Fruits and Nuts by Seven

These six groups of 7 fruit and nut bushes and trees can serve as a handy overview of options for planting and creating diversity. In the first group, elderberry is probably the plant that most needs abundant access to moisture. Mulberry and juneberry typically grow as trees, though pruning and use of the their smaller cultivars can keep them bush size. In the second group, be aware that fresh goji tastes more like a juicy vegetable than a berry, a kind of tomato, pepper flavor. In the third group, blackberry may best tolerate dry conditions; fig will die back to the ground in cold zones, and aronia, seaberry, and cranberry may sweeten up after frost. The fourth group consists of mostly groundcovers, except for hawthorn and the low bush quince, the quince being very tart and the hawthorn edible but mainly a food for wildlife. The fifth group can be grown for size, both of tree and fruit. Cherries are smallish for fruit in this group, as plums are large for any bush group and could be swapped one for the other. In the nut group, pine nut is the only evergreen tree there, even when the group is extended well beyond seven species of highly productive nut trees. The most cold hardy varieties of pecan and almond are needed for growing in cold climates.

FIRST SEVEN BUSHES