? – [Diana] It’s one to two foot is the size that we sell. And that’s the top. That’s after the graft. And then the root system is about another foot down. And the reason you tend to sell ’em at a small size is

’cause pawpaws are known for being difficult to transplant. So you have to get one with a good root system that’s fairly small. You put it in the ground. The first year, the roots will grow. If you’re lucky, you get a little top growth,

But most likely it won’t go any further than where it is. And then the second year it’ll start shooting up at the top, and three to five years you’ll get some fruit. They grow pretty fast when they start moving. – [Host] Now I’m very interested in these fruits,

But I’ve never actually eaten them and they’re fascinating. So when can we expect to start seeing them and eating them? And what in the world do they taste like? – [Diana] Well, they ripen in late August, early September, and if you have possums or anything like that,

You have to beat ’em to it. But they taste like custardy banana, and they freeze well, so we make pies and stuff out of ’em later in the year. – [Host] What a great treat. What are some of the other natives that perhaps I don’t know about? – [Diana] Persimmons,

And a lot of people are afraid of persimmons ’cause they’ve had one that wasn’t ripe. You have to know when to pick them or you let them drop. We have apricot size persimmons that are delicious. Let’s see, juneberry. That’s also very easy to grow plants that the birds love.

You might have to beat ’em to that. Currants, you don’t wanna forget currants. Most people don’t grow currants here, but they’ll grow fine if you put a little shade around them. – Wow, so there really is quite a variety of native things, which is great. Now, there are all kinds of other fruits

That people are interested in growing, and I’m just always afraid they’re gonna be very, very difficult to grow anything else. So, can you give me an idea of some of the things, like for instance, I know you had mentioned these cornelian cherry, I believe it is. And it’s not a native?

– [Diana] It’s not, but it is part of the Dogwood family, which you can tell that right away when you look at the leaves. And they’re very easy to take care of, and they can take a little shade, which is always nice for people that have limited space.

And they have a huge amount of cherries on ’em, which are ripe in the fall. – [Host] Fantastic. Well, let’s go take a look at some of the other non-natives that are also easy to grow, and see what else we have for choices. Well, this, Diana, is an amazing stand of,

Well, it looks like figs to me. Is that what I’m looking at? – [Diana] That’s right. – Wow, that’s incredible. Now I thought figs were just really, really hard to grow. But what I’m seeing over here is this thing just covered with figs. – [Diana] That’s right,

And they’re actually easy to grow outside in Tennessee, which you wouldn’t have thought. They’re so easy we’re putting ’em on our cover this year. You basically just have to put ’em out, and the only thing that kills a fig is not watering it, or letting it get frosted too late on,

And all you have to do is cut ’em back a little and put some hay on ’em in the winter and they’re fine. – They’re fantastic. And I love the taste of figs. And now there is this gorgeous plant that I’m thinking I’m gonna have to have one of them.

It’s got this amazing structure, ooh, and thorns, and this thing here. What in the world is this? – [Diana] That’s a trifoliate orange, and it’s a flying dragon, which means it’s not gonna get much bigger. And it’s got those neat little twisty things on it, and they taste kind of like,

You can use ’em like lemon substitute basically. – [Host] So it’s a citrus? – [Diana] Yes, it is. – [Host] And it is hardy in this area? – [Diana] Yep, just sits out here. – [Host] Fantastic. – [Diana] This has probably been here about four years in this spot.

– [Host] This is incredible. And how soon do you get fruit on this? – [Diana] It depends on if it’s a seedling or if it’s grafted. Seedlings take about eight years, probably. – [Host] So maybe a little patience, but you get this amazing, interesting plant. – [Diana] Another really unusual plant

That I think most people would wanna have is the Hardy Kiwi. It makes a lot of really nice shade if you want it to, or you can grow it like a blackberry on a trellis. The kiwis are kind of small now. They’re gonna get bigger, like a big grape.

They’re ripe in I wanna say early October, and they taste way better than the stuff you get in the store. The kiwis that they sell in the store are fuzzy. These aren’t, so you can just pop ’em in your mouth, no problem, and they’re sweeter. – [Host] Oh, wonderful.

– [Diana] It tastes a lot better. – [Host] And what are some of the other non-natives that you have, and tell me a little about them. – [Diana] Okay, the medlars are real good, easy to grow. The jujubes are beautiful, and just about everything else we sell is easy to grow organically,

But those come to mind. – [Host] And you have over 30 varieties of things in your catalog. – [Diana] That’s right. – So there’s really a great choice for middle Tennessee gardens it sounds like. Well, there’s one other amazing tree that I really like so much,

And let’s go get a look at it. Well, this is a gorgeous landscaping tree, the persimmon. And I gather it’s also your favorite tree. – It’s my favorite tree because of the fruit. – Well, tell me all about these fruits. They’re a little hard to find. Ah, there’s a really pretty one there.

I’ve never had one. What are they like? – [Diana] First of all, it’s gonna get about three times that size probably. It’s like a big apricot. And it looks like an apricot, actually. It’s bright orange. The leaves fall off and you’ve got these beautiful bright orange fruit. And then when they drop

They taste basically like apricot mixed with cinnamon. – [Host] Wow, fantastic, and I can grow this at home. – With no problem. – Wow, this is so wonderful. Now, for people like myself are now going to be very interested in getting some of these yummy plants for our landscape, for us to eat,

Or at least for the animals to eat, how in the world would we get hold of you? – We’re a mail order business, so if you could send for a catalog. – Fantastic. Well, Diana, thank you so much for letting me come out here and seeing all this stuff.

And I guess we’ll go eat some of it now. – Yeah. – Well, thank you so much for watching, and if you liked this video, you’re gonna love everything else that we have in our archives and running currently. Go to our channel, click subscribe, and continue watching. See you next time.