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Great video. Dont forget rosemary and lavender are super low-key too! Im in a HOA too and own a business in lawn maintenance and always recommend food-based landscape when I can. Have you watched Pete's videos on youtube called GreenDreamsFL?
I actually didn't consider herbs. Rosemary is *very* popular planted around homes, here, because it is a perennial that is hardy all year long in my zone. My rosemary keeps dying in containers, and I've avoided planting rosemary in-ground because it has a habit of taking over an area, but I may bite the bullet and plant a bush in-ground. Yes, I love Pete K. I've been following him for years.
Sooooo glad that I live on three acres out in the country. Although when SHTF happens, I'm where the city folk will be escaping to. I may have to learn guerrilla gardening as one TH-camr teaches so they'll pass me by.
Look into growing living fences with Bamboo and Willow and incorporate defensive plants like cactus (drangon fruit, tunas) and stinging nettle. You can eat and use the Bamboo for building and use the Willow for medicine.
have you tried Maypop? It’s in the passion fruit family, it’s cold hardy, the vine will die above ground in the winter. But the root system stays alive and sends new vines in the spring. The fruit is like passion fruit but better. It’s sweet and acidic. There is a resemblance to passion fruit. But this one is sweeter and fruitier. I’d say there’s a slight banana flavor going on as well. I went from seed to eating fruit off the vine in a couple months. I will be planting them everywhere I can in my property. I have 13 fig trees as well as some mulberry, peaches etc. But I am so excited about this new fruit. If you don’t love the texture of passion fruit… let’s just say the texture isn’t for every one but man the flavor is amazing. If you ever want seeds or a sucker from my vine I’d happily send you it for free. I appreciate all your videos.
That's interesting. I've never heard of Maypop, but you've made me interested enough that I want to research it. I've never had passion fruit before, so I'm not sure what that tastes like.
In Florida and Hawaii they called regular purple passionfruit "maypop" because when you step on it or when it hits the ground it....may pop! The word maypop is interchanged with passionfruit (Passiflora incarnata). Ive tried growing it on zone 8b. It will not produce a fruit unless there is absolutely no frost. The rootball usually survives
@@TheMillennialGardener Thankyou excellent planting tips. In Australia a Passion fruit taste, fruity & tart, with a strong characteristic perfume. Cut in half, eat the pulp raw or have it with ice-cream. Make desserts. Passion fruit vines grow best in temperatures ranging between 68F to 82F, according to University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources.😊
Have you heard of Serviceberries? They are beautiful cold hardy native shrubs frequently sold entirely for landscaping purposes. They are a spring blooming shrub then get delicious dark red/purple blueberry like fruits. One of the first fruits to ripen actually around June where I live in zone 6. And a great alternative to the horribly over planted and invasive Callery Pear
Absolutely great advice. I do not live in a restricted area but even if I did I'd plant edible plants rather than the "pretty" ones. I have 2 of the Pineapple Guavas, several blueberry bushes and many other fruit trees and love the fruit they produce every year. That way you get the freshest possible and save tons on the grocery bills. It just makes sense. Thanks for sharing.
Exactly. I'd argue that blueberries, pineapple guavas and even some blackberries can be prettier than any of those ornamental bushes they plant around homes.
I am planting many of the same plants, although of more compact varieties due to my smaller backyard. I discovered that the Bushel and Berry brand is the commercialized product of the breeding program at the University of Georgia. Dr. NeSmith has had phenomenal success with developing compact varieties of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and many more edible shrubs for limited space gardeners. I think this excellent plant breeding program is akin to the great LSU fig breeding program of by-gone years.
It's a really good idea to visit the websites of local cooperative extensions and universities with these types of programs. They often make cultivar selections. Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries have a voluminous number of cultivars that can vary hugely in success from region to region. A variety that does well in the PNW can fail miserably down here and vice versa.
It’s a good idea to actually read your HOA regs. I assumed that they would have a problem with me cutting down my maples and replacing with apples, but there was *nothing* in the regs about it. I decided to take the risk, assuming that I’d still have some angry random neighbor stop by to talk to me. One day after cutting the maples, I was out planting the apples and a neighbor I hadn’t met stopped by. They wanted to know who I used to get rid of the maples, because they wanted theirs done, too (roots were starting to touch their foundation)
Our HOA regs have tree clearing requirements based on tree diameter. We are allowed to remove trees smaller than 6" in diameter without permission, but anything larger has to be submitted to the board for approval. They're all different, so yes, you have to read with a fine-toothed comb, unfortunately. I nipped it in the bud by simply clearing my entire lot, so I can rebuild it in the image I want. It's been a lot of work, but it'll eventually be a contained food forest.
@@TheMillennialGardener Well, I spoke too soon. Got back from Christmas vacation to a letter from the HOA complaining that I was making “major architectural changes” without having submitted a plan. Weirdly, I think they may be complaining about me changing the placement of the raised beds, not about replacing the maples. In either case, not sure how it counts as a major architectural change, but I’m sure this will turn into a hassle.
Again, peach trees can be problematic. There is a lot more to growing them than latitude and chill hours. Eastern North America has the latest frosts and freezes of any continent on Earth by the same latitude, because Canada is a direct land bridge to the Arctic, and there is no North-South mountain chain to block the cold air. As a result, the East Coast of the US gets cold air longer than anywhere on the planet, so late frosts and freezes are highly problematic. Peaches are one of the problem trees, because they bloom well before the frosts and freezes stop. This results in having to plant the trees further south than they should, which then creates a problem with humidity-related diseases. I am having a peach tree delivered tomorrow, and I specifically tried to find a disease resistant cross that is known for late blooming. Always try to get fruit trees that have as late a bud break as possible.
Great video! I'm in Central Minnesota Zone 4 and have had great success growing feijoas in containers. They grow really well in containers and getting the fruit to ripen is no issue. Anyway, I'm jealous of all the stuff you can grow outside. Keep up the good work👍
That's great to hear! Zone 4 doesn't have a very long warm season. They actually fruited and ripened for you? If so, that's very encouraging! I know Zone 8 sounds great, but then you deal with the extremely oppressive summers, the miserable rainfall in the winter, and the plagues of insects and disease pressure. It has its challenges, for sure.
New subscriber, and I found channel and was hearing it screaming my name. I am originally from Maine (love Dale), I hate seafood for eating, and live on a 1/4 acre lot in Anderson SC. No HOA here presently. I have had luck with white figs, have a fence line, and now want a banana tree so bad, I can taste it, lol. You have given me inspiration! THANK YOU sir. 👍🏻💕🐾🙏🎃
Awesome! It looks like your climate is a little cooler than mine, averaging about 3-5 degrees cooler a night in the winter. I think it's doable, as long as you select a more cold-tolerant, shorter cycle banana like Dwarf Orinoco or Veinte Cohol. This is a Dwarf Orinoco, and it has reliably fruited for me 3 years in a row. The corm is 5 years old, so that's a big reason why - I think they need 2-3 years to develop a corm strong enough to fruit. You will want to plant the banana in a protected area with full sun that blocks the north wind, and you'll need to protect it with a pretty significant cage during the winter. I think if you make a nice cage out of either 4' or 5' welded wire fence and stuff it with straw well, you can do this. You'll want to do what I do in this video, with maybe a little more straw to account for the extra coolness at night: th-cam.com/video/Eq8xGdPR3ko/w-d-xo.html
WOW so cool. Im in charlotte, zone 8a. what NC city are you at? I gotta try some of these. I had no idea one could grow bannas and citrus here. I got 4 persimmon tress they are great! haven't had much luck with blueberries though. gotta read that guide you made. perhaps there are certain varieties that are best.
Thank you for another great, informative video! I’m trying to find EVERGREEN edible trees and bushes to provide a privacy screen around our yard in zone 8 in a neighborhood with a strict HOA. Do you know any EVERGREEN edible options? So far, avocado is all I’ve found.
Very disease resistant grapes (look into T. V. Munson varieties and muscadines), kiwi vines, possibly passionfruit if you can keep them alive, possibly dragonfruit if you can keep them alive. Soggy soil can be defeated by building a compost mound and planting them on the mound.
Edible ornamentals for cooler climates: Kiwiberries (highly ornamental when well maintained, especially if you get a variegated pollinator) Clove currants (fragrant yellow flowers in the spring and large blackcurrants in the fall) Peaches (they stay relatively small, are very attractive when well maintained, and are self fertile) Pomegranates (be careful about variety selection and planting site anywhere colder than zone 7) Sand, Bush, or beach cherries (cute little bushes with fragrant flowers and good fruit for jam etc., good for hedges b/c they're not always self fertile) Rugosa rose hybrids (heavy fragrance, edible fruit, and creates a very ornamental security system) Japanese plums (smaller and more ornamental trees than European plums, but choose carefully because some require a pollinator)
@@TheMillennialGardener I welcome the additions! I just listed the prettiest woody-stemmed fruiting plants from my yard (and wishlist) to keep it concise. Almost every plant I grow has edible or medicinal features, so I have a long list of crops that are pretty enough to please the neighbors.
Awesome video! but I don’t know, one of my favorite nurseries here in NC has a trifoliate orange tree that’s pushing 15ft. and I think there’s one at JC Raulston Arboretum that’s even bigger! 🤣
If you prune them, they can be kept very small. The "core" bush itself is extremely compact. What you're probably describing is a bush that has never really been maintained and watersprouts are growing very tall and scraggly. If you remove the watersprout suckers and prune the tree back annually (as good cultural practices recommend), they are very small plants.
@@TheMillennialGardener I know you’re right. I don’t have much experience growing them, I just have a small one year old plant. But I have noticed that it’s pretty slow growth compared to my other citrus.
Between this and my full time job, it's literally a 100 hour a week commitment. If one day I was lucky enough to do this full-time, I would explore other options, but as it stands, there's just no time left in the day.
Great ideas for zones 8 or warmer... sadly most of us aren't in those zones. For those of us in the colder zones - perrenial herbs, blackberries, strawberries are a better bet.
Some of those won't make acceptable shrub replacements for an HOA. Blueberries make the best shrub replacements around a foundation in colder zones. You may be able to place primocane-fruiting blackberries like Prime Ark Freedom and prune them into a bush, but they'll likely die back in colder zones and look pretty unattractive during the winter. You may be able to plant grapes, but again, they won't be shrub-like as you'll need to trellis them. Cordoning them can look attractive once they're self-supporting. Hardy rosemary can be a great option for edible landscaping as some varieties can take sub-zero temperatures and stay evergreen all year. Cranberry bushes are a real possibility if you enjoy them.
@@TheMillennialGardener the ones I posted are the ones I use in my edible landscaping. I have a hedge of thornless blackberries with strawberries underneath, rosemary and lavender for bushes. Also using tea camellia for traditional looking shrubs. Also the blackberries will take much colder temperatures than the others you posted in the video so I'm confused on why you're now concerned with winter temperatures. One I forgot to add was Russian Pomegranates as they'll take to zone 6 if you put them on a southern wall.
Dfw, TX in zone 8A here and citrus is practically impossible to plant in-ground. I wish I could plant citrus inground here but theres isnt one yard in this area with a citrus in-ground. Our Tx freeze kills them though. What do you suggest?
You can grow an Owari satsuma in Dallas. My climate gets the same number of freezes as yours, as I am 8a as well. Your average winter temp is actually a bit marginally higher than mine. These 2 videos will be of interest to you so you can see how I grow citrus in 8a: th-cam.com/video/sLoxN12f7-E/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/62ZM615RBdc/w-d-xo.html
I cannot seem to recall what variety of banana plant you are growing. Also how long did it take to fruit? I am in zone 8a as well in the Dallas area and learning to garden in this zone. I use to live in zone 5 so a huge change and opportunity to grow more stuff…
It is a Dwarf Orinoco. The first flower took 2 years to form. However, now, it's cranking out multiple flowers in a season. It seems 4-5 years and they really get going. They will need winter protection where you live. I have a video on that coming tomorrow.
You sure can. I had these varieties in pots all year before I planted them and they fruited like crazy. Growing in containers can be a good solution if you have bad soil, because it's easier to maintain an acidic environment using soluble fertilizers designed for acid-loving plants. I recommend you watch my full guide on growing blueberries, because in your zone, you'll need to grow either Southern Highbush or Rabbiteye types: th-cam.com/video/5vvZzsHzA7M/w-d-xo.html
The best option is bird netting or insect netting, which you can get on Amazon really cheap. That's the only way I've found is effective against mammals: you need barriers. Fencing, netting and covers will keep them away until they learn there is no food for them and go elsewhere. Once they find out your place is a food oasis, they call in their buddies 😅
I know this video is a little older but for the front of the house I would need something that will not lose its leaves during winter in zone 8a, will the pineapple Guava keep its leaves all year?
How much space do you leave between trees? I want to start planting fruit trees around my yard this rainy season. I prepared some of the beds last year near the perimeter wall of the yard. I need to add some mulch and manure though.
It depends what you're growing. My blueberries are spaced around 3.5 feet between plants. Bananas clump, so giving them 5 feet of space is advisable. Feijoa's can be hedged and they cross-pollinate, so you can plant them pretty closely. If you want a continuous hedge, you'd want to plant them around 3 feet apart. If you want to sculpt them as individual bushes, you may want more like 6 feet. My dwarf citrus is spaced around 6 feet.
It depends on the time of year, and if the plant is strong enough to keep maturing a hand of bananas after every petal. My last flower came out in June, so it had all summer to develop hands, but it stopped at only 3. It clearly didn't have the strength. This flower, since it had all summer to charge, is putting out hand after hand, but I need to cut it or they'll never ripen. We should frost in around 4 weeks, so these bananas may not make it for me.
At 6:05 I see a PVC structure for frost protection. What kind of PVC is it that can bend like that? Do you have a link to how you constructed it? Thank you!
It's just 1/2 inch PVC electrical conduit from Lowe's. You just buy some 10' conduit sticks from the electrical aisle, then go over to the plumbing aisle and buy 1/2 inch PVC tee fittings and couplings. I put that little hoop house together in probably 3-4 minutes. I pounded 3/8" rebar into the ground and I slip the conduit end over it and bend it. It bends very easily.
@@TheMillennialGardener It really looks nice. I plan to copy your design using it as a form for a winter frost blanket and summer shade cloth. Thank you
Interesting video. But you’re neglecting several important facts. Zones only tell the first and last average frost dates. That’s all. I live in Denver, Colorado. Where we deal with not only soil type (that varies all around the country, even within states) but soil Ph, and, yes, altitude. For example, blueberries won’t grow here because of our high Ph and hydrangeas are a huge challenge because being so much closer to the sun, they burn out. Ferns would be a joke in Arizona even with lots of water because the air is so dry. One of the most interesting things about our country is the variety of climates. It’s fun to push the boundaries occasionally but perhaps more beneficial to search for options within our boundaries. iv
Are you talking about these? turnerphotographics.com/2015/08/05/plant-of-the-month-cascade-blueberry/ They are more like wild huckleberries and not true blueberries. They are somewhat closer to a low bush variety, which are like a wild berry. They aren't something you'd probably want to grow unless you have no option. Half-high blueberries, and in many cases highbush varieties, can handle very cold temperatures and produce much better quality fruits. If you want a wild-type blueberry, I would look into the low bush cultivars listed in the blueberry video.
@@TheMillennialGardener thanks, Anthony. I grow all types of blueberries. I have about 15 cultivars atm in all families. High Bush, s. High, low, etc. A lot of blueberries are unrelated to each other, but are grouped as one thing, this among them. Taxonomically there's a name for it but I forget atm. Just felt you left this one out. I like the fruit.
I purchased my Feijoa from Stan McKenzie at McKenzie Farms in Scranton, SC. He does not sell over his website, so you have to call him. He will ship. Feijoa's are becoming easier to find, though. One Green World sells a plethora of them, for example.
@@TheMillennialGardener thanks, I had some for the first time recently. Such a vibrant, complex taste. Delicious in 5 different ways all at the same time. I’m in south Louisiana so I’m sure the tree will do ok.
You’re paying so people don’t have RV’s in their driveway, boats parked on the streets, mobile homes dropped, overhead lines run, etc. There are downsides, but it is the greatest property value raising tool out there.
I agree! For food forest growers or those who want to create native habitat, they are awful. And what do I care if a neighbor wants to park an RV in their driveway? Very glad I don’t live in an HOA, and if I move again, I will sure try to avoid buying into one. Hard to avoid in a lot of areas though!
What do you mean? A guide to start seedlings or plant trees? It is so location-specific that it really is a lot of trial and error and journal keeping. Your best guides are always going to be your 50% and 90% frost dates.
@@TheMillennialGardener a seedling planting calendar, basically what to plant in what month for zone 8b. I think that’s too specific though, I can only find variations for zone 8.
Tried Blueberrys-soil requirements too difficult to maintain...all died. Pineapple Guava- won't grow in my zone. Banannas also wont grow in my zone. Citrus also won't grow in my zone.-I hate thorny plants. I grow things for my zone. I grow Persimmons, Pears, Paw Paws, Peaches, Figs, and (thornless) Blackberries and Grapes. I tried Maypops-they grow but not so tasty (they also attract carpenter bees that chew on my deck). They are just bags of juice and seeds. Haskaps not doing so well- they don't take the summer heat well. May pull them up and plant something else. I have 4 small American Hazelnut bushes that are starting to finally fill out as well.
Blueberries are fairly easy to maintain if you are willing to purchase elemental sulfur and work it into your soil a couple times a year. They acidify your soil over long periods of time. Pine bark nuggets as mulch also helps maintain long-term soil pH if you're willing to add fresh mulch twice a year to keep the process going. You can grow ornamental bananas and citrus down to Zones 5&6, but if you don't want ornamentals, grapes and primocane-fruiting blackberries like Prime-Ark Freedom are pretty much bulletproof. Hardy wiki vines also can do well. There are many trees you can grow around your fenceline and in the yard, but I wanted to try and focus on good fruiting shrubs around the house foundation for limited space growing and to maximize your yard.
Interesting that you mention grapes. I have begun an arbor with four vines. When my neighbors stop by......they look..... shake their heads, and repeat the same mantra; 'don't you know these grapes will rot because of our 45-inch rainfall '. While researching the colorful and notorious history of my area, I discovered that colonists indeed made their own homemade wine. If they made wine they had to have grapes......right? Well, after some scheming, I acquired and planted two of these 'native' grapevines. They are like a small, seeded catawba. While my other varieties may fail, I'm betting my 'native' catawba will be a shining success. Gardening; it's such an adventure!
This is a Dwarf Orinoco. It is by far my oldest banana, so that's why it's fruiting reliably. I have 3 other high quality fruiting varieties in-ground that should be getting close to being mature enough to fruit, so I hope they'll start producing for me within a year.
Believe it or not, I bought my Dwarf Orinoco banana many years ago from eBay for a couple bucks. I don't think it was even $10. It came the size of a blade of grass. I bought it in Pennsylvania, and I drove it down with me in my car when I moved to North Carolina. I REALLY good source for bananas is grosmichelbanana.net. He's legit.
Bananas spread and please pop the flower, it’s draining the nutrients from the actual banana fruits. Do you grow regular banana or do you have the Ice Cream banana too?
I am going to have to cut the flower, or the bunches won't ripen. I have Dwarf Orinoco, Dwarf Namwah (the true ice cream banana), Veinte Cohol and Dwarf Brazilian growing as edibles, with a Blood Banana growing as an ornamental. I'd like to get a Blue Java, but they're very difficult to find legitimately, and it's hard to manage a 15ft tall plant in North Carolina.
@@TheMillennialGardener ohh… Nice, I think I saw the blue java on either wellspring or everglades farm site. We normally just pop the flower without cutting (it’s how we’re taught and used to be doing), sad that we’re not neighbors cuz my mom could make something out of those banana flowers. We got a small yard but that doesn’t stop my mom and sister from growing bunch of fruit trees in containers (except the pineapples and veggies, did you start growing any pineapples yet?).
HOA regulations are what they are. Same thing with zoning regulations. There are enormous restrictions on land. It isn’t all bad. They prevent people from starting farms and businesses inside of residential neighborhoods. No restrictions would be worse, since many would take advantage and destroy the peace. Imagine if your next door neighbor decided to turn their house into a commercial business and had trucks coming in and out 24 hours a day. Thankfully, that’s generally illegal.
Something peculiar I noticed. I live in Belgrade, Serbia which would also be classified as USDA Zone 8a, but the average temperatures here are much lower and the winter is much longer than where you live. Yet none of the figs I see around have lost any of their leaves yet, while yours already have. Weird.
Your hardiness zone is simply your average minimum temperature. Our coldest night each year is similar, but because I'm further south, my average temperature is much warmer. Climates in the US have a big disadvantage because Canada is a land bridge to the Arctic Circle, so when patterns are perfect, cold air can filter from the Arctic Circle all the way to Florida, and it can freeze as far south as Miami. This can also happen in Eastern China, because Russia is a land bridge to the Arctic Circle. Australia, South America, Africa, and Europe are protected from this problem, because there is no land bridge to the Arctic Circle/Antarctic Circle for those places, so when the cold air travels over the oceans, it warms up. The reason why my trees have lost their leaves is because my summers are much, much hotter and more humid than yours. That causes rust and severe heat stress. My trees went through a severe stress cycle in late August, and they lost almost all their leaves in a week. The container trees, the in-ground trees, it didn't matter. It got so hot and dry for 1 week that they just dropped them out of stress. This doesn't happen further north, because it doesn't get as hot.
@@TheMillennialGardener Yes, I know how a USDA hardiness zone is calculated. But I didn't know that your trees lost their leaves because of stress, that's good info. I guess you also don't have any really tall mountain ranges to slow down that cold arctic air. You do in the West of the US though and I think that's why California has very mild winters. I wouldn't say your summers are much hotter though. More humid for sure, so the subjective feeling tells you it's way hotter than it is, but summers here are pretty hot too. In fact, it looks like we're hitting higher summer temperatures than you are.
Fruiting plants require full sun to fruit, in general. Fruit trees will not grow well, or at all, in part shade or in shade. "Full sun" is defined of at least 6 hours of uninterrupted, unfiltered sunshine a day, but I find 8-10 hours is best. Bananas grow well in shade, but as ornamentals. They will likely not provide fruit in those conditions. Feijoa may tolerate less sun and actually do well with afternoon shade, but again, fruit set will suffer.
Haha, rip out useless decorative bushes... while standing on a lawn... ouch 🤣 Sorry, just glad my HOA has lawn acreage maximums (250 sq ft IIRC). If your HOA isn't too bad to deal with, put in some semi dwarf fruit trees in landscaped beds with decorative (but useful...) plants. I did my entire front yard that way. Half native plants, about 6 fruiting shrubs and 6 fruit trees so far...and a garden bed. If you layer it well and have adequate screening, it'll look attractive AND be useful. Give your neighbors the extra fruit and they won't mind as much. Tbh most of your options are a little too cold sensitive for most of the US, myself included. Really wish I could grow feijoa here. Just not hardy enough.
With your climate, lawns are rarely a thing. Most front yards are stone and concrete. Here in the east, lawns are a must for resale value. You can't rip out your lawn in an HOA, and even if you could, if you ever want to sell your house, a true food forest is not a selling point. Unless you're in the home you're sure you want to die in, going lawnless is a bad idea out this way. People want open spaces for their kids and pets, and I can't take the running lanes away from Dale. The best happy medium, in my opinion, is edible landscaping around the perimeter. That way, you still have the open space demanded for resale, but you get the fruit trees. That's my model. I think feijoa would do well in a lot of areas of New Mexico, but you'll need 7b and above. If you're in Zone 6 or 7a, it would be a stretch.
@@TheMillennialGardener I'd bet if you really wanted to, you could probably get away with pulling out a portion of your front yard lawn if you carefully landscaped its replacement. Like hardscaped raised beds with more decorative stuff in between the fruit trees. I kinda hate that HOAs have become the norm for new communities. While I do have quite a bit of stuff in the front yard, I'm very attentive to how it looks... can't let it get too dense or overgrown. At least the stuff I have behind our fences are basically out of reach from the HOA design committee (per the bylaws), we have a small orchard in our side yard. Without a HOA I'd probably have more of a food forest, you can always thin out an overcrowded mess if you have to sell...or just keep it a little more open and not go full-on jungle 😉 Anyways, we have a lot of hardscaping to help keep up the appearances...but it can be super expensive, so it's definitely not for everyone.
So I guess the other thing to note is I live in a fairly quiet community and folks around here value their privacy. It kinda depends on the neighborhood. The older neighborhoods that I've lived in usually have quite a bit of plants and trees for screening and privacy. Most homebuilders are really cheap, they bulldoze all the lots flat (removing all the native plants) and then just put in lawns, a cheap tree or two and maybe a handful of shrubs. I think that appearance makes folks afraid to get rid of the openness (in order to maintain conformity ...). I'd love to see it change but I doubt it will any time soon.
Agreed. It's a myth that HOA's increase home value. There is no data to support it and since, in some jurisdictions, it takes months to years for an HOA to be able to legally clean up the mess that one bad neighbor can make, they don't really protect you from that. There is no reason to buy in an HOA. There is little reason for an HOA to exist except that city's are trying to save money by pushing more and more traditional city services onto HOA's. Used to be small things like community parks or a community pool. Some of the recent subdivisions I've built out in Texas had HOA's specifically so the city didn't have to pay for storm drain, sidewalk, & road maintenance or street signage and even street lighting.
Feijoa is a disaster with fruit flies; banana is a mess if you don't have enough water; citrus fruits have a minor leaf problem and so do fruit flies. I did not appreciate these fruit trees at all. My figs, grapefruits and lemons are eaten by rats or possums.
Feijoa are virtually pest-proof. At least in the US. Their fruit are incredibly resistant to pest damage. Bananas are extremely drought tolerant. They're native to Central America. I went to Costa Rica recently, and they have prolonged droughts during dry seasons and the bananas thrive. If they're going to fruit, you'll want to water them. No problem. Put in a drip line. Citrus are, again, pest-proof in non-native areas. Leaf miner is easily combated with organic sprays. Every fruit tree takes some level of effort to grow. If you're not willing to provide basic maintenance: basic pruning, basic spraying for common fungal issues and pests, etc., you won't have much luck growing much of anything aside native flora. That really limits your options. A few hours worth of work over the course of months really makes these things thrive.
Where I live, on my street there are 5 homes with full vegetable gardens in the front and 1 one overgrown crap pile that they are calling a "wildlife garden". I myself am growing honeyberry bushes in my front yard.
Front yard vegetable gardens are interesting. I see them in cities. I used to live in Philly, where a lot of homes literally do not have back yards, and people would grow things in what would typically be flower beds along their walkways. It was pretty cool to see. You'd find chain link fences with cucumber vines on them. Are you in a more urban area?
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4:43 banana flower that we can eat. It can make like a salad 🥗 and delicious 😋
To those who are reading this, let this message transport you to a world where your dreams can come true 🙏
That place is my garden for me ☺️
Thank you so much for another great video!
You’re welcome! Thank you for watching.
Great video. Dont forget rosemary and lavender are super low-key too! Im in a HOA too and own a business in lawn maintenance and always recommend food-based landscape when I can. Have you watched Pete's videos on youtube called GreenDreamsFL?
I actually didn't consider herbs. Rosemary is *very* popular planted around homes, here, because it is a perennial that is hardy all year long in my zone. My rosemary keeps dying in containers, and I've avoided planting rosemary in-ground because it has a habit of taking over an area, but I may bite the bullet and plant a bush in-ground. Yes, I love Pete K. I've been following him for years.
Sooooo glad that I live on three acres out in the country. Although when SHTF happens, I'm where the city folk will be escaping to. I may have to learn guerrilla gardening as one TH-camr teaches so they'll pass me by.
Look into growing living fences with Bamboo and Willow and incorporate defensive plants like cactus (drangon fruit, tunas) and stinging nettle. You can eat and use the Bamboo for building and use the Willow for medicine.
@@LaineyBug2020 actually, I am currently working on creating a living fence using flying dragon trees.
Yes! Where there’s a will, there’s a way! And Dale, don’t listen to him…you look fabulous😍😍
He is definitely the cutest crusty crustacean I've ever seen.
I set the reminder and I missed the live one.. I’m watching now😊 Thank you so much for this helpful information! So cute Dale!! 😄
Thank you for watching! Dale was killing me in that costume. He was so adorable.
What a great idea!
Glad you found it helpful! Thanks for watching!
Dale is so cute!
He is. He's such a good boy. We lucked out with Dale.
Great presentation.
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.
have you tried Maypop? It’s in the passion fruit family, it’s cold hardy, the vine will die above ground in the winter. But the root system stays alive and sends new vines in the spring. The fruit is like passion fruit but better. It’s sweet and acidic. There is a resemblance to passion fruit. But this one is sweeter and fruitier. I’d say there’s a slight banana flavor going on as well. I went from seed to eating fruit off the vine in a couple months. I will be planting them everywhere I can in my property. I have 13 fig trees as well as some mulberry, peaches etc. But I am so excited about this new fruit. If you don’t love the texture of passion fruit… let’s just say the texture isn’t for every one but man the flavor is amazing. If you ever want seeds or a sucker from my vine I’d happily send you it for free. I appreciate all your videos.
That's interesting. I've never heard of Maypop, but you've made me interested enough that I want to research it. I've never had passion fruit before, so I'm not sure what that tastes like.
In Florida and Hawaii they called regular purple passionfruit "maypop" because when you step on it or when it hits the ground it....may pop! The word maypop is interchanged with passionfruit (Passiflora incarnata). Ive tried growing it on zone 8b. It will not produce a fruit unless there is absolutely no frost. The rootball usually survives
@@TheMillennialGardener Thankyou excellent planting tips. In Australia a Passion fruit taste, fruity & tart, with a strong characteristic perfume. Cut in half, eat the pulp raw or have it with ice-cream. Make desserts. Passion fruit vines grow best in temperatures ranging between 68F to 82F, according to University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources.😊
I'd love to get a free seed or suckered whatever works.
Have you heard of Serviceberries? They are beautiful cold hardy native shrubs frequently sold entirely for landscaping purposes. They are a spring blooming shrub then get delicious dark red/purple blueberry like fruits. One of the first fruits to ripen actually around June where I live in zone 6. And a great alternative to the horribly over planted and invasive Callery Pear
I love your videos. Learn so much
Thank you! I'm glad you're finding them valuable.
Superb! Thanks 😁
You're welcome! Thanks for watching.
Absolutely great advice. I do not live in a restricted area but even if I did I'd plant edible plants rather than the "pretty" ones. I have 2 of the Pineapple Guavas, several blueberry bushes and many other fruit trees and love the fruit they produce every year. That way you get the freshest possible and save tons on the grocery bills. It just makes sense. Thanks for sharing.
Exactly. I'd argue that blueberries, pineapple guavas and even some blackberries can be prettier than any of those ornamental bushes they plant around homes.
I am planting many of the same plants, although of more compact varieties due to my smaller backyard. I discovered that the Bushel and Berry brand is the commercialized product of the breeding program at the University of Georgia. Dr. NeSmith has had phenomenal success with developing compact varieties of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and many more edible shrubs for limited space gardeners. I think this excellent plant breeding program is akin to the great LSU fig breeding program of by-gone years.
It's a really good idea to visit the websites of local cooperative extensions and universities with these types of programs. They often make cultivar selections. Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries have a voluminous number of cultivars that can vary hugely in success from region to region. A variety that does well in the PNW can fail miserably down here and vice versa.
It’s a good idea to actually read your HOA regs. I assumed that they would have a problem with me cutting down my maples and replacing with apples, but there was *nothing* in the regs about it. I decided to take the risk, assuming that I’d still have some angry random neighbor stop by to talk to me. One day after cutting the maples, I was out planting the apples and a neighbor I hadn’t met stopped by. They wanted to know who I used to get rid of the maples, because they wanted theirs done, too (roots were starting to touch their foundation)
Our HOA regs have tree clearing requirements based on tree diameter. We are allowed to remove trees smaller than 6" in diameter without permission, but anything larger has to be submitted to the board for approval. They're all different, so yes, you have to read with a fine-toothed comb, unfortunately. I nipped it in the bud by simply clearing my entire lot, so I can rebuild it in the image I want. It's been a lot of work, but it'll eventually be a contained food forest.
@@TheMillennialGardener Well, I spoke too soon. Got back from Christmas vacation to a letter from the HOA complaining that I was making “major architectural changes” without having submitted a plan. Weirdly, I think they may be complaining about me changing the placement of the raised beds, not about replacing the maples. In either case, not sure how it counts as a major architectural change, but I’m sure this will turn into a hassle.
This is a great video
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Love this ❤️
Thank you!
peach trees do well in your climate, you should try some.
Again, peach trees can be problematic. There is a lot more to growing them than latitude and chill hours. Eastern North America has the latest frosts and freezes of any continent on Earth by the same latitude, because Canada is a direct land bridge to the Arctic, and there is no North-South mountain chain to block the cold air. As a result, the East Coast of the US gets cold air longer than anywhere on the planet, so late frosts and freezes are highly problematic. Peaches are one of the problem trees, because they bloom well before the frosts and freezes stop. This results in having to plant the trees further south than they should, which then creates a problem with humidity-related diseases. I am having a peach tree delivered tomorrow, and I specifically tried to find a disease resistant cross that is known for late blooming. Always try to get fruit trees that have as late a bud break as possible.
Love the Dale videos. We need a compilation video!
That's a good idea! I have plenty of footage 😅
Great video! I'm in Central Minnesota Zone 4 and have had great success growing feijoas in containers. They grow really well in containers and getting the fruit to ripen is no issue. Anyway, I'm jealous of all the stuff you can grow outside. Keep up the good work👍
That's great to hear! Zone 4 doesn't have a very long warm season. They actually fruited and ripened for you? If so, that's very encouraging! I know Zone 8 sounds great, but then you deal with the extremely oppressive summers, the miserable rainfall in the winter, and the plagues of insects and disease pressure. It has its challenges, for sure.
New subscriber, and I found channel and was hearing it screaming my name. I am originally from Maine (love Dale), I hate seafood for eating, and live on a 1/4 acre lot in Anderson SC. No HOA here presently. I have had luck with white figs, have a fence line, and now want a banana tree so bad, I can taste it, lol. You have given me inspiration! THANK YOU sir. 👍🏻💕🐾🙏🎃
Awesome! It looks like your climate is a little cooler than mine, averaging about 3-5 degrees cooler a night in the winter. I think it's doable, as long as you select a more cold-tolerant, shorter cycle banana like Dwarf Orinoco or Veinte Cohol. This is a Dwarf Orinoco, and it has reliably fruited for me 3 years in a row. The corm is 5 years old, so that's a big reason why - I think they need 2-3 years to develop a corm strong enough to fruit. You will want to plant the banana in a protected area with full sun that blocks the north wind, and you'll need to protect it with a pretty significant cage during the winter. I think if you make a nice cage out of either 4' or 5' welded wire fence and stuff it with straw well, you can do this. You'll want to do what I do in this video, with maybe a little more straw to account for the extra coolness at night: th-cam.com/video/Eq8xGdPR3ko/w-d-xo.html
WOW so cool. Im in charlotte, zone 8a. what NC city are you at? I gotta try some of these. I had no idea one could grow bannas and citrus here. I got 4 persimmon tress they are great! haven't had much luck with blueberries though. gotta read that guide you made. perhaps there are certain varieties that are best.
Zone 8 is tropics in my book
Thank you for another great, informative video!
I’m trying to find EVERGREEN edible trees and bushes to provide a privacy screen around our yard in zone 8 in a neighborhood with a strict HOA.
Do you know any EVERGREEN edible options? So far, avocado is all I’ve found.
Can you recommend any fence climbing vines or bushes to plant along a back fence with soggy area in Louisiana zone 9a! Thanks bro! Cheers Todd
Very disease resistant grapes (look into T. V. Munson varieties and muscadines), kiwi vines, possibly passionfruit if you can keep them alive, possibly dragonfruit if you can keep them alive. Soggy soil can be defeated by building a compost mound and planting them on the mound.
Edible ornamentals for cooler climates:
Kiwiberries (highly ornamental when well maintained, especially if you get a variegated pollinator)
Clove currants (fragrant yellow flowers in the spring and large blackcurrants in the fall)
Peaches (they stay relatively small, are very attractive when well maintained, and are self fertile)
Pomegranates (be careful about variety selection and planting site anywhere colder than zone 7)
Sand, Bush, or beach cherries (cute little bushes with fragrant flowers and good fruit for jam etc., good for hedges b/c they're not always self fertile)
Rugosa rose hybrids (heavy fragrance, edible fruit, and creates a very ornamental security system)
Japanese plums (smaller and more ornamental trees than European plums, but choose carefully because some require a pollinator)
I'll be adding an Asian pear, too. They're fairly small. A lot of dwarf apples and peaches can be appropriate and maintained at
@@TheMillennialGardener I welcome the additions! I just listed the prettiest woody-stemmed fruiting plants from my yard (and wishlist) to keep it concise. Almost every plant I grow has edible or medicinal features, so I have a long list of crops that are pretty enough to please the neighbors.
Awesome video! but I don’t know, one of my favorite nurseries here in NC has a trifoliate orange tree that’s pushing 15ft. and I think there’s one at JC Raulston Arboretum that’s even bigger! 🤣
If you prune them, they can be kept very small. The "core" bush itself is extremely compact. What you're probably describing is a bush that has never really been maintained and watersprouts are growing very tall and scraggly. If you remove the watersprout suckers and prune the tree back annually (as good cultural practices recommend), they are very small plants.
@@TheMillennialGardener I know you’re right. I don’t have much experience growing them, I just have a small one year old plant. But I have noticed that it’s pretty slow growth compared to my other citrus.
Also, have you thought of starting a podcast or something? Or maybe a vlog on what you garden on the daily
Between this and my full time job, it's literally a 100 hour a week commitment. If one day I was lucky enough to do this full-time, I would explore other options, but as it stands, there's just no time left in the day.
Great ideas for zones 8 or warmer... sadly most of us aren't in those zones.
For those of us in the colder zones - perrenial herbs, blackberries, strawberries are a better bet.
Some of those won't make acceptable shrub replacements for an HOA. Blueberries make the best shrub replacements around a foundation in colder zones. You may be able to place primocane-fruiting blackberries like Prime Ark Freedom and prune them into a bush, but they'll likely die back in colder zones and look pretty unattractive during the winter. You may be able to plant grapes, but again, they won't be shrub-like as you'll need to trellis them. Cordoning them can look attractive once they're self-supporting. Hardy rosemary can be a great option for edible landscaping as some varieties can take sub-zero temperatures and stay evergreen all year. Cranberry bushes are a real possibility if you enjoy them.
@@TheMillennialGardener the ones I posted are the ones I use in my edible landscaping. I have a hedge of thornless blackberries with strawberries underneath, rosemary and lavender for bushes. Also using tea camellia for traditional looking shrubs.
Also the blackberries will take much colder temperatures than the others you posted in the video so I'm confused on why you're now concerned with winter temperatures.
One I forgot to add was Russian Pomegranates as they'll take to zone 6 if you put them on a southern wall.
Dfw, TX in zone 8A here and citrus is practically impossible to plant in-ground. I wish I could plant citrus inground here but theres isnt one yard in this area with a citrus in-ground. Our Tx freeze kills them though. What do you suggest?
You can grow an Owari satsuma in Dallas. My climate gets the same number of freezes as yours, as I am 8a as well. Your average winter temp is actually a bit marginally higher than mine. These 2 videos will be of interest to you so you can see how I grow citrus in 8a:
th-cam.com/video/sLoxN12f7-E/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/62ZM615RBdc/w-d-xo.html
Have you tried growing hardy, Russian type pomegranates?
I have not. I think I've only ever eaten a pomegranate once. I haven't really become interested in them, yet.
I cannot seem to recall what variety of banana plant you are growing. Also how long did it take to fruit? I am in zone 8a as well in the Dallas area and learning to garden in this zone. I use to live in zone 5 so a huge change and opportunity to grow more stuff…
It is a Dwarf Orinoco. The first flower took 2 years to form. However, now, it's cranking out multiple flowers in a season. It seems 4-5 years and they really get going. They will need winter protection where you live. I have a video on that coming tomorrow.
Can you grow blueberry bushes in a 15 gallon pot zone 9 ?🌱
You sure can. I had these varieties in pots all year before I planted them and they fruited like crazy. Growing in containers can be a good solution if you have bad soil, because it's easier to maintain an acidic environment using soluble fertilizers designed for acid-loving plants. I recommend you watch my full guide on growing blueberries, because in your zone, you'll need to grow either Southern Highbush or Rabbiteye types: th-cam.com/video/5vvZzsHzA7M/w-d-xo.html
Do you have advice on how to keep squirrels off your berry bushes?
The best option is bird netting or insect netting, which you can get on Amazon really cheap. That's the only way I've found is effective against mammals: you need barriers. Fencing, netting and covers will keep them away until they learn there is no food for them and go elsewhere. Once they find out your place is a food oasis, they call in their buddies 😅
I know this video is a little older but for the front of the house I would need something that will not lose its leaves during winter in zone 8a, will the pineapple Guava keep its leaves all year?
How much space do you leave between trees? I want to start planting fruit trees around my yard this rainy season. I prepared some of the beds last year near the perimeter wall of the yard. I need to add some mulch and manure though.
It depends what you're growing. My blueberries are spaced around 3.5 feet between plants. Bananas clump, so giving them 5 feet of space is advisable. Feijoa's can be hedged and they cross-pollinate, so you can plant them pretty closely. If you want a continuous hedge, you'd want to plant them around 3 feet apart. If you want to sculpt them as individual bushes, you may want more like 6 feet. My dwarf citrus is spaced around 6 feet.
How long do you allow the banana flower to peel as it matures with the bananas growing?
It depends on the time of year, and if the plant is strong enough to keep maturing a hand of bananas after every petal. My last flower came out in June, so it had all summer to develop hands, but it stopped at only 3. It clearly didn't have the strength. This flower, since it had all summer to charge, is putting out hand after hand, but I need to cut it or they'll never ripen. We should frost in around 4 weeks, so these bananas may not make it for me.
At 6:05 I see a PVC structure for frost protection. What kind of PVC is it that can bend like that? Do you have a link to how you constructed it? Thank you!
It's just 1/2 inch PVC electrical conduit from Lowe's. You just buy some 10' conduit sticks from the electrical aisle, then go over to the plumbing aisle and buy 1/2 inch PVC tee fittings and couplings. I put that little hoop house together in probably 3-4 minutes. I pounded 3/8" rebar into the ground and I slip the conduit end over it and bend it. It bends very easily.
@@TheMillennialGardener It really looks nice. I plan to copy your design using it as a form for a winter frost blanket and summer shade cloth. Thank you
@@TheMillennialGardener Do these sometimes come coiled in 100 ft lengths?
Interesting video. But you’re neglecting several important facts. Zones only tell the first and last average frost dates. That’s all. I live in Denver, Colorado. Where we deal with not only soil type (that varies all around the country, even within states) but soil Ph, and, yes, altitude. For example, blueberries won’t grow here because of our high Ph and hydrangeas are a huge challenge because being so much closer to the sun, they burn out. Ferns would be a joke in Arizona even with lots of water because the air is so dry. One of the most interesting things about our country is the variety of climates. It’s fun to push the boundaries occasionally but perhaps more beneficial to search for options within our boundaries. iv
LObster MAdNess !!
He is too cute. I don’t know where I’d be without my crusty crustacean 😂 🐕 🦞
@@TheMillennialGardener He's very special indeed and fortunate he's with special humans
can you add something about cascade blueberries? seems to be left out of your blueberry guide
Are you talking about these? turnerphotographics.com/2015/08/05/plant-of-the-month-cascade-blueberry/
They are more like wild huckleberries and not true blueberries. They are somewhat closer to a low bush variety, which are like a wild berry. They aren't something you'd probably want to grow unless you have no option. Half-high blueberries, and in many cases highbush varieties, can handle very cold temperatures and produce much better quality fruits. If you want a wild-type blueberry, I would look into the low bush cultivars listed in the blueberry video.
@@TheMillennialGardener thanks, Anthony. I grow all types of blueberries. I have about 15 cultivars atm in all families. High Bush, s. High, low, etc. A lot of blueberries are unrelated to each other, but are grouped as one thing, this among them. Taxonomically there's a name for it but I forget atm. Just felt you left this one out. I like the fruit.
Where did you purchase the Feijoa? Thanks.
I purchased my Feijoa from Stan McKenzie at McKenzie Farms in Scranton, SC. He does not sell over his website, so you have to call him. He will ship. Feijoa's are becoming easier to find, though. One Green World sells a plethora of them, for example.
@@TheMillennialGardener thanks, I had some for the first time recently. Such a vibrant, complex taste. Delicious in 5 different ways all at the same time. I’m in south Louisiana so I’m sure the tree will do ok.
What does pineapple guava taste like?
I actually have a harvesting and tasting video that you can see here! th-cam.com/video/VtlxICpN8k0/w-d-xo.html
Am I the only one who thinks HOA is a scam ? like wtf why cant you plant what you want on your property
You’re paying so people don’t have RV’s in their driveway, boats parked on the streets, mobile homes dropped, overhead lines run, etc. There are downsides, but it is the greatest property value raising tool out there.
I agree! For food forest growers or those who want to create native habitat, they are awful. And what do I care if a neighbor wants to park an RV in their driveway? Very glad I don’t live in an HOA, and if I move again, I will sure try to avoid buying into one. Hard to avoid in a lot of areas though!
I can’t find a simple to read planting calendar for zone 8B (Texas) to download. Any help from the community would be greatly appreciated.
What do you mean? A guide to start seedlings or plant trees? It is so location-specific that it really is a lot of trial and error and journal keeping. Your best guides are always going to be your 50% and 90% frost dates.
@@TheMillennialGardener a seedling planting calendar, basically what to plant in what month for zone 8b. I think that’s too specific though, I can only find variations for zone 8.
do you have Deer in your area? I don't thin I can plant these because of Deer
Where can i get your hardy frijoa tree please?
This tree came from Stan McKenzie at McKenzie Farms in Scranton, SC.
Tried Blueberrys-soil requirements too difficult to maintain...all died. Pineapple Guava- won't grow in my zone. Banannas also wont grow in my zone. Citrus also won't grow in my zone.-I hate thorny plants. I grow things for my zone. I grow Persimmons, Pears, Paw Paws, Peaches, Figs, and (thornless) Blackberries and Grapes. I tried Maypops-they grow but not so tasty (they also attract carpenter bees that chew on my deck). They are just bags of juice and seeds. Haskaps not doing so well- they don't take the summer heat well. May pull them up and plant something else. I have 4 small American Hazelnut bushes that are starting to finally fill out as well.
Blueberries are fairly easy to maintain if you are willing to purchase elemental sulfur and work it into your soil a couple times a year. They acidify your soil over long periods of time. Pine bark nuggets as mulch also helps maintain long-term soil pH if you're willing to add fresh mulch twice a year to keep the process going. You can grow ornamental bananas and citrus down to Zones 5&6, but if you don't want ornamentals, grapes and primocane-fruiting blackberries like Prime-Ark Freedom are pretty much bulletproof. Hardy wiki vines also can do well.
There are many trees you can grow around your fenceline and in the yard, but I wanted to try and focus on good fruiting shrubs around the house foundation for limited space growing and to maximize your yard.
Interesting that you mention grapes. I have begun an arbor with four vines. When my neighbors stop by......they look..... shake their heads, and repeat the same mantra; 'don't you know these grapes will rot because of our 45-inch rainfall '. While researching the colorful and notorious history of my area, I discovered that colonists indeed made their own homemade wine. If they made wine they had to have grapes......right? Well, after some scheming, I acquired and planted two of these 'native' grapevines. They are like a small, seeded catawba. While my other varieties may fail, I'm betting my 'native' catawba will be a shining success. Gardening; it's such an adventure!
What variety of banana are you growing that’s giving you fruit?
This is a Dwarf Orinoco. It is by far my oldest banana, so that's why it's fruiting reliably. I have 3 other high quality fruiting varieties in-ground that should be getting close to being mature enough to fruit, so I hope they'll start producing for me within a year.
Where would you buy these?
Believe it or not, I bought my Dwarf Orinoco banana many years ago from eBay for a couple bucks. I don't think it was even $10. It came the size of a blade of grass. I bought it in Pennsylvania, and I drove it down with me in my car when I moved to North Carolina. I REALLY good source for bananas is grosmichelbanana.net. He's legit.
Bananas spread and please pop the flower, it’s draining the nutrients from the actual banana fruits. Do you grow regular banana or do you have the Ice Cream banana too?
I am going to have to cut the flower, or the bunches won't ripen. I have Dwarf Orinoco, Dwarf Namwah (the true ice cream banana), Veinte Cohol and Dwarf Brazilian growing as edibles, with a Blood Banana growing as an ornamental. I'd like to get a Blue Java, but they're very difficult to find legitimately, and it's hard to manage a 15ft tall plant in North Carolina.
@@TheMillennialGardener ohh… Nice, I think I saw the blue java on either wellspring or everglades farm site. We normally just pop the flower without cutting (it’s how we’re taught and used to be doing), sad that we’re not neighbors cuz my mom could make something out of those banana flowers. We got a small yard but that doesn’t stop my mom and sister from growing bunch of fruit trees in containers (except the pineapples and veggies, did you start growing any pineapples yet?).
No, it is not draining nutrition for bananas and you can eat it
@@PLNTGMING ehhh… it’s energy but either way, it’s a waste to leave it like that and yes, the flower can be used in many dishes.
@@tkvpham this flower is just self destroying
The fact that you can't grow what you want on your own land is absolutely ridiculous. No one as any moral right to decide what you can and can't do.
HOA regulations are what they are. Same thing with zoning regulations. There are enormous restrictions on land. It isn’t all bad. They prevent people from starting farms and businesses inside of residential neighborhoods. No restrictions would be worse, since many would take advantage and destroy the peace. Imagine if your next door neighbor decided to turn their house into a commercial business and had trucks coming in and out 24 hours a day. Thankfully, that’s generally illegal.
Something peculiar I noticed. I live in Belgrade, Serbia which would also be classified as USDA Zone 8a, but the average temperatures here are much lower and the winter is much longer than where you live. Yet none of the figs I see around have lost any of their leaves yet, while yours already have. Weird.
Your hardiness zone is simply your average minimum temperature. Our coldest night each year is similar, but because I'm further south, my average temperature is much warmer. Climates in the US have a big disadvantage because Canada is a land bridge to the Arctic Circle, so when patterns are perfect, cold air can filter from the Arctic Circle all the way to Florida, and it can freeze as far south as Miami. This can also happen in Eastern China, because Russia is a land bridge to the Arctic Circle. Australia, South America, Africa, and Europe are protected from this problem, because there is no land bridge to the Arctic Circle/Antarctic Circle for those places, so when the cold air travels over the oceans, it warms up.
The reason why my trees have lost their leaves is because my summers are much, much hotter and more humid than yours. That causes rust and severe heat stress. My trees went through a severe stress cycle in late August, and they lost almost all their leaves in a week. The container trees, the in-ground trees, it didn't matter. It got so hot and dry for 1 week that they just dropped them out of stress. This doesn't happen further north, because it doesn't get as hot.
@@TheMillennialGardener Yes, I know how a USDA hardiness zone is calculated. But I didn't know that your trees lost their leaves because of stress, that's good info. I guess you also don't have any really tall mountain ranges to slow down that cold arctic air. You do in the West of the US though and I think that's why California has very mild winters. I wouldn't say your summers are much hotter though. More humid for sure, so the subjective feeling tells you it's way hotter than it is, but summers here are pretty hot too. In fact, it looks like we're hitting higher summer temperatures than you are.
Do any of these handle little sun?
Fruiting plants require full sun to fruit, in general. Fruit trees will not grow well, or at all, in part shade or in shade. "Full sun" is defined of at least 6 hours of uninterrupted, unfiltered sunshine a day, but I find 8-10 hours is best. Bananas grow well in shade, but as ornamentals. They will likely not provide fruit in those conditions. Feijoa may tolerate less sun and actually do well with afternoon shade, but again, fruit set will suffer.
@@TheMillennialGardener wow thank you for the quick reply! How many year do the Feijoa live on average?
HOAs should be abolished
Haha, rip out useless decorative bushes... while standing on a lawn... ouch 🤣
Sorry, just glad my HOA has lawn acreage maximums (250 sq ft IIRC). If your HOA isn't too bad to deal with, put in some semi dwarf fruit trees in landscaped beds with decorative (but useful...) plants. I did my entire front yard that way. Half native plants, about 6 fruiting shrubs and 6 fruit trees so far...and a garden bed. If you layer it well and have adequate screening, it'll look attractive AND be useful. Give your neighbors the extra fruit and they won't mind as much.
Tbh most of your options are a little too cold sensitive for most of the US, myself included. Really wish I could grow feijoa here. Just not hardy enough.
With your climate, lawns are rarely a thing. Most front yards are stone and concrete. Here in the east, lawns are a must for resale value. You can't rip out your lawn in an HOA, and even if you could, if you ever want to sell your house, a true food forest is not a selling point. Unless you're in the home you're sure you want to die in, going lawnless is a bad idea out this way. People want open spaces for their kids and pets, and I can't take the running lanes away from Dale. The best happy medium, in my opinion, is edible landscaping around the perimeter. That way, you still have the open space demanded for resale, but you get the fruit trees. That's my model.
I think feijoa would do well in a lot of areas of New Mexico, but you'll need 7b and above. If you're in Zone 6 or 7a, it would be a stretch.
@@TheMillennialGardener I'd bet if you really wanted to, you could probably get away with pulling out a portion of your front yard lawn if you carefully landscaped its replacement. Like hardscaped raised beds with more decorative stuff in between the fruit trees. I kinda hate that HOAs have become the norm for new communities. While I do have quite a bit of stuff in the front yard, I'm very attentive to how it looks... can't let it get too dense or overgrown. At least the stuff I have behind our fences are basically out of reach from the HOA design committee (per the bylaws), we have a small orchard in our side yard. Without a HOA I'd probably have more of a food forest, you can always thin out an overcrowded mess if you have to sell...or just keep it a little more open and not go full-on jungle 😉
Anyways, we have a lot of hardscaping to help keep up the appearances...but it can be super expensive, so it's definitely not for everyone.
So I guess the other thing to note is I live in a fairly quiet community and folks around here value their privacy. It kinda depends on the neighborhood. The older neighborhoods that I've lived in usually have quite a bit of plants and trees for screening and privacy. Most homebuilders are really cheap, they bulldoze all the lots flat (removing all the native plants) and then just put in lawns, a cheap tree or two and maybe a handful of shrubs. I think that appearance makes folks afraid to get rid of the openness (in order to maintain conformity ...). I'd love to see it change but I doubt it will any time soon.
L
first off, never buy a hoa home.
Homes within HOA's increase in value at a much faster rate. It only takes one bad neighbor to ruin an entire block. HOA's prevent that.
Agreed. It's a myth that HOA's increase home value. There is no data to support it and since, in some jurisdictions, it takes months to years for an HOA to be able to legally clean up the mess that one bad neighbor can make, they don't really protect you from that. There is no reason to buy in an HOA. There is little reason for an HOA to exist except that city's are trying to save money by pushing more and more traditional city services onto HOA's. Used to be small things like community parks or a community pool. Some of the recent subdivisions I've built out in Texas had HOA's specifically so the city didn't have to pay for storm drain, sidewalk, & road maintenance or street signage and even street lighting.
Feijoa is a disaster with fruit flies; banana is a mess if you don't have enough water; citrus fruits have a minor leaf problem and so do fruit flies. I did not appreciate these fruit trees at all. My figs, grapefruits and lemons are eaten by rats or possums.
Feijoa are virtually pest-proof. At least in the US. Their fruit are incredibly resistant to pest damage. Bananas are extremely drought tolerant. They're native to Central America. I went to Costa Rica recently, and they have prolonged droughts during dry seasons and the bananas thrive. If they're going to fruit, you'll want to water them. No problem. Put in a drip line. Citrus are, again, pest-proof in non-native areas. Leaf miner is easily combated with organic sprays. Every fruit tree takes some level of effort to grow. If you're not willing to provide basic maintenance: basic pruning, basic spraying for common fungal issues and pests, etc., you won't have much luck growing much of anything aside native flora. That really limits your options. A few hours worth of work over the course of months really makes these things thrive.
Gee Mike, things must be really bad in Pittsville!
Where I live, on my street there are 5 homes with full vegetable gardens in the front and 1 one overgrown crap pile that they are calling a "wildlife garden".
I myself am growing honeyberry bushes in my front yard.
Front yard vegetable gardens are interesting. I see them in cities. I used to live in Philly, where a lot of homes literally do not have back yards, and people would grow things in what would typically be flower beds along their walkways. It was pretty cool to see. You'd find chain link fences with cucumber vines on them. Are you in a more urban area?