I still remember the look on my neighbor Earl’s face when he spotted my apple trees loaded with fruit one August afternoon back in the mid-1980s. He’d been gardening in northern Minnesota his whole life and had long since given up on fruit trees after losing two young trees to a February cold snap that … Read more

A few summers ago, my neighbor Dorothy called me over to look at her backyard. She’d planted a beautiful Superior plum tree five years earlier — healthy trunk, lovely branches, bloomed like a dream every May. But come August, not a single plum. Not one. She stood there with her hands on her hips, genuinely … Read more

I spent years feeling a little sorry for myself as a Zone 5 gardener. My neighbors in Georgia were picking peaches in July while I was still waiting for my last frost. My sister-in-law in California bragged about her citrus trees, and I’d nod politely and change the subject. Then, one autumn about thirty years … Read more

It was the last week of May, about twenty-two years ago now, and I had spent the whole morning admiring my young Toka plum — absolutely dripping with tiny green fruitlets, the most promising crop I’d seen in years. By that evening, the temperature had dropped to 26°F. By morning, every single one of those … Read more

I killed three blueberry bushes before I figured out what I was doing wrong. Back in the early 1980s, I planted what I thought were perfectly healthy highbush blueberries along the south-facing fence in my Zone 5 garden in central Ohio. I watered them faithfully, fed them every spring, and waited. Year after year, the … Read more

My neighbor Dorothy grew raspberries for forty years. Every summer she’d bring me a little basket — beautiful, sweet, and gone by mid-July. One afternoon I mentioned I’d just finished picking my honeyberries and she looked at me like I’d said something in a foreign language. “Honey-what?” she asked. I spent the next hour walking … Read more

I’ll never forget the look on my neighbor’s face when she saw me hauling bare-root apple trees into my yard during a Minnesota spring, the last snow still clinging to the fence posts. “Maggie,” she said, shaking her head, “fruit trees can’t survive out here.” That was thirty-five years ago. Those same trees are still … Read more

Hey garden pals, if you’re staring at snow outside but craving fresh pineapple or zesty lemons, I’ve got you—growing tropical fruits in pots has been my winter escape in chilly Zone 5, wheeling them to sun in summer and indoors for frost-free fun. These space-savers pack nutrients, save on groceries, and turn your deck into … Read more

Fruits provide vitamins, nutrients and fiber that are essential for maintaining good health. That’s why many people with space at home prefer to grow their own orchard. Today you’ll learn how to plant a banana tree ! Bananas, besides being delicious, are an excellent source of potassium, a fundamental nutrient for the functioning of the digestive … Read more

Strawberries are a fruit that is eaten everywhere in the world and are incorporated into lots of recipes. Cakes, jams, ice creams, juices. It’s better with strawberries ! To make it still better, it is interesting to know that the fruit was cultivated without pesticides. And we can do it at home. In pots or flower … Read more