Garden Guide: Fruit trees and berries for a small garden
Here are a few fruit trees and berries that can be produce beautifully in a container garden every year.
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You don't need a lot of space to grow beautiful fruits and berries. Here are a few that can be produce beautifully in a container garden every year.
Blueberries
Blueberries are beautiful shrubs that stay small enough to thrive in containers with very little additional care. They bloom in spring, typically April, and the berries are ripe in June or July. I’ve grown blueberries in containers for 3 years now and it gets bigger and better every year. This plant benefits from fertilizer formulated for acid loving plants or fruit trees in the spring before blooming and while fruit it developing in early spring.
Grapes
These massive vines are actually not typically great for containers, but I was shocked to see so much fruit on mine for its first full summer in the garden. Grapes produce fruit on the new shoots that grow in the spring from last year’s vines so mine did not bloom or produce fruit when I purchased it late last summer. Grapes require a wide trellis and lots of room long term, although some new varieties like pixie grapes are advertised to stay small enough to grow in a container.
Blackberries
These plants do well in a container, but produce much better when planted in the ground. Although they take up a lot of room overtime, they require less sun than most fruits and berries. They also make fantastic understory plants because of their sprawling habit. It’s easy to tuck them somewhere where other plants won’t grow.
Tropical fruit trees
Gardeners can also grow many tropical fruits in containers.
Citrus produce fruit at a very small height and will often come with fruit already on them when purchased from the store. Citrus trees bloom in the spring, so I overwinter most of my citrus trees in the garage so they don’t bloom and fruit inside the house during the winter. These trees don’t receive enough sunlight to produce new fruit inside the house over the winter, but it can hold ripe fruit from the warmer months for months.
Bananas are gorgeous container plants, but very rarely produce fruit in a container. Small growing varieties are capable of producing fruit, but it requires lucky timing in early summer. Banana fruit takes 6-8 months to ripen.
