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Growing Fruits & Berries

How to Grow Tropical Fruit Plants in Any Zone

I don’t know about you, but when I think about tropical fruit plants, my home in western Massachusetts isn’t the place that comes to mind. Not even close. I bet it’s not what you picture either. For me, the imagination goes to a lush, warm paradise with gorgeous trees abundant with mangoes, figs, and pineapples. Or maybe papayas, kumquats, and bananas.

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Growing Fruits & Berries

5 Fast-Growing Fruit Trees for a Beginner’s Backyard Orchard

Fresh fruit, plucked from a tree, is magical. Picking that sun-ripened, juicy peach right off the branch and biting into the soft, fuzzy fruit is the essence of a hot summer day. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could do that? But trees take years to grow, right? Not necessarily! These fast-growing fruit trees could bear tasty gifts for you in as little as two years. 

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Growing Fruits & Berries

How to Start Growing Cantaloupe Vertically at Home

What’s that? Growing cantaloupe vertically? I get it. Vertical gardening is a super way to get more out of your space, and it’s a fantastic idea for fruits and vegetables like peas or beans. Cantaloupe, though? Seems like they would be too big and heavy to grow vertically. Spoiler alert: Growing cantaloupe vertically is very much doable.

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Growing Fruits & Berries

The 10 Most Beautiful Flowering Fruit Trees

Fruit trees are the high-school overachiever of the garden. They’re the “4.0 GPA, flawless skin, all AP classes, volunteers at a nursing home” type. Flowering fruit trees are the darling of any garden because they do so much! They produce delicious fruit to be snacked on, baked, frozen, or canned. They also provide shade for you and your shade-loving vegetables. Not to mention that flowering fruit trees provide gorgeous and often delicious smelling blossoms ahead of their fruiting period.

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Growing Fruits & Berries

How to Grow Lingonberries and 3 Ways to Use Them

Whenever I hear about lingonberries, I’m teleported to the scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the O.G. film with Gene Wilder) where the kids are licking wallpaper. The snozzberries taste like snozzberries! Wallpaper licking aside, for some folks like me the lingonberry is a bit more on the fringe than the more popular cranberry or blueberry.

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Growing Fruits & Berries

7 Tips for Cloning Fruit Trees to Expand Your Orchard for Free

When I hear the word “clone” I either think of Dolly the sheep or binge-watching Battlestar Gallactica. But cloning fruit trees is neither of those things and it shouldn’t be feared. In fact, farmers and gardeners have been cloning fruit trees for centuries as an easy way to jumpstart a fruit tree’s life. Sure, you can try to grow a fruit tree from seed, but after they germinate, the seedling will likely be disappointing in comparison to the parent tree.

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Growing Fruits & Berries

5 Tips for Protecting Fruit Trees from Deer and Other Wildlife

I’ve always loved the idea of walking into my backyard and picking an apple or some cherries right off the tree. It seems so idyllic, like a ray of sunshine will illuminate the tree and the birds will sing and it will be the most wonderful fruit I’ve ever had. I think we all know that’s not quite how it works. One thing I didn’t count on, however, was protecting fruit trees from deer. 

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Growing Fruits & Berries

5 Tips for Growing a Pomegranate Tree from Seed

There are a lot of good reasons to think about growing a pomegranate tree. Whether you decide to grow it from a seed or buy a sapling, the pomegranate is a relatively easy tree to care for as long as you live in the right climate. The stunning flowers attract hummingbirds, the fruit is packed with health benefits, and it tastes like paradise.

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Growing Fruits & Berries

How to Grow Figs in Any Climate

A versatile and delicious fruit (that is also an excellent source of fiber), it’s no wonder why so many people want to learn how to grow figs. In their native environments, fig trees will produce year-round, feeding scores of animal and insect species. Domesticated, fig trees have become a staple in fruit tree gardening. No […]

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Growing Fruits & Berries

How to Choose the Best Lights for Growing Berries Indoors

While we often think of berries as outdoor plants, you can grow some berries indoors as long as you have the best lights for growing them. And what’s not to love about berries?  I love how homemade strawberry jam tastes on a piece of toast in the morning. Fresh blueberries are perfect in a bowl […]