Are you looking for easy fruit to grow in your backyard? In fact, even if you don’t have a farm, you can grow fruit for your family.
Moreover, you can grow fruit from your kitchen scraps. Almost all our loquat trees come from seeds that we planted a few years ago. Surprisingly, all these trees provide a good harvest of winter fruit.
Imagine going to your backyard in December or January and smelling the sweet honey aroma of blooming trees! Most importantly, in a couple of months, you’ll harvest tender juicy fruit.
One of the first fruit trees in our garden was a peach tree. Overall, peach is an easy fruit to grow. On the negative side, you would have to fight the birds for the harvest.
Surprisingly, we found a method to protect most of the harvest by putting organza bags (or fruit bags) over each individual peach. Of course, it is time-consuming but totally worth it after you taste your first ripe peach from the tree.
As a matter of fact, grapes are also very easy to grow. After planting the vines and providing them with support, they are almost effortless.
Moreover, we found a disease-free native variety that produces large juicy grapes. Not only it is fun to watch it grow and ripen, but it also has more resveratrol than other types of grapes.
Among other easy fruit to grow, we would name blackberries, elderberries, persimmons, and kumquats. The more varieties you plant, the more fun you’d have harvesting fruit almost non-stop from your backyard.
1. Easy Fruit to Grow: Loquat Trees
The loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) is a large evergreen tree, grown for its orange fruit and for its leaves, which are used to make herbal tea. You almost never see the fruit sold at the supermarket as it is so delicate that it is impossible to transport.
Imagine going to your backyard in winter and smelling the sweet aroma of blooming trees surrounded by bees! Most importantly, in a couple of months, you’ll harvest tender juicy fruit.
Moreover, you can grow loquat fruit trees from your kitchen scraps. Almost all our loquat trees come from seeds of the fruit that a friend shared with us a few years ago. Surprisingly, all these trees provide a good harvest of winter fruit.
They are also nice shade trees that stay evergreen. Even when we don’t have fruit to harvest, we can dry the leaves to make an amazing herbal tea.
2. Easy Citrus Fruit to Grow: Kumquats
Among citrus trees, kumquats are the easiest trees to grow. They can withstand short freezes (though yang trees will need protection) and can produce fruit even when trees are pretty small. The smell of blooming citrus flowers is divine!
3. Growing Grapes in Your Backyard
Of course, it is very tempting to grow grapes in your backyard. However, do your research carefully as many grape varieties are prone to disease that is hard to fight with organic sprays.
With this in mind, we were lucky to find the Mars variety. Not only does it produce a lot of seedless grapes, but it will also spread in the garden if you let the wine touch the ground.
In that case, it will grow the roots and then you can transplant your new grapevine into a different spot. Amazingly, it will produce fruit the same year.
4. Easy Fruit to Grow: Figs
Figs are easy to grow as they are low-maintenance trees that require only extensive pruning at the beginning of the season. You can harvest figs for smoothies, salads, and healthy snacks.
If at any given time you get too many figs, you can always freeze them for later. The freezer is the best way to preserve your fruit if you don’t want to add sugar.
5. Muscadine Grapes
We just love our muscadine grapes! Not only do they produce large juicy grapes, but you can harvest leaves to use for recipes, such as pickled cucumbers or stuffed grape leaves.
Besides pulling the weeds, pruning vines in spring, and watering them when there is not enough rain, they don’t require much care. Of course, putting the net over your grapevines will save the harvest from angry birds.
The muscadine variety doesn’t ripen all at the same time, so it allows you to harvest grapes over an extended period of time. In that case, the net is too much of a hustle as you’d have to lift it to get the grapes.
6. Elderberries
Elderberries are an easy-going shrub. As a matter of fact, we planted 2 of them in the garden and ended up with fifteen after a few years.
They spread by roots and you can transplant new shrubs as they appear near the old ones. It is an impressive sight when elderberries are blooming in the spring.
Later you can harvest the berries and make an elderberry syrup which has nice immune-boosting properties. As buying elderberry syrup is expensive, making your own is a frugal way to stay healthy.
7. Growing Blackberries
We have been growing blackberries for 10 years and besides cutting down old shoots after they are done producing and dried off, there is not much else to do. These giant sweet berries (garden variety) are a delightful addition to your morning cereal or smoothies.
Furthermore, they are packed with vitamin C & K and are high in fiber. They are also a good source of manganese which is vital to healthy bone development and a healthy immune system.
Overall, blackberries are an easy perennial fruit to grow and maintain. All they need is a little corner by the fence and some support.
8. Growing Persimmons
After planting our first persimmon tree, we were pleasantly surprised by how productive these little trees are. On the positive side, they are pest and disease resistant and require almost no maintenance.
The most we have done is little pruning in the spring and protecting fruit from birds. For this reason, large plastic cups work the best. Furthermore, you can reuse them next year.
9. Growing Peaches Is Easy
Growing peaches is very easy and extremely rewarding. After planting our peach tree, we have been harvesting peaches every year.
Of course, some years are better than others but every year you’ll enjoy some fresh fruit from your tree. Besides pruning it in spring and protecting fruit from the birds, there is not much else to do.
Furthermore, you’ll enjoy early spring peach blossoms that look really festive in your backyard and attract a lot of bees. When the harvest is done, the peach tree provides lots of shade and climbing opportunities for the kids.
To summarize, this collection represents some of the easiest fruit to grow in your backyard. Besides being fun and rewarding, it is a frugal way to become more self-sufficient.
Of course, you would not avoid going to the produce section of your supermarket, but you can greatly supplement the fruit variety in your diet and add some needed vitamins and minerals.
