Foodscaping Plants to Try

Recommended Plants for Your Foodscape

Text and photos courtesy Custom Foodscaping

For St. Louisans looking to grow beautiful, welladapted fruit trees and shrubs, sourcing plants can be a challenge. Access is limited, and you may get a few raised eyebrows when you go asking for goumi berries at your local nursery. Nonetheless, it’s not impossible. So, to help you get started, here are some best practices for selecting fruit trees and shrubs that will thrive in the St. Louis region as well as where to source these delicious foodscaping fruit trees and shrubs.

Common Sense Foodscaping Starts with Natives

With climate shifts forecasted to cause harmful droughts and erosion that may threaten food production, there’s an ecological imperative that we plant natives in our edible landscapes. Natives, or plants originally from our region, can thrive with much less water than lawns, lowering not only our water bills but our vulnerability through seasons of drought. Also, natives rarely require spraying, which keeps toxic chemicals from seeping into our soil and water table. According to the National Research Council, lawns are now dumped with more pesticides per acre (3.2-9.8 lbs) than conventional farms (2.7 lbs per acre on average). Think about that next time you’re playing in the lawn with your loved ones. Natives are allies in supporting human health just as much as planetary health. Natives are also key players in providing food and habitat for insect life that lives in our region. If the trend for superficially-supported exotic landscapes continues, the biodiversity in our gardens and ecosystems will continue to suffer, and our precious butterfly, insect, and bee friends will be the first to experience the disruption of a once harmonious ecosystem. Here are a few guidelines to work with when determining the best foodscape plants for your region: Choose “nativars” (native + cultivar). Nativar is a term used to describe cultivated varieties of native fruiting plants chosen for their desirability such as disease and pest resistance or accelerated growth. When planting nativars, you can get all the hardy benefits of natives with the perks of incredibly delicious fruit. In our region, 6b, we love to plant:

Grafted Pawpaw

The largest native with fruit banana/mango flavor. Tons of great grafted cultivars make big fruits. Try to plant at least 3 in close proximity (<10’) for best pollination. Slow growing at first. Has a pleasing ornamental shape. Can be planted in full sun despite its common place in the shady woodlands. Hand pollination helps the fruit set.

Grafted Persimmon

The American persimmon is the sweetest fruit we can grow! Be sure to get grafted varieties like Early Golden, Prok and Yates to get big fruits. Amazing fruit but foliage can quite often look tattered and black. A tall tree that lends itself to big open areas like parks and rural properties. If you’re looking for a more compact persimmon, go with a hybrid variety. Nakita’s Gift, Kassandra and Rosseyanka are winners. Bigger fruit than the American. Quite ornamental like the Asians. Fruit hangs on deep into the fall. These are edible landscape allstars!

Serviceberry

YOUR TREES DESERVE THE BEST CARE

Tim Gamma – B.S. Horticulture Board Certi ed Master Arborist Tom Gamma ISA Certi ed Arborist

PRUNING ■ FERTILIZATION ■ PLANTING SPRAYING ■ TRIMMING ■ REMOVAL 314-725-6159

Native to zones 5-9, serviceberries are easy to grow and wonderful edible landscaping plants. Prune to keep branches within reach. A “go-to” street tree. Can also be grown as tall multi-stemmed shrubs.

Climate-suited Exotics

In addition to natives, there are quite a number of exotic fruits that also do well for us here in the Midwest, and can work in most regions. Locally-adapted exotics are non-native edibles chosen for their ease of growing. In most cases, these species simply have less pest and disease pressure. If our goal as ecologically-minded gardeners is to grow fruits that don’t get plagued with pests and diseases, cultivated natives are our best bet. But there are some cases when you want to bring more diversity and flavor to the foodscape beyond the scope of natives. In that case, we recommend climate-suited exotics. For instance, almost all the common varieties of pears suffer from the pervasive disease fire blight and require spraying. Yet, the Magness Pear is an example of a locally-adapted exotic that grows like a champ in the Midwest and rarely requires pesticides. Favorite exotics for our area include:

Asian Pear

Fire blight-resistant varieties like Shinko and Korean Giant are some of our absolute favorites. Early to bear, heavy yielders, and fast growing. Works well as an espalier fruit.

Bush Cherry

Easy to grow, prolific cherry shrubs. Varieties like Carmine Jewel are big winners. Despite not being as sweet as sweet cherries, these have a complex flavor and can be enjoyed fresh out of hand.

Chicago Hardy Fig

The Chicago Hardy is the most proven variety. Needs some winter protection in zone 6. The more you protect each winter, the bigger the plant will grow and the more fruit. Beautiful ornamentals with few pest or disease issues.

Flying Dragon Trifoliate Hardy Orange

The only hardy citrus we can grow in our climate. These small oranges taste lemon-limey! Gorgeous, contorted, seedy, thorny. This one is a favorite conversation starter.

Black Currants

One of the most reliable and easy to grow fruits! Look for resistance to white pine blister rust. Best kept in the backyard as fall foliage issues are common. Tolerates

some shade.

Pie Cherry

Northstar, Meteor and Carmine Jewel are natural dwarfs. Most are easy to grow as beautiful small fruit trees. The bright red fruits put on a stunning show. We recommend a lot of pie cherries. Can sometimes suffer from late-summer leaf drop.

Hardy Kiwi

Beautiful and vigorous vines. The Kolomikta Kiwis are less vigorous and have a pink leafed variety. Needs male + female. Hardy Kiwi is an edible landscaping allstar when given proper support and annual pruning. Delicious and hardy - but hard to find Every spring, thousands of local shoppers in the St. Louis region head off to big box stores to buy fruiting plants, rarely aware that those plants are often poorly adapted to our region and likely to get riddled with pest and disease issues. Instead, try your local independent nurseries first. These businesses are more likely to carry plants that are best suited for our growing conditions. Ask for the plants recommended in this article. If they don’t have them, maybe they can get them for you. At the very least, you’ll be encouraging them to consider new options and help create a demand for our local supply. As growers of edible landscapes, we have the power to influence the market with every nursery order we place. Let’s create more education and awareness around these regenerative foodscaping all stars! If you can’t find these foodscaping plants locally, you can find our recommended list of mail order nurseries at customfoodscaping. com/recommendations. Eager to create your own edible landscape, food forest or raised bed garden? Whether you are a homeowner, school or business, we hope these ideas will help you plan, plant and grow a beautiful AND productive edible landscape.

Custom Foodscaping is a full-service St. Louis-based edible landscaping company, To find out more about edible landscaping, or to schedule a consultation, please visit customfoodscaping.com.

Celebrate DAD in June

Japanese maples and Outdoor Fountains 25% OFF!*

Great gifts + great savings — all month long

*25% off regular price. While supplies last. Cannot be combined with other promotions or discounts.Not valid on prior purchases. On sale: June 1-30, 2022

Plants • Trees • Pottery • Gifts • Decor & More 54 Clarkson Road, Ellisville, MO 63011 636-227-0095 Open 7 Days timberwindsnursery.com