Beyond Vegetables: Growing Fruit in Your Garden

Learn how to grow fruit in your vegetable garden without expanding your space. Discover how to incorporate berries, melons and more into your backyard garden for bigger harvest, greater variety and fresh fruit right from your backyard.

Fruit You Can Grow in Your Vegetable Garden

While I love tomatoes, and growing organic vegetables in my backyard, eating fruit I've grown myself is pure joy.

But in those first years of gardening, I thought that fruit meant fruit trees, and fruit trees take a much bigger commitment, more space, more know-how. So I stuck to the tried-and-true vegetables.

And then it occurred to me that I could grow fruit without trees. Fruit that grows right in your garden beds, alongside your tomatoes and peppers. (I know tomatoes are technically a fruit, but I'm talking about fruit that tastes like fruit, sweet and juicy and delicious.)

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My first attempts were strawberries and cantaloupe, and I was hooked, even though my first results were a bit less than perfect. But I did it.

Now, fruit does come with its own learning curve. Different insects, different soil needs, different timing. But it's easier than you'd think, and some fruits are actually easier than growing vegetables.

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Fruits that aren't suitable for backyard growing - at least in my opinion

First of all, we're not going to talk about fruit trees. Not all of us have the space needed for fruit trees, even the dwarf varieties.  And even within the world of no-tree fruits, I'm going to focus on the ones that are manageable for a typical backyard garden: easy to grow, don't require a lot of space, won't take over your yard.

Here are a few that didn't make the cut:

 Grapes are wonderful, but they need significant space and a serious trellis system. 

Elderberries might sound charming and compact, but where we lived in Michigan years ago and I foraged for them in the wild, they grew twelve feet tall or more. That's a shrub that thinks it's a tree. 

Blackberries are my favorite berry. When we moved to Oak Hill, they were growing wild out in the pasture, and I was out there picking blackberries every other summer morning before the day got too hot. 

Picking wild blackberries meant dealing with ticks, chiggers, an occasional snake, and rabbits that startled me as they jumped and ran for safety - plus I came face to face with a coyote one morning, and a big buck deer on another day.

But I learned quickly why I was picking blackberries in the pasture and not in my garden. They spread aggressively, they're nearly impossible to contain, and they will take over if you give them any encouragement. 

We actually had a thicket in the pasture that was bigger and taller than our house. So as much as I love them, I can't recommend planting them in a home garden. Not even the tame varieties.

What I am going to cover are the fruits that fit into a regular garden, that play nicely with your vegetables, and won't make you regret planting them. Plus a couple of curiosities that are just too interesting to leave out.

The Best Fruits for Backyard Gardens

Let's start with the easy wins, the fruits you can plant in spring and actually harvest the same growing season.

Melons 

Melons are annuals, just like cucumbers and squash, and actually they're in the same plant family, so if you can grow a cucumber, you can grow a melon. Plant them after your last frost date when the soil is warm, and you'll be harvesting before the season ends.

While I personally don't like watermelon, I do love cantaloupe, so that was one of the first fruits I planted. My first attempts did not go well, though. 

For the first couple of years, raccoons stole every single melon just as they ripened. They'd haul them right over the fence in the middle of the night, and I never found so much as a piece of rind. I don't know where they took my melons - maybe they had a party to go to, or a hungry family to feed. But I didn't get to eat a single canteloupe.

Then we moved, and I thought no raccoons, and I have a fresh start. This time every melon burst open just as it was ripening, and ants moved in and ate my melons. Still no cantaloupe for me.

After that first year, I figured out what was causing the bursting - the answer is watering. Once your cantaloupe starts forming fruit, you need to back off on the water. 

I know how wrong that feels. Everything in us wants to keep watering. But too much moisture at that stage causes the rind to split - it just can’t hold all that moisture. So pull back on watering as the fruit develops, and you'll have a much better chance of getting a whole melon.

And yes, this applies to other varieties of melons as well - back off watering once the fruit begins to form.

Melons need full sun, warm soil, and room to spread. They're sprawlers by nature, but if space is tight you can train them up a sturdy trellis. Be prepared to support the fruit as it grows with a sling so the vine doesn't snap under the weight.

Strawberries

Strawberries might be the single most beginner-friendly fruit you can grow. Plant them in the spring and you'll likely get at least a small harvest before the season ends; then they come back every year and spread on their own.

There are two main types of strawberries. June-bearing strawberries produce one big crop - and despite the name, in warmer zones that crop might ripen earlier. I'm in zone 7 and mine are typically ready in May. You might also get a smaller crop in late summer.

Everbearing varieties produce a smaller but more continuous harvest throughout the season, which some gardeners prefer for fresh eating.

I've been growing strawberries for several years now, and my method has evolved entirely around outwitting pests. I started in large shallow containers: big round feed troughs from the local co-op, which work beautifully. Strawberries have a shallow root system so they don’t need a deep bed or container.

But slugs and roly-polies were a constant problem, getting to the fruit before I could. It’s so disappointing to spot a gorgeous big red berry, then turn it over to find a roly-poly tunneling into it, with half the berry eaten. Beer traps work well for slugs, by the way, just fill a dish with cheap beer and set it into the soil. Check each morning and discard the dead, drunken slugs.

This year I've moved most of my strawberries to vertical planters and hanging pots, which are much harder for ground-dwelling pests to reach. So far, so good.

Strawberries are one of the most flexible fruits for small spaces. They grow well in containers, hanging baskets, vertical planters, even as edging along a garden bed. They thrive in full sun with decent drainage. Have patience with the runners they'll send out to make new plants, and by next year, you could have twice as many plants, grown from those runners.

Perennial fruits

Now let's talk about the fruits that need a little more patience: perennials that you plant once and come back to year after year. The first season you might get a small harvest, or none at all. But by year two or three, you'll be glad you planted them.

Raspberries

Raspberries are my second-favorite berry, right behind those wild blackberries I mentioned earlier. Unlike blackberries, raspberries are well-behaved enough for a home garden. They do spread by sending up new canes, so you'll want to keep an eye on them, but they're nothing like the aggressive takeover you get with blackberries.

They grow on canes and do best with some support such as a simple stake or a wire strung between two posts. Plan for a real harvest in year two, and they'll reward you for many years after that. 

Red raspberries are the most common, but yellow and black varieties are worth seeking out too. And good news for small-space gardeners: raspberries can be grown in a large container if that's all the space you have.

Blueberries

Blueberries might be the most rewarding perennial berry. They're beautiful shrubs - attractive enough to plant in a flower bed - they're low maintenance once established, and the fruit is delicious.

Even self-pollinating blueberry varieties produce significantly better when they have a companion of a different variety nearby. So if you're planting just one, plan ahead for a second that will bloom at roughly the same time.

There are two things blueberries need that are different from most of your other garden plants. First, they need acidic soil, with a pH between about 4.5 and 5.5. That's much more acidic than your typical vegetable garden, so it's worth testing your soil before you plant and amending if needed. 

Second, you'll probably need to cover your blueberry bushes with netting. Birds will find your blueberries before you do, but a simple bird netting draped over the bush before the berries begin to ripen will save your harvest.

Blueberries actually do well in containers, which has a nice side benefit: it's easier to control the soil pH in a pot than in the ground.

Currants

Currants are compact, self-pollinating shrubs, so there's no need for a second plant. They tolerate partial shade, which is rare in the fruit world. They produce reliably without a lot of fuss. Red, white, and black currants are all options, and they're wonderful for jams, juices, and fresh eating.

If you're looking for something a little different that won't take over your garden and doesn't need a lot of coddling, currants are worth a look.

Some unusual fruit to grow in your backyard

Now for the fun part, a couple of curiosities that are worth knowing about even if they're not on most gardeners' radar.

Cucamelon

I discovered cucamelons completely by accident. For several years there was a vine growing wild on the hillside behind our house, and I had no idea what it was.

Eventually it produced tiny fruits that resembled a miniature watermelon. They taste like a cross between a cucumber and melon with a hint of lemon. Please don’t go tasting wild fruits indiscriminately - do your research first!

My goats eventually found our vine and did what goats do - they decimated it completely - and that was the end of our wild cucamelons. But I've seen seeds available online and in seed catalogs, and they're supposed to be very easy to grow - after all, it grew wild on our hillside fence, so it doesn’t need much tender loving care. 

They like to climb, so give them a trellis or a fence, and let them do their thing. A fun one to try, especially if you have kids who'd get a kick out of the tiny watermelon-looking fruit. Be sure to eat them before they turn black; at that point they will cause gastric distress.

Hardy Kiwi

Hardy kiwi is on this list as a curiosity. Kiwi also needs a serious trellis: not a tomato cage, not a flimsy fence. These are vigorous vines that get heavy, and they're in it for the long haul.

The variety to look for is hardy kiwi, sometimes called kiwiberry - Actinidia arguta. These aren't the fuzzy brown kiwis from the grocery store. Hardy kiwi fruit is small, smooth-skinned, grape-sized, and you eat them whole, skin and all. The flavor is sweet and bright.

Here's the thing you need to know before you plant: kiwi vines are either male or female, and you need at least one of each for fruit production. Only the female produces fruit, but she needs a male plant nearby to do it. So you're buying two plants minimum. 

The exception is a variety called Issai, which is partially self-fertile and more compact — that's probably the best starting point for most home gardeners, if you can find it.

Plan for three to four years before you see real fruit. But once they're established, they produce for decades.

Caring for fruit

Fruit does have some differences from your typical vegetable garden.

The good news is that caring for most of these fruits isn't dramatically different from growing vegetables. Full sun, well-drained soil, consistent moisture. If you can grow a tomato, you have most of the skills you need.

There are a few things worth calling out specifically though.

Blueberries need acidic soil - a pH between about 4.5 and 5.5. That's significantly more acidic than most garden soil, and more acidic than most of your other plants prefer. It's worth testing your soil before you plant and then amend accordingly. Don't skip this step - blueberries struggling in the wrong soil pH is one of the most common reasons they fail to thrive.

Melons have that counterintuitive watering rule I mentioned - back off on watering once the fruit starts to form. Everything in you will want to keep watering. Resist that urge.

Strawberries are genuinely easy, even accounting for the slugs and roly-polies and whatever else tries to get there before you do. And if you let those runners take root, you'll have twice as many plants next year. They essentially multiply themselves. It's one of the best deals in gardening.

For the perennials - raspberries, blueberries, currants, kiwi - soil preparation before planting matters more than it does with vegetables, because these plants are going to be in the same spot for years, sometimes decades. Amend your soil before you plant them; you won't get a second chance without digging everything up.

Build your trellises or other support structure before or at planting time. Melons on a trellis, kiwi on a pergola, raspberries on a wire - whatever you plant, get the structure in place first. It's much harder to add later without disturbing the plant.

Growing fruit in small spaces

Not everyone has a sprawling garden bed to work with, but some fruits actually do better in containers than in the ground.

Strawberries are the obvious starting point. They have a shallow root system and don’t require deep containers. They even do well in hanging baskets - which really helps to keep those slugs and roly-polies at bay. 

Remember to hang those baskets in a sunny spot, and water them regularly because those small containers can dry out pretty quickly.

Blueberries are a surprisingly good container plant, and honestly the container might be the smarter choice for most gardeners. They need acidic soil to thrive, and it's much easier to get the pH right in a container than to try to amend an entire garden bed. Use a mix formulated for acid-loving plants, and you're most of the way there. 

Blueberries need room for their large root system, so use a larger container.

Raspberries can be grown in a large container as well, though they do need some support even in a pot. A stake or small trellis inside the container works fine.

And for melons, if space is your challenge, think vertical. Train your cantaloupe or watermelon vines up a sturdy trellis instead of letting them sprawl across the garden. It saves a surprising amount of ground space. 

You'll need to add a sling for each fruit as it develops: a hammock of fabric or netting tied to the trellis to support the weight as the melon grows. Without it, the vine can snap under the fruit's weight. 

Growing them on trellises might sound fussy but it's really not, and it makes a big difference in how much garden real estate your melons take up.

You might be tempted to grow a smaller variety of watermelons, such as Sugar Baby, but the plant itself is about the same size as the vines that produce the larger melons. The advantage of a smaller melon is that they aren’t as heavy and will be easier to grow on a trellis, plus the smaller size means they’ll fit in your refrigerator more easily. 

Adding Fruit to Your Backyard Garden - Where to Start

From strawberries you can harvest this season to blueberry bushes that will be feeding your family for years to come, there's some kind of fruit for every gardener and every size garden.

Start with one thing this year. If you want a quick win, plant a cantaloupe, or grow a couple of strawberry plants in a container on your porch. If you're ready for a bigger investment, this is a great year to get a blueberry bush in the ground. 

If you're thinking about where fruit fits into your overall garden layout - and it does take some planning, especially if you're adding perennials that will be in place for years - that's exactly the kind of thing the Homegrown Garden Blueprint walks you through. 

It's a planning workbook that helps you think through your whole garden space. You can learn more about it here.

You can find a great selection of berry varieties to grow from seeds, melon seeds, and some of those curiosities we talked about today - like cucamelons - at Mary's Heirloom Seeds. 

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