After thinking about your family's food preferences, consider the primary factors below to determine what to grow.

Factors Affecting Choosing What to Grow

Minimum effort for maximum production -- easy to grow: apples, figs, kiwi, pears, squash

• Nutritionally superior: Broccoli, chard, collard greens, kale, edamame
• Space efficient: Broccoli, tomatoes, peppers
• Well adapted to this area: Apples, apricots, feijoas, figs, pears, paw paws, peaches, just to name a few
• High value: Avocados, asian pears, white nectarines
• High yielding: Asian pears, apples, broccoli
• Hard-to-find items: Feijoas, fresh figs, passionfruit, strawberry guavas
• Hard-to-find varieties that are especially flavorful or hard to find vine-ripened: Apricots, lettuces, peaches, pluots
• Items hard to find consistently fresh: Sprouts, lettuce, figs, fresh herbs

If I was only going to grow a limited number of vegetables, based on the criteria above, it would be:

• Broccoli
• Chard
• Collards
• Edamame (fresh shelled soybeans)
• Kale
• Lettuce- can't buy this kind of homeo-grown freshness
• Garden herbs like chives, basil, arugula, mints, lemon verbena and cilantro
• Tomatoes

Six broccoli plants will yield 4-6 lbs. per week for 6 months. Two plantings will provide year around production and only require a 4 foot by 6 foot planting area.

Typical Yield of Common Fruits on Standard Size Tees

• Apples - 10-20 bushels
• Pears - 3 bushels
• Cherries - 50-100 pounds
• Apricots - 50-100 pounds
• Plums - 40-60 pounds
• Peaches and nectarines - 2 to 2-1/2 bushels

Space Saving and Harvest Season Extending Techniques

Close planting and summer pruning to maintain small trees. Many fruit trees can be kept as small as 8 feet tall and 6 feet wide. On such a tree one can have 3-5 varieties ripening over a 3-4 month period. With just 4 trees that are multi-grafted, it is possible to have year around fruit production. In narrow strips, many trees can be espaliered to fit into a 2 foot wide by 6-8 foot long area. It is also possible to plant up to four varieties of similar fruits in one hole.

Fruit trees can replace ornamental landscape trees and shrubs. Where a large shade tree of up to 25-30 feet is desired, a persimmon tree can be planted and grafted with several varieties. A mature persimmon can produce up to 500 lbs. of fruit, which can be dried or the soft ripe pulp can be frozen for year around use.

Fruiting bushes like blueberries, feijoas and strawberry guavas are easy and productive and highly ornamental.

I think some of the most attractive fruit trees include apples, cherries, avocados, persimmons, pears, and figs.

Multi-graft on a single tree to fit many varieties in a small space and to enhance year-round production.

Dave Wilson's Fruit Harvest Calendar can be used to illustrate how only four multi-grafted fruit trees could facilitate year around fruit production

• Tree one: Apricot in late June , mid season pluot in late July, late pluot in mid-August
• Tree two: Washington navel in January to March or a tangerine such as Kinnow tangerine or Lane's Late orange in June to August and Valencia from April to mid-October.
• Tree three: Early apple such as Gravenstein in August, Empire in September to early October and Granny Smith in November to December.
• Tree four: Peaches and nectarines from mid-June to late August

Extend your year around eating by growing fruits with long storage life such as kiwi that store well in the refrigerator for 6-9 months. Granny Smith apples store well for 4-6 months in the refrigerator. Persimmons can be dried or the soft pulp frozen for later use. Grow fruits that are well adapted to freezing or drying or cooking such as applesauce.

Strategies for Urban Food Production

Apartment complexes could provide community gardens and orchards to renters with an arrangement for people who log volunteer hours to be able to get free fruit and other tenants being able to make weekly purchases during harvest season at wholesale prices. Classes could be offered to the apartment renters. Volunteers from the complex willing to manage the food gardens could be given garden training and could then recruit and train others from the complex.

Other Resources

The Master Gardeners regularly offer classes for the public. For more information, check our events page or call us at 408-282-3105 between 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Monday to Friday.

California Backyard Orchard, University of California