Lightweight Eats

The number one trick to having a green thumb? Grow things that require very little care and attention. My personal favorite? Fruit trees!

Our orange tree was left abandoned and unattended for months before we moved in, and yet we had an unbearably huge crop of oranges. I've had to put in some effort to prune the tree, making sure it didn't get too big and that air could still flow through the branches. Still, overall effort level was low. It got no water the whole winter and, aside from picking the fruit, no care.

The trick is to pick fruit trees that are suited to your region. The most important factor for the Bay Area is chill hours--or the number of hours that fall below around 40°F. From what I understand, Oakland tends to fall around 500 chill hours, too few for most tasty apples.

On the other hand, here in Connecticut, there is plenty of chill and perhaps not quite enough sun for summer fruits like peaches and nectarines, and it's certainly too cold for winter citrus.

If you buy a tree from a big nursery, it's probably labeled with the minimum number of chill hours. If your region is cold, apples, pears, cherries and plums will probably work; if it's hot, you could try figs, citrus, or some varieties of stone fruit.

Another factor is sunlight--our yard has more than full sun, which lets fruit ripen nicely. I think both blackberries and blueberries grow well in partial shade--and the former does have a thornless version if you're concerned.

We are using our full sun to grow strawberries and raspberries (notoriously easy to grow), as well as grapes and melons.

So far, in Oakland, our citrus and stone fruit have been most successful. Our lemon tree grows in a pot and produced over 20 lemons this winter. We will let it bear more fruit this year as it has grown considerably in the last 3-6 months. Our lime tree is producing its first fruits after suffering too little sun last year. And our necta-plum-cot tree has the tiniest of plums and rapidly growing apricots hanging from its limbs.


Fruit trees also produce shade, so be careful how many you plant if you want to grow veggies. We are using the shade from our fruit trees to try to extend the spring veggie growing season. Most of our favorite veggies are cool weather crops--peas, spring mix, lettuce, cabbage, kale, carrots and broccoli. We're hoping the shade keeps them from bolting before we're ready.