12 Fruits That Are a Cinch to Grow in Your Own Garden (Infographic)

Smiling autumn woman picking and giving apples from tree
Photo Credit: Maridav/Shutterstock

Wouldn’t that bowl of cereal in the morning taste a lot better with fresh strawberries that you grew yourself? How about an apple pie made from apples picked right in your own backyard? The fact is, you don’t need to have an orchard to enjoy a steady supply of fruit all year round. Growing fruits in your backyard or even indoors isn’t that hard at all.

There’s little doubt that eating fruits is good for your health. Part of any well-balanced diet, fruits contain essential vitamins and minerals, as well as fiber and other compounds that help support good health. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention note, a diet rich in fruit “may reduce the risk of some types of cancer and other chronic diseases.”

But face it, it’s not easy to always include fresh fruit in your diet. Fruit spoils easily. And if you prefer organic fruit, it may not be readily available where you live. Why buy fruits from the market when you can just grow them yourself? One way to ensure that you have fresh fruit year round—and ensure that it doesn’t come laced with harmful pesticides—is to grow it yourself.

First, you have to determine the amount of growing space you have. If you have a large outdoor space with lots of sun, you’re in luck. You can grow apple trees, which can bear fruit most of the year (except during winter), or Haas avocado trees, which can bear fruit most of the year (except during autumn). Even if you don’t have full sun, you can grow an elderberry tree. It bears fruit only during the summer, but if you’ve got a big harvest, just add some lemon and sugar and you could have homemade elderberry jam to last through the winter.

Even if you don’t have outdoor space, there are many fruits you can grow indoors in containers, such as strawberry, watermelon and pineapple. Even Meyer lemon trees and fig trees can do well inside with a little TLC.

Curious about becoming your own fruit grocer? To find out more about a dozen fruits that can be grown in your own garden, check out the infographic below created by Happy to Survive, a website about off-the-grid, self-reliant living.

While it may be fairly easy to get your plantings started, it does take patience. But fret not. As Molière pointed out, “The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.”