By next week you can be growing a healthy, edible landscape by planting a few fruit-bearing plants such as Haskap, Raspberry, Strawberry, Black Currents, or Blueberries.

 Haskab (Lonicera caerulea)

 I don’t know if you will love the vast amount of health benefits or its early productivity more. It’s the end of April here in central Wisconsin and the honey berries are already full of leaves and starting to flower. As for health benefits there have been multiple studies that have shown this is an amazing berry health wise. They are very high in antioxidants, phenolics, anthocyanins, and other great nutrients. Haskab berries are also low in sugar, thus showing a great alternative for diabetics, or a just a low sugar snack for yourself or kids.

 Haskap will be one of the first flowering bushes in your yard.

 Always make sure you have two different cultivars for pollination and planted nearby each other. Some bushes can grow up to 7 feet tall. These plants can be grown in zones 3-8. In northern regions give them plenty of summer sun. In southern regions give them some shade.

 A great advantage of the fruit is its high resistance to low temperatures. They are able to withstand variations in soil pH, and the presence of pests or diseases. Although they can withstand a wide pH range, they prefer to be around 6.5 and they benefit from the additions of organic matter and a granular fertilizer during a spring feeding. A good 2-4 inches of mulch around the bush will suppress weeds and help build the soil around your bushes.

Once you have your location picked out, dig a hole that’s almost double the size of the container the plant came in. Take the plant out of the container and loosen the root ball up a little as these roots can become bound in the pot causing poor transplanting. Don’t get too rough. Once the root ball is in the hole fill back in the dirt while keeping the top of the root ball level with the soils surface.  Watering and Mulching right away will benefit your Haskap and reduce transplanting shock. Make sure to maintain adequate moisture levels, especially early on to get a good establishment.

Raspberries (Rubus)

Raspberries are a great addition. They are easy to grow and produce year after year. You don’t have to put much effort into them, but the more you give, the more they will produce. A well cared for raspberry plant will produce a quart or more of fruit per year. You should get production for 7 to 12 years.

Raspberries are easy to grow and they will produce best with ample amounts of light. Raspberries prefer a well-drained, rich soil, but can tolerate less. That’s one thing that makes them a great beginner’s crop.

Depending on the size of your plot you can enjoy homegrown raspberries year-round. Yet, more often than not, they will be devoured before they make it back into the house.

Success of fruit will depend on your selection of varieties for your location. Raspberry varieties differ in size, season of ripening, hardiness, and disease susceptibility. With proper planning and a few different cultivars, you can achieve a bounty of fruit from spring to fall.

Planting raspberries only takes a few steps.

One of the most important factors to success is good drainage. Growing canes will not tolerate standing water. They are suitable to sandy or clay, as long as the drainage is adequate. Keep the pH between 5.5 and 6.8. Keep it weed free. Raspberries will respond well to a spring feeding of your choice organic fertilizer and a few additions of compost during the season, this also is a quick way to keep weeds down.

Give the Raspberries a good start by soaking the roots in water for an hour or two before planting. I Also like to drop in a small amount of root stimulator.

Depending on how many berries you are planting you can either dig a few holes or a long trench. Once your new home is ready for the canes you can place them in the holes. Making sure to keep the crown of the plant 1 or two inches about the ground.

Spacing should be about 18 inches apart, and if you’re doing multiple rows, space them between 4 and 6 feet apart. Fill the soil back in and gently pack the soil around the canes, just enough to get a strong root and soil contact, but not too hard. We don’t want to compact the soil, only keep root and soil contact.

Once they are in the soil cut back the cane to about 9’’. It will look like a bunch of sticks in the dirt, but in a few weeks and by summers end they will have grown and filled out.

A trellis along the sides will help give support to your canes as they ripen with fruit as well as keep a clean pathway between rows or your yard.

Strawberries (Fragaria × ananassa)

Strawberries are a wonderful crop because there are so many ways to grow them. They do well in pots on a patio, in raised beds, or vertical growing towers, as well as long rows out in the field. There are two types of strawberries you can choose from. Either June bearing, which produce a sweet tasting crop in early summers, or everbearing, producing its first fruits later in summer and a than producing into fall until that first frost.

A few things to consider when planting strawberries is choosing a spot that get full sun most of the day and is well drained. Strawberries will not produce well, and the berries will mold, if there is too much moisture in the soil. Using straw as a mulch around the berries helps retain moisture in the soil while keeping the above ground growing portion and fruits dry.  Strawberries prefer a rich soil so make sure to amend your soils with good organic compost and side dress with fertilizers. Strawberries prefer a soil pH of 5.8 and 6.5.

Your plants can come to you in a few different ways. You can order bareroot plants sold in small groups. These plants have larger, thicker roots. Make sure to spread them out well into the soil as you plant. Another way you might order strawberries is by the flat, like you would with tomatoes. These new plants are going to be planted the same way into the soil with the crown just poking out, level with the soil.

An individual strawberry plant will produce well after its first year, and for a few years after that. Eventually yields will decreases as the plant ages. You can keep the runners that come off each plant to help rejuvenate your crop every year. Some growers will even plant new starts in the fall, let the plants set roots and establish themselves from fall to winter. This way these plants are producing each spring.

Just remember to Keep the crown just above the soil level. Too deep or too high and you will kill it. Give it a good feeding of fertilizer, or work in compost to the soil, and don’t let it stand in water and you should have a successful harvest.

Black Currants (Ribes nigrum)

Another great crop for the beginning’s growers is Black Currants. These woody shrubs are Another robust producer during the summer. Producing great tasting berries on long stems. These barriers are a wonderful fruit to put into jams, pies, and drinks. These berries are also rich in vitamins and antioxidants.

Choose a location that gets a good amount of light and a slightly acidic soil. Best in a well-drained rich soil with a pH between 4.8 and 7.0, ideally, they like 6.0 pH. Another very hardy plant that can grow in zones 3-7.

When planting black currants place them a bit deeper into the soil.  Give them a good mulching with well composted materials when you plant them, and follow with a bit more during the growing season if weeds are strong or it looks to need it.

To manage your black currants, follow this pruning method. In your first year keep 6-8 vigorous canes. In the second year Keep 3 to 4 vigorous two-year-old canes and 4-8 vigorous one-year-old canes. Year after year keep 3-4 two-year-old canes and 4-8 one-year-old canes pruning them down to 2 buds per cane. Giving them a rich feeding every spring will promote rapid growth that will turn into a good harvest year after year.

Blueberries (Vaccinium)

Blueberries are a great addition to the garden and my Absolute favorite frozen fruit. Blueberries are a wonderful late summer and fall producing fruit.

A key characteristic to growing blueberries is growing in an acid or ericaceous soil and plenty of water. These fruits, unlike the last three, prefer boggier like conditions. If you cannot achieve this in the garden, don’t be afraid to keep them in pots with the proper pH below 6, and preferably around 5.5. This can be achieved by using an acid loving fertilizer or mixing in a sulfur additive before planting. Be cautious during this process, the pH can swing quickly and do more harm than good. So, take it slowly, use a pH meter to monitor the soil over time.

You can plant in early spring when the soil is workable. If you plant in early fall, give them enough time to establish themselves before winter. If Planting in spring, don’t expect a harvest of blueberries the first year. If Planting in the fall, your plants can get a jump start before winter, setting them up for strong growth in spring.

Plant your bushes just over 2 feet apart, making sure to have enough space in the rows for the plants to grow into and space for you to work around and pick the fruit in the summer.

Blueberries will prefer a well composted bark or well-rotted organic matter as mulch during their growing season. This will also help keep back weeds. They will also benefit from working in an acid loving fertilizer into the soil around your plants or watering with a liquid fertilizer. I have always liked using the liquid fertilizer during the growing season over working in fertilizers. I save additions of granular fertilizer for early spring when the soil can be worked a bit.

The final word of advice…

Just get out, dig, and plant. Once you get started you will learn A LOT. 

The joys will come. It just takes a little time to grow.