It’s easy to see why the idea of having your own fruit trees is an alluring one. Imagine sitting back and enjoying the literal fruits of your labour, surrounded by mountains of sweet, juicy and healthy fruit that you can share with your friends and family.
But when reality sets in things can be a little different. A healthy, productive fruit tree often requires a lot of hard work. Pruning, pest and disease control, mulching, fertilising, watering, netting and eventually harvesting all require hard work. While the payoff is definitely worth it, not everyone has the appetite or the capacity for that amount of elbow grease.
However, rather than kissing the dream of a productive backyard orchard goodbye, there’s a middle ground. Certain fruit trees buck the trend and are resilient survivors that will keep cropping year after year with significantly less upkeep. By focusing on these low-input picks, you can have your (fruit) cake and eat it too, with far less work than you may think.
Olives
Olives are one of the ultimate low-maintenance plants, grown as much for their appearance and adaptable nature as they are for their edible fruit. This evergreen shrub or tree is synonymous with southern Europe and the Mediterranean, where it grows naturally in coastal cliff environments and is cultivated in centuries-old orchards.
Their coastal origin means they can take a lot of heat, poor soils and little water. If you’re getting more than 500mm of rainfall annually they’ll crop reliably, with no other ongoing concerns. The olives can be brined or pickled green or black, or if you have enough pressed into beautiful oil.
They’re resilient to the point of being too successful, and are considered a weed in Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and, in particular, South Australia. To prevent your plant getting out of control keep it trimmed to size and harvest all the olives before birds get into them.
Figs
Another Mediterranean favourite are figs. Hard to kill, ornamental, fast growing and bearers of an incredible fruit they’re surprisingly easy to grow. Fruit become fuller, softer and even more luscious with water and good soil, but it’s certainly not a requirement, and trees getting none of this will often continue to crop well.
Their resilience really shines when it comes to pruning; feel free to completely hack the top off. The fig will thank you for it and bounce right back, making keeping them to a manageable size a cinch.
Loquat
Hailing from China, this medium tree has been cultivated for its fruit for thousands of years. As a shade tree, the loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) has a lush, subtropical feel but it’s surprisingly tough, happy to get by on local soil and rainfall in capital cities such as Melbourne and Sydney.
The soft yellow fruit tastes like a mix of pineapple, passionfruit and guava. Seed-grown trees have the familiar tang many will be familiar with, but try named cultivars such as Nagasakiwase and Bessell Brown for milder, sweeter fruit with more flesh. It also has become a weed in NSW and Queensland, so harvest fruit judiciously before it can spread. The fruit can also attract fruit flies, so consider netting and traps if you’re in an area prone to them.
Mulberry
Mulberry trees have perhaps the most decadent fruit you can grow in just about any Australian backyard. The delicious and juicy crimson, black, red or white fruit is delicate and rarely survives to supermarket shelves, meaning the only option is to grow it yourself.
Fortunately, they’re easy to grow and will reward you with bountiful crops of fresh fruit in spring. While they respond well to deep watering and fertile soils, they will continue to push out smaller fruit that is still very sweet on little more than local rainfall, provided they are protected from strong winds.
They also make great ornamental shade trees with their huge soft leaves, which they lose in autumn to let the winter sun in.
Feijoa
Hailing originally from cool temperate regions of southern Brazil and Argentina, feijoas (Acca sellowiana) are evergreen small trees or shrubs. They can be grown anywhere from cool areas all the way into subtropical climates. While water and fertiliser will improve the quality of fruit, without it they’ll still litter your driveway with more fruit than you know what to do with every autumn.
At maturity they can reach up to 3-5 metres high and around 2-3 wide, but they can be pruned to a smaller tree or hedged, and will even work well in a pot.
The fruit is ready to be harvested when they have fallen to the ground. A ripe feijoa will be soft but not squishy. A bonus is that even the petals are edible, with a soft, sherbert-like aftertaste.
Do you have any fruit trees? Can you add to this advice? Why not share your experience in the comments section below?
Also read: Four hard-to-kill indoor plants
