Lisa
Your garden sounds like a delicious slice of heaven.
I have tried everything i could think of, and so far, i have lost the battle of keeping any of the Macadamia Nuts,
Mango's and most of the Locuats.
There is a nice looking avocado tree, I planted in 2000, had fruit on it when still in pot, no evidence of it willing to bear anything since, in spite of regular feeding.
If she does not shape up and put out soon, she will be put
out for sure.
I do have some large cluster of Mysore bananas, producing for months now, very sweet, and a treat to be sure.
The carambolas look like they have been on steroids, they are huge, plumb and delicious. Running toward the end of
grapefruit, honey bell tangerine and ugly fruit. They were so delicious, i wish the trees were larger.
The Strawberries i the 2 jars are not living up to expectations. but i still have hopes for them.
I would love to plant some bushes of blueberries and raspberries this year.
The tomatoes and peppers are outproducing themselves, along with all the green beans etc.
There are fields of caralabe,onion, radihes, dill, chives,parsley etc. planted to feed the neighbourhood.
Mother will be returning to Europe soon, and she wants to make sure "we don't starve to death".
Still, it is fun to run outside, get a handful of assorted crispy lettuce leafs, a tomato or two and toss together a great salad.
Irene

Let's see...

Right now I've got two mayhaws, 5 satsumas (Owari and Armstrong Early), one kumquat, one loquat, one goumi, three pawpaws (Mango, Pinapple, LA Native), two jujubes (Lang, and Sherwood), two Medlars (Puccimol, Large Russian), two pears (forgot the names...), 700ish rabbiteye blueberries (Climax, Premier, Powderblue, Tifblue, Ocklocknee, Austin, Brightwell), 100ish southern highbush blueberries (Legacy, Jubilee, Magnolia), two peaches (Texstar, Sam Huston), and three Kiwi's (Saaniction, Elmwood, and one male). Also a bunch of fig cuttings and one celeste fig tree affectionatly named Philip the Fig.

Our 'front yard' is most of our 17 acre property. To be honest though, the jujubes and medlars are in the side yard.

Most of them are fairly young and have yet to reach bearing age. Katrina took about 100 of our pines, which has given us a lot more open space to put edibles, although I miss the 80ft + pies very much.

Lisa,
I'm two zones colder than you, but I would love to be able to grow my own mangoes and Papayas and pineapples. Is it feasable to grow them in containers and bring them in during a freeze? I'd love to hear about the side and backyard plants, btw!

Irene, what happens to your Macadamias, Mangos and Loquats? I have not had much luck with Avocados-they seem super sensitive to everything and drop leaves at any excuse. My Wurtz Avo flowered last year, looked quite good after I had ignored it for a year, so I moved it to the patio. It is now just a stick with a few leaves.. Sigh..

Blueberries are fun to grow, but I sure don't like the thorns on my Raspberries. Thornless Blackberries are much easier to work with and taste wonderful!

Sounds like your veggie garden is doing great! I agree with your Mother, that growing your own food is important, and fun(G).

Idogcow, I would kill for 17 acres! Wow! You have some great varieties of edibles that we can't grow down here.

I miss my pine trees too:(.

You could sure grow dwarf Mangos in containers, and get fruit. Papayas would be more difficult, they need lots of heat for months before they fruit.

Okay, you asked for it(G).

Side and back yard plants:

Fuyo Persimmon, Moro Orange, Navel orange, Temple Tangelo, Robinson Tangerine, Brown Turkey Figs, Celeste Figs, lots more Bananas, Julie Mango, two Mia-1 Jackfruit trees, 2 Carambolas, 9 Peach trees, 20 Apache Blackberries, a whole bed full of different Blueberries, American Beauty Dragonfruits, Black Sapote, 7 Pear Trees, 11 Apple trees, 3 Lemon Trees (Bearss, Eureka, Meyer) 3 Lime trees (Persian), Pummelo, Ruby Red Grapefruit, Thompson Seedless Grapefruit, Winterset Persimmon, 7 varieties of Grapes, Satsuma Mandarin, 3-4 more varieties of Tangerines, Fairchild Mango, Brewster Lychee, another Macadamia Nut tree, 3 more Plum trees, 5 big Peaches and Nectarines in containers-(to be planted this week), Chayas, Neem, Cinnamon, Raspberries, lots of seedling Cherimoyas, Sugar Apples, Sapodillas, Mamey Sapotes, and the overflowing veggie gardens.

Sounds like a lot, but with mostly dwarf trees, many in containers, we have plenty of grassy lawn area left. I use Dave Wilson's ideas of intensive plantings and my 11 Apple-tree-orchard is a very small area, with the trees in open-bottomed whiskey barrels.

I'm making a screening planting of mixed fruit trees to run along the west side of the property, this week. Hopefully it will be pretty as well as productive.

Lisa

Good Morning Lisa
My macadamia nut tree is filled with nuts each year. It looks SO good, until the squirrels come, and overnight the tree is empty of fruit.
Same holds true for the mango, with the exception, that under the tree is covered with fruit, from which a bite has been taken.
Loquats are mostly the birds.
There are so many of them, that i get only a taste of the fruit.
I actually don't mind the locuats so much, only because the number and variety of birds living off of the fruit is wonderful to see. Listening to so many birds singing in the
morning is a thrilling experience for me.
The avocado never looses any leaves, looks lush, and is growing like a weed.
Nevertheless, my patience only goes so far, and the disappointing lack of avocados is not acceptable.
All the citruses, including the pomelo has outproduced themselves and i just love that.

the research i have done regarding the blueberries makes me think, i need at least 3 variety, but i am still not sure which one they should be.
Someone on the Florida forum mentioned a thorn less raspberry, i will have to find the reference, as i have just the place for the berries, which we both love.
we only have an acre, with rather a large house spread out on it, and i am also restricted by very strict homeowners association rules.
This make me have and Herb garden, not a veggie garden, is that the funniest thing ever.
I bet 17 acres would solve that problem.
Irene

Lisa,

Wow. Thats a lot of fruit. I haven't even heard of some of those :P You're making me wish I lived in the tropics :P

I'd love to put in some blackberries though, although we have enough each year since brambles cover a decent percentage of our property. Not as tasty, though. How is Apache as far as taste is concerned? It's thornless, right?

Irene,
If you're going to grow Rabbiteye blueberries you will need a few different varieties for cross pollination. Southern Highbush doesn't need cross pollination, but they're more picky and not as vigorous. I think both are grown in Flordia.
If you go rabbiteye, my favorite varieties (of the ones I've tried) are Priemer, Tifblue, and Climax. Although, Priemer and Climax may flower to early for cross-pollinization with Tifblue. Not sure.
However, if you can get your hands on Austin or Ocklocknee, they're pretty new and supposed to be awesome. I planted some last year but have yet to try the fruit. Ocklocknee is around the same time as Tifblue, so they should cross-pollinate fine.

Dear Irene, I'm so sorry about you losing your fruit/nuts to the wasteful tree rats! I have terrible problems with them too, and do my best to reduce the population with gun/traps/dogs. I wouldn't mind sharing, but as you described, they take it all, and ruin (don't even eat) much of it. So far, they took all my Peaches, Apples and Macadamias last year, except those from trees in pots on the patio. With the loss of so many pine trees, I expect them to be less of a problem this year, since they can't reach my fruit trees via an overhead route. They will have to get on the ground, and if they do, my little Jack Russell Terrier will catch them. I'm also going to make wire cages to completely cover the orchard trees. No HOA here, so I can do as I please. (G)

So far, nothing has eaten the Mangos or Loquats. I check my trees daily and pick the ripe fruit, to try to beat the critters. The catbirds are really hurting the tomato crop now- they peck big holes in them as soon as they get a little color. They have not bothered the yellow or green striped ones, only the red and pink ones.

My Blueberry bed is a mix of all the low-chill varieties I could get. They are great fun to grow, and oh so good to eat. You will have to net them to prevent theft by birds though.

Lisa

Idogcow, every zone has its pitfalls-ours is year-round insect/pest problems, lack of chill hours, too much or too little rain, burning sun and of course, hurricanes..

I would love to grow Kiwis, Apricots and true Cherries.

Yes, Apache is a thornless Blackberry, very easy to grow and delicious! The canes are upright.

I missed your Pineapple question. They are really easy to grow from a top twisted off a grocery store fruit. They are slow growing, like rather dry soil, and get very large! Some of the ones grown here in the sand get 4' across and about 3' tall. They can be grown in a pot, but I don't know if you could get one to fruit in zone 8. They love heat and full sun.

Do you like Citrus? There are lots of choices that do well in containers and will produce for you indoors.

What are you going to do with all your Blueberries?

Lisa

Oops, sorry Idogcow, I reread your original post and saw that you already do have citrus. I have 2 Satsumas, that I like very much. Do you like sour citrus at all? My favorites that are small trees are Ponderosa Lemons and Persian Limes. Both grow and produce heavily in containers.

An excellent source for dwarf (condo) Mango varieties is Pine Island Nursery. Mine are blooming now.

Lisa

I suppose your right about every zone having it's pitfalls, although 8 seems sort of shoved in the middle of two worlds. Too hot for some things, too cold for others. We can't grow cherries, except for the Native black cherries. Or apples. That pains me the most, I love apples. I might try anyhow, the problem is our ridiculously humid summers that fungi seem to enjoy so well. I'd also have to find a variety with very low chilling requirements.

I looove citrus. I'm so glad I can grow satsumas here, since they're my favorite citrus fruit. We don't have them in containers either, we just throw blankets over them when it gets under 27 degrees or so, which is usually just a couple nights a year.
Yes, I like sour citrus. We have a Myer lemon tree that I forgot to put down on the list. It took some unexpected winter injury last year, and I had to prune it back a good bit, so it's not doing great, but we've gotten a few lemons off of it. I'd like to get a lime tree.

Thanks for the pineapple info.

We plan on selling the blueberries at the farmer's market. Whatever we can't sell there we'll send to the wholesale co-op in Mississippi. After I finished high-school a couple years back I decided to ditch the idea of college and help my Dad start a small, diversified, sustainable farm. The blueberries were our first commercial investment. We also have started raising pastured chickens. We've been keeping them in our orchards to help fertilize the trees. We're also experimenting with a bunch of other commercial crops. Shiitake mushrooms, market gardening, etc. I'd really like to grow Pawpaw's commercially, I think they have a lot of potential.

We're just getting started, really. Once we have more confidence in our ability to actually do all this, we'd like to turn it into a CSA. Until then, we're just going to sell at the local farmer's markets. The family thinks we're crazy, but I shudder at the idea of having a full-time job that kept me away from my garden for so many hours a day :P

So THAT is what happens to my tomatoes!!!!
I am forced to pick the 2-3 days before they would be perfectly ripe, or somehow big bites are taken from each of them.
The fruit trees are a case of the agony and the Ecstasy.
As much as i would like a little dog, my asthma forces me to love them from afar. My husband does go out with his Bebe gun, and chases the critters away.
I laugh, and call him my "big brave hunter"
-for obvious reasons.
Thank you both for the recommendations of blueberry variety. I will try 4-5 of them.
My husband and i cant get enough of them, and they are also very good for us. What a bonus.

Idogcow,
I wish you a lot of success with your endeavour.
It sounds like you made the right choice. I wish we could all do what makes life fulfilling for us.
Unfortunately, most of us either are afraid of such commitments are concerned of failure.
It is a very big step, and you have a lot of hard work ahead of you, but you also have the satisfaction of doing what makes you feel whole.
That is very important.

Your way of raising chickens will result in a taste unknown on most American tables.
Someone raised in "Old Europe" would know immediately what the difference will be.

I hope you will have some way of putting together a simple marketing package, and let the chefs in better restaurants know of what will be available from you.
Having a few great restaurant connections, and having a great web page will cost a few dollars, but
The return on your investment will be far greater, and more consistent with least amount of extra work on your part.
Especially if you combine it with the more"exotic" mushrooms.
You can not loose, Go for it.

Irene

Idogcow, why can't you have Apple trees? It is awfully hot and humid in S Florida, and my 5 varieties do very well here.

We get too few chill hours some years, but all I have to do is hand-strip off all the leaves (easy on dwarf trees) and the trees are fooled into thinking it is time to come out of winter dormancy. All my low-chill varieties produce heavily and early, so by the time the worst of the summer rains and hurricanes start, they are all done.

I have all of my Apple trees in containers. The ones in the orchard are in half whiskey barrels with the bottoms knocked out. The rest are in containers on my patio. I prefer small trees for ease of care, so I prune in summer and winter, and buy on dwarfing rootstocks. The worst problem I've had with my apple trees is theft of the fruit. They have been disease free and easy to care for.

Bay Laurel has fabulous Apple trees, as does Just Fruits and Exotics.

I loved reading about your plans for your farm! I wish I could do the same thing, and I guess I am, on a much smaller scale. When my tropicals get up to full production, I will be going to the Green Markets to sell excess fruits.
I have 3 good-sized Mamey Sapotes, which can produce 500-800 plus fruits each, 2 Jackfruit trees (40lb fruits), 3 Sapodillas and 3 mature Sugar Apple Trees. As much as I love fruit, those will produce way too much for 2 people(G).

How do you protect your fruit from birds and other pests like squirrels?

Lisa

Here is a link that might be useful: Apple tree and Palms

Hmmm...I didn't see that you had apples until now. Hmmm. Well, I guess if you can grow apples down there, there's no reason I can't...Everyone I've talked to down here has had very pessimistic things to say concerning apples, so I didn't ever try. What varieties do you have?

Do you have any of those columnar apples? They look pretty awesome

I haven't had many pest problems, since most of the trees have yet to reach bearing age. The birds probably eat some of the blueberries, but not enough to make a difference. I asked one blueberry grower what he does about birds, and his answer was "Well, someone has to feed them". Another grower I know has a purple martin house in between his orchard and CSA garden, and he says they chase all the other birds away, as well as dining on insect pests. I also plan to plant some mulberry trees around. I hear the bird will eat them before many other more valuable fruits.

Now with the veggie garden, I've had lots of pest problems. Primarily spotted cucumber beetles. Flea beetles as well, but the weirdest problem I've yet to run into was birds pooping on my tomatoes. Never ate them, just perched on the cages and turned the leaves and new fruit from green to white...Weird.

Irene,
Thanks for the kind words.

On farm marketing has been gaining popularity, and it sounds pretty simplistic. I know this one guy in Alabama who raises pastured chickens- like 15,000 a year- and sells them all right off his farm. He was a goodly distance from any large cities too. I'd love to be able to sell right off the property

I've talked to some caterers about buying from us, they weren't overly enthusiastic. I'm going to have to check into a few resturants. I'm not too far from New Orleans, but the future of resturants down there is pretty uncertian, I expect.

BTW, I keep hearing people talking about loquats. I didn't know anyone called them that until recently. I grew up around New Orleans and it was a popular landscape tree, but everyone called them 'Japanese Plums'. Was that just a local thing? Or do people call them that elsewere?

While on the subject of loquats, most of the ones I've seen are seedling grown, but I've heard of some grafted varieties that were selected for smaller seeds. I think one of them was called 'Advance' or 'Advantage' or something. Ya'll ever heard of these?

James

Hey James,

I was also told that I couldn't grow Apples here. That was 5-6 years ago, and they were dead wrong. I have Tropic Sweet, Anna, Ein Schemer, Pettingill, and Dorsett Golden. If you get them on dwarfing roostocks, you can prune them into any shape you want and keep them under 8'. The columnar Apple varieties I've seen offered are too high- chill for me. Plus, I really like the looks of a normal Apple tree, with regularly spaced branches, loaded with fruit.

I sure hope the birds don't like Mulberries too much-I want all those sweet berries for myself! I picked a few handfulls today- they were super! Birds here will eat all the Blueberries, but I only have about 30 plants and it is pretty easy to cover them.

Please send some tomato-pooping-on birds to me, and I'll trade you my tomato-eating birds... I'd rather wash the fruit than work around the beak wounds(G).

There are quite a few Loquat varieties. Mine is a grafted one that tastes like juicy Apricots. It has flowers, new fruit and ripe fruit all at the same time. I do not remember the variety.

Do you grow any regular low-chill Plums? I have 7 of them and they are nice trees with delicious fruit - easy to grow.

Lisa

Here is a link that might be useful: Loquat info

FWIW, I've been able to reduce bird damage on tomatoes (when I only had a small number of vulnerable ones) by bagging them in the net bags from lemons or onions. As you note, the birds are most interested in the red ones, so yellow, green or light orange bags seem to confuse them. As I recall, I just used a big twisttie to attach a bag, then moved it to the next fruit in need when the first was ready for harvest.

Front yard only:

passionfruit along the fence - got 4 kilos in the first year of fruiting

olive tree - small and having its flush of flowers

bush lemon - a seedling about 50cm tall

garlic

ceylon salad plant

loquat

longan - another seedling coping quite well

marigolds

and I'd have more if there was more space ;-)

2 apples - red delicious and grimes golden
5 female kiwi (4 Anna 1 Ken's Red) 5 males too
Canadice Grape
6 pawpaws (3 seedlings, 1 Rappahannok, 2 Shannandoah)
3 Passion flower Incarnata
10 Red Raspberries
4 Golden Raspberries
3 Loganberries
1 Boysenberry
3-5 Black Raspberries
1 Illinios Everbearing Mulberry
3 Seaberries (adding 1 sweet variety this spring)
8 cherry bushes (6 nanking, 2 Hansens)
2 Goumi bushes
1 Hardy Chicago Fig
1 Panachee Fig (potted)
2 White Texas Everbearing figs (potted)
5 blueberry bushes
5 serviceberry bushes
1 serviceberry tree
2 Manchurian Apricots
2 hazelnuts
1 Harry Lauder's hazelnut
1 Japanese plum
5 Red Currants (Red Lake)
3 White Currants
1 Pink Currant
1 Rubarb
15 yellow Wonder strawberries
??? Jerusalem Artichokes
3 Fruiting Rugosa Roses

I'm sure I'll remember something else later...I do also have some really great tasting daylilies ...A banana in a pot...7 varieties of passionflowers in pots...

Adding this year....Asian Persimmon.....Che......Clove Currant....Magnolia Vine...Wyeberry....Autumn olive....Yellowhorn...

~Chills

And I've only got an eighth of an acre

Remembered I had forgotten these...So add these to the above list...

1 Gooseberry Pixwell
3-4 wolfberries
1 Wintergreen
Bamboo (Yellow Groove)
3 Elderberries

~Chills

at the moment, i have lots of fruiting trees/vines/plants although some were planted this year and wont be fruiting until next year. i have a citrus area, where i have

honey murcott mandarins (2)
dwarf Valencia Orange (2)
Lisbon Lemon (1)
Sweet Lime (1)
Cara Cara Valencia Orange (1- from Venezuela)
Variegated pink lemon (1)
all these are in the landscape mixed with other plants such as gardenia, camellia, cannas, callas, hostas, and small perrenials and annuals.

i also have a corner of my yard where i have a

mexicola avocado
Dwarf Hybrid Avocado
Stella Cherry (1)
Bing Cherry (2)
Rainer Cherry (1)
Motmorency Cherry (1)
Santa Rosa Plum (1)
Mariposa Plum (1)
Apricott (1)
Pomagranite (1)
Fig (1)
Asian Pear (1)
Two other cherries i cant think of right now

and i am ready to plant the following fruit trees which i have grown myself:

Loquat (4)
Mamey-Sapote (1)
Guava (20+)
Annona Squamosa (2)
Cherimolla (2)
Paw-Paw (2)
Papaya (10+)

Other fruiting plants i have mixed into the landscape include

Giant Granadilla (Passiflora Quadrangularis)
Maypop (Passiflora Cerulea)
Seedless Ruby Grape
Red Raspberries (3)
Dwarf Cardaba Banana
Dwarf Unknown Banana
And a Gigantic unknown banana

im looking foreward to eating all those goodies in the summer!

j

In my yard now is
5 dwarf citrus-2 murcotts, dream navel, hamlin, valencia
3 reg. citrus-cara cara, meyers lemon, honeybell
1 dwarf ice cream mango
kiett mango
tice mulberry
weeping mulberry
unknown mulberry
ordered pakistan mulberry
ordered 5 triple crown blackberry
2 aparaho blackberry
1 jaboticaba
ice cream bamama
praying hands banana
raji puri banana
nino banana
kru banana
randia formosa-blackberry jam fruit
4 pineapples
tomatoes
bayleaf
raspberry
4 large (15gal)blueberries
miricle fruit
I think that is it.

Good Afternoon,

We have 1 1/3 acres. The front east side of our property is my "stone" fruit grove (even though some of these are not stone fruit). I have the following trees there:

Apple
Peach
Nectarine
Pear
Avacado
Persimmon
Plum
Mango
Pomegranate

I have just ordered additional trees for this area including:

Apricot
Jujuba
PawPaw
Pluot
Aprium
Asian Pear

Our front west yard is our citrus grove. There we have:

Pink Grapefruit
Yellow Grapefruit
Varigated Pink Lemon
Harvey Lemon
Key Lime
Navel Orange
Orange

I have in pots ready to be planted:

Finger Lime
Red Lime
Persian Lime
Blood Orange
Satsuma Orange

The east side of our house which has a creek running along it has:

Bay
Banana numerous
Plantain
Pineapple numerous
Monstera Deliciosa
Miracle Berry
Coffee
Cinnamon
Papaya

I am looking for a carambola to add to this area as well.

Our east rear yard which backs to the golf course has:

Passionfruit
Lychee

Our back west yard is my berry area. We have:

Blackberry
Blueberry
Barbados Cherry (Acerola)
Rio Grande Cherry
Strawberry
Seedless Grapes
Muscadine Grapes

I just ordered for this area to be shipped in January:
Goji Berries
Kiwi
Orangeberry
Mandarin Melon Berry

The west side of our property has:

Mulberry
Loquat
Pineapple Guava
Strawberry Guava
Brown Turkey Fig
Moujean Tea
Eugenia Confusa

Our entire front yard, which is about 1/2 acre is ready for relandscaping. We anticipate using that for our nut trees. I have almond, pistachio, macadamia, pecan and date palm in mind. We are working with a landscaper to have our circular driveway lined with coconut palms.

In my herb garden I have:
diviners sage
cardamom
cuban oregano
nastrutium
turmeric
aloe
feverfew
spilanthes toothache plant
self heal
mesclun
numerous common herbs, ie, rosemary, basil, pasley, oregano, etc.

In my earthboxes I have tomatoes and beans.

I still have space for about 20 additional trees and am trying to figure out what to put where. About 1/3 to 1/2 of our trees are mature. The others are anywhere from 1-4 years old.

It is my overall plan to have the vast majority of our property landscaped with edibles within the next year or two. We have lived here for almost 10 years and have been working on it during that time. It's my wish to have all of our trees producing before our children are grown.

I'm happy to share seeds from fresh fruit that I have producing right now, including key lime, barbados cherry, pomegranate, etc.

Blessings,

Kelly

Hi,
I enjoyed reading about the edibles in everyone's yard. You folks put us to shame. We have 21 acres and you have tons more fruit than we do but we're working on it:-)
We have:
12 apple trees
6 plum trees
2 peach trees
5 cherry trees (Lapins, Sam, unknown varieties)
2 Cornus mas
1 Cornus kousa
20 or so blueberries
20 or so grapes
red and purple raspberries
blackberries
strawberries
gooseberries (Hinomaki Gold and Achilles)
red currants
white currants
2 pear trees
hardy kiwis-Anna, Michigan State and males
asparagus

We have planted pawpaws and American persimmons but the deer ate them. We need to try again now that we have a big dog and the deer don't give us so much trouble. I would also love to have a fig and some dwarf citrus. We would have to bring them inside during the winter. anotehr thing I want to get is a white mulberry.

You all are making me hungry!!
VG

Nothing bearing fruit as of yet, but patiently waiting for
Avocado
Brown Turkey Fig
Soursop
3-Unknown Bananna
Ice Cream Bannana
Countless muscadine
Brazos Blackberry
Hybrid TyTy Boysenberry
2-Star Blueberry
2-Sharp Blue Blueberry
2-Misty Blueberry
2- Dragon Fruit
1- Pineapple
1- Pumello
1- Hap Ki Lychee
1- each Bell peppers, yellow, red, green
1- cherry tomatoe
4 - Everberry strawberries
1- Rosemary
1- Tarragon
1- Stevia
1- Lemon Balm
1 -Parsley
12- varieties of Chiles

Lisa-
I am so happy I found this post since I would have never thought that we could grow apples, nectarines or peaches here in the Palm Beach area. We are in Loxahatchee around the corner on 1.3 ac. I listed what we have going on now above and want to increase that by double to become more self sustaining. Oh, I forgot we have a Pom also.

I checked out your photo album and website. We have a Bull Mastiff and an American Bulldog. Always were American Bulldog owners and due to the constant health issue no matter how well we scrutinized the line we decided to try the Mastiff. Love her to death, but damn are they "Bullheadead" ;-). I noticed you have used wire fencing or mesh to create berms around some plant or patio areas, is that to keep the dogs off? Our Bullmastiff Kaya is a plant lover and NOT in a good way. She picks flowers - TO EAT THEM, she helps in the garden by removing plants she feels are not worthy and proceeds to transform them into compost ;-). She is so bad that she will stand up on her rear legs like a bear to eat saw palmetto berries off the palms! No fruit for her to pick yet, but I am sure she is getting excited...lol. I love that you feed RAW, but have no idea how you can afford that with so many large dogs!!! We have tried with 2-3 100+ lb. Amer. Bulls and it was just not feasible. Even supplementing got hard to afford. We compromised by feeding Timberwofl Organics, but these days that has become unaffordanble at $70 per 32 lbs.!

Anyway, I know I am off subject for the forum so onto gardening. Do you have so many of your trees in pots due to being gun shy after the hurricanes we had? I am still somewhat gun shy, but am starting to get some things out of pots and in the ground. I will up plant most plants now since the wet ground killed more than the wind did, the pines are another story.

I went on Just Fruits and Exotics site and will order 2 of the apples there and probably a Tropic Snow peach since it seems to be working so well for you. They do have many varieties and some with lower chill hour requirements than that that one, why did you pick it?

Where did you get your nectarine since I do not see yours on their site?
Also, where did you get the Cacoa plant and how does it do? I love raw cacoa nibs!

Lastly, Do you garden organically? If so, I will have more questions and maybe some info to share.

Thanks again for sharing, hope all is well with the garden, dogs etc. since this post is a bit dated.

From from to back:

Artichokes
sunflowers
ginger
epazote
eggplants
peppers (many)
tomatillos
tomatoes (several)
marjoram
thyme
Washingon oranges (2)
blood orange
grapefruit
corn (blue)
amaranth (red and green)
peas
okra
roses (hips are edible)
watermelon
cantaloupe
honeydew
chick peas (garbanzos)
peach (2)
beers lime
eureka lemon
juice orange
Tangerine
Pecan
lemon verbena
rosemary
lavender
Meyers lemon
Nectarine
figs (2)
nasturtiums
cucumbers
green pole beans (purple and yellow wax)
mint (spearmint)
oregano
kaffir lime
Minneola trees (2)
carrots
beets
chives
basil
sage
yellow straight neck squash
acorn squash
butternut squash
lettuces
arugula
parsley
bush beans (various types)
bay leaves bush

Hey there! sounds like you all have a ton of edibles in your yards. I am blessed to live in a warm climate where i can grow many fruits, but certainly not all that i would like. These are the edibles that i grow in my yard now:

Musa "cardaba"
Carica Papaya - miniature type from Hawaii
Jujube "Li"
Passiflora Edulis "Frederick"
Passiflora Edulis (unknown variety from seeds collected in El Salvador)
Passiflora Quadrangularis
Passiflora Cerulea
Meyer Lemon
Cara Cara Navel Orange
Mexican Sweet Lime
Minneola Tangelo
Valencia Orange
Variegated Pink Lemon
Murcott Mandarin
Persimmon Hachiya
Sechium Edule
Apricotts
Plums (Santa Rosa and Mariposa)
Cherries (Bing and Stella)
Almonds
Punica Granata (Pomegranate)
Jubaea Chilensis (far from fruiting)
Butia Capitata (not yet fruiting)
Honeydew Melons
Cantaloups
Lemon Guava
Tropical Pink guava
Tropical white guava
Rosemary - (herb)
Strawberries

And i have the following seedlings in pots:
Carambola (starfruit)
Annona Squamosa
Rambutan

I'm sure our lists will just continue to grow with time!

I have 20 citrus trees planted in the ground, several more still in pots: nagami kumquat (mislabeled as a meiwa from lowes), honeybell tangelo, honeybell tangerine, ruby red grapefruit, flame grapefruit, duncan grapefruit, a seedling grapefruit that I started from seed, blood orange - unknown variety, red naval orange, pink variagated eureka lemon, persian lime, hamlin orange, sambokan lemon (aka sambo grapefruit), ponderosa lemon, 3 meyers lemons, and a few varieties which I'm not sure of.

I've got four mayhaws: one thornless seedling, one thornless reliable?, big red, and one masons.

Two different varieties of blueberries (can't remember) and probably a wildblueberry of unknown variety which I'm trying to produce cuttings from.

Southern bababerry, dewberries, unknown trailing pie blackberry, black satin blackberry, apache blackberry, navajo blackberry, thornless boysenberry, arapaho, ouchita, and kiowa blackberries.

kiwis: ken's red, anna, elmwood, tomuri.

Apples: anna, ein shemer, fuji, unknown seedling, golden dorsett, chenango strawberry, and cinnamon spice.

edible palms: Pindo/jelly palm, Micharo palm

Pears: pineapple, comice, baldwin

Persimmons: giant fuyu, tanenashi

Plums: santa rosa

Peaches: Floridaking, Floridaprince

Nectarine: sunsomething? not doing very well

Figs: brown turkey, black mission

Pomegranates: wonderful

Grapes: at least 8 different varieties of muscadines and four types of southern bunch grapes

Pawpaws: Seedling varieties

Others: Pineapple guava/feijoa, chinese magnolia vine, Sweet olive tea tree (well, kind of edible, they use it to put in teas to make them fragrant, and they smell just like apricots), dandelions (most people consider it a weed, but I make teas out of it often - it can be made into wines or eaten with salads, even fried with bacon they say)

Nuts: unknown pecan varieties, dunstan chestnuts

Mulberries: White mulberries, red mulberries, pakistan mulberry

Lets see what I have, Hum!
16 different varieties Blueberries.
7 different currants. anything more than one is a different variety O.K.
4 Gooseberries
2 Honeyberries
1 Arona
1 Autumn Olive
1 Azarole
3 Sea Berries
Yellowhorne Three trees
1 Wolfberry
5 Sweet Cherries
4 Peach
1 Goumi
3 Mulberry
2 Pineapple Guava
10 Plums
5 Apples
24 Grape
5 Raspberry 15 plants
1 Prinsepia
2 Quince
1 Golden Silverberry
2 Chestnut
2 Heart nut
6 Filberts
1 Wallnut1 1 Black Walnut
1 Chilean Guava
1 Cranberry
2 Elderberry
1 Gaulnettya
5 Kiwis
1 Magnolia Vine
1 Ogeechee Lime
1 Chinese Strawberry Tree
1 Sassafrass Three Trees
5 Strawberry about 100 plants
and I just know I'm forgetting a few.
Ken

Add these to the list:

Orange Quince
Smyrna Quince
Spring Satin Plumcot

Wow Mudflapper, that's impressive. If you live in the South Sound, maybe you could hook me up with some Currant cuttings next fall :)

Here is what perennial or self seeding annual edibles I have currently:

9 varieties of Blueberries
4 varieties of Currants
3 v. of Raspberries
2 v. of Gooseberries
Strawberries
Cherries
Apple
Hazelnut
Jostaberries
Wintergreen
Evergreen Huckleberry
Red Huckleberry
Oregon Grape
Salal
Asparagus
3 v. of Rosemary
4 v. of thyme
4 v. of mints
Italian Parsley
Greek Oregano
French Tarragon
Chives
Garlic Chives

Add some more (too bad you can't edit your posts):

Paw Paw 'Mango'
Purple Passion Flower (aka passion fruit)
Goumi 'Sweet Scarlet'
Kiwi 'Issai' - hardy kiwi, semi self-fertile supposedly
Quince 'AROMATNAYA' - A Russian Variety
Pomello 'Hirado Buntan'

Going to the flea market this morning to see what other types of citrus they have today. Hopefully, I'll be able to get in another order or two online before the shipping season is up as well.

Southsounder, thanks for the complement... and I would name names but many others have far more than I, but give me a few years! anyway I live in Oregon, west of Salem. If you are ever down this way you would be welcome to stop by and see if there is anything you would like.
Ken

Well I just got started a few months ago and can only buy stuff on occasion due to finances. I live in SW Florida, Cape Coral to be exact. Here is my humble list.

Black Sapote (chocolate pudding fruit)
Nam Doc Mai Mango
Voo Doo Child Dragon fruit
Unknown white fleshed Dragon fruit
Tropic Beauty Peach
Sun Best Nectarine
Bush type Macadamia, they called it an Aussie at Echo
Atemoya
Dwarf Banana
Variegated Pink Lemon
Guava
Black Suriname Cherry
Jabotacaba
Sharp, Misty and O'Neal Blueberries
Navaho Blackberry

I plan on adding at least 3 more varieties of Blueberry, 2 of Blackberry, Raspberry, Sylas Wood Sapodilla, low chill apples and plums, Miracle Fruit, and maybe a Mamey Sapote. Some others I may add as well but I am waiting to sample the fruit. Room is limited due to the dang swimming pool. Maybe I will fill it in and turn it into a planter hehe.

A few more additions:

1x Marsh white grapefruit
2x more pawpaws, seedlings
1x male hardy kiwi (for the 3x hardy females I already have)
1x male arctic kiwi
1x female arctic kiwi

Wow - you guys astound me. I live in the middle of Los Angeles and am just now trying my hand at a few things.

1 Satin black blackberry that is doing surprisingly well - several fruit ripening

1 willamette raspberry that looks small and probably won't bear til next year, but seems healthy

1 sunshine blueberry that we bought with fruit, but is already flowering again - the fruit is not yet ripe

1 sharpblue blueberry that is still small and probably won't bear until next year

7 tomato plants, 3 eggplant (2v)
2 crookneck squash
and
12 strawberry plants

depending on my luck I may try something new and more exotic next year - we'll see. You guys are an inspiration!

This is an update to my 2006 list. We've added many more varities and most things are fruiting now.

FRUIT & SPICE TREES

Acai Palm
Allspice
Ambarella
Apple Anna
Apple Dorset Golden
Atemoya Gefner Grafted
Avacado Haas
Avacado Fuerte
Banana
Bay Rum
Blackberry
Black Sapote Seedless
Black Walnut
Blueberry
Blueberry Gulf Coast
Blueberry Sharp
Blueberry Windsor
Cocao
Calomondin
Camellia Sinesis, Tea
Cashew Apple
Cercropia
Cherry Black Grafted Surinam
Cherry Grumichama
Cherry Rio Grand
Cherry Barbados
Cherry Dwarf Barbados
Chestnut Malibar
Cinnamon
Coffee
Dragon Fruit
Eucalyptus
Eugenia Confusa
Fig Brown Turkey
Fig Green Isha
Fig Kadota
Goji Berry
Grapefruit Pink
Grapefruit Yellow
Grapes Bunch
Grapes Muscadine
Guave Chattey
Guava Pineaple
Guava Ruby
Guava Strawberry
Guava
Jaboticaba
Joy Perfume Michelia Champaca
Jujube
Katok
Kiwi Tomuri m&f
Lemon Harvey
Lemon Sambukan
Lemon Varigated Pink
Lime Key
Lime Kaffir
Lime Persian
Lime Red
Longan Kahola
Loquat
Lychee Hakip
Lychee Maritius
Mango
Mango Carrie
MANGOSTEEN
Michelia Alba
Michela Champaca
Miracle Fruit
Mombin Red
Monstera Deliciosa
Moringa (Horseradish Tree)
Mulberry Dwarf
Mulberry Shangrila
Natal Plum
Nectarine Sun Raycer
Neem
Olive Fremtoya
Orange
Orange Dwarf Navel
Orange Red Blood
Orange Ortanique
Orange Tarocco Blood
Papaya
Passionfruit Yellow
Peach Red Cylon
Peach Tropic Beauty
Peanut Butter Fruit
Pear
Pear Pineapple
Persimmon Ichibe Juro
Persimmon Triumph
Pineapple, Golden
Pistachio
Plantain
Plum Gulf Rose
Pomegranate Dwarf
Pomegranate Vietnamese
Rambutan
Rose Apple
Spanish Lime
Strawberry
Strawberry Tree
Sugar Cane
Tamarind
Tangelo
Tangerine Murcott
Tangerine Satsuma
Wax Jambu Thai Red Sunset
White Sapote
Yerba Mate

HERBS

Allheal
Alow
Arnica Montana
Anise hyssop
Bacopa
Bacopa, Lemon
Basils, Greek Columnar, Lemon, Lettuce Leaf, Lime, Sweet
Bay Tree
Bay Rum
Bergamot (Monarda)
Betel
Betony
Borage
Calendula
Camelia sinesis
Caper bush
Cardamom
Catnip
Chives, Garlic & Onion
Cilantro
Comfrey
Coriander
Culantro
Curry Plant
Daisy
Dill, Boquet & Fernleaf
Echinacea
Fennel, Bronze & Sweet
Feverfew
Fuschia
Galangal True
Gardenia
Garlic Society
Geranium, Apple, Citronella, Lemon Sculpture, Rose
Ginger
Ginkgo
Goji Berries
Gotu kola
Greek mountain tea
Gynura
Henna
Hibiscus, Edible & False Roselle
Honeysuckle
Horseradish
Jasmine
Arabian Tea & Confederate
Lambs Ear
Lavender
Lemon balm
Lemon grass
Lemon verbena
LionÂs tail
Marjoram
Marshmallow
Mint, Apple, Berries & Cream, Blackberry, Chocolate, Citrus kitchen, Corsican, Costa rican Kama Sutra, Cotton candy, English, Grapefruit, Hazelnut, Italian spice, JimÂs Fruit, Lavender. Lemon sweet, Margarita, MarilynÂs Salad, Mojito, Mountain, Orange Bergamot Oregano thyme, Pennyroyal, Spearmint, Sweet pear, Wintergreen, Yerba buena
Monarda
Moujean tea/Bahama Berry/Pineapple Verbena
Mullein
Murraya koeniggi
Myrtle greek
Nasturtium
Oregano, Cuban, Italian, Mexican
Pandanus Amaryllifolius
Papalo
Parsley, Curled & Flat Leaf
Pepper, Black Pepper Vine, Chili, Habernero, Jalapeno, Ornamental, Red Pepper Vine, Tabasco
Perilla
Purslane
Root beer plant
Rose, Bon Silene Tea, Champneys pink cluster, Climbing don juan, Double red, Moanne lombard, Red cascade, Safrano, Treasure blend hybrid
Rosemary, Romero, Spice island, Victorian
Sage, Common, Diviners, Grape scented, Mexican, Pineapple
Savory
Spice bush, Lindera Benzoin
Spilanthese
Spinach, Malabar & Okinawa
Star anise
Stevia
St johns wort
Sugar cane
Sushini
Sweet almond verbena
Tarragon
Tea olive
Thyme, English, Lemon
Tilo
Tomatoes
Turmeric
Violet sweet
Yarrow
Yerba mate
Zaatar
Zuta levana

WATER PLANTS

Bacopa, lemon
Cattail
Celer, water
Chestnut, water
Mint, water

I'm working on a website with photos of our property in all stages of bloom and slowly working on a book for zone 9 edible gardening. We've had luck with almost everything we've tried. I'm happy to answer any questions about growing in tropical zones.

Happy growing,

Kelly

Hi Mommystuff,

I live in Phoenix, Arizona. i have just started my backyard with only edible plants. And I seem to be having some problems already.

I have used dry cow manure (got from a farm) as mulch and fertilizer, which I spread a week ago and I see some small, white live worms and earthworms now. Is it safe for my plants or do I need to remove the manure? The temperature is above 100 F these days. So i water my plants (fruit) everyday as I transplanted them to the ground 2 weeks ago.

I got a curry leaf plant from a friend some 3 months a go but the container did not have a hole so the plant started to drop leaves, it was more than a month by the time i figured out the problem. I changed the container but my plant has still not made any progress. The main stem just above the soil is still green inside when I scratched it a little. Can u tell me what I need to do to save it. I desperately want it to survive...:)

Padma

Hi Padma, I'm not Mommystuff, but I may be able to help you out here. First, I'd post your question in the vegetable gardening or organic gardening forum. That said, there's a couple of problems with using cow manure directly on your garden. If it was made using sawdust, the sawdust will turn into a carbon sink. The sawdust should be well rotted and well on its way to becoming soil before being put out in the garden. I only use manure on my compost pile, as a nitrogen source. The nitrogen will help heat up the pile, which then helps to break down the sawdust into humus, which is crucial to healthy plants.

Another bad thing with the manure directly applied is that it can heat up the soil itself as the high nitrogen content cooks off. This could easily kill off any sown seeds and hamper germination.

The sawdust issue is the real problem. If you used a manure containing sawdust it could easily hamper growth for a couple of years until it fully decomposes. sawdust is also from trees, which generally make the soil more acidic which then can hurt the ability of fegetables to absorb nutrients. of plants that need a neutral soil

Hello ,
Read that someone might have yellow Jaboticaba seed and wonder If you would consider parting with a few seeds
Ursula
culejools@yahoo.ca

Current edibles in my yard:

Cherry tree x2 (bing and something else)
Mulberry tree
Fig tree
Blueberry bush x3 (two varieties, don't remember which)
Bhut Jolokia peppers x30 (planted, not grown yet)
Broccoli Romanesco x3 (they're doing well, going to plant more)
Blackberries (wild, tons)
Grapes (trying to get my hands on some Venus or Lomanto, may have to settle for Reliant)