I’m tryin’, man. Fruit bearing plants take a lot of work compared to the manicured suburban steriscape. They’re not super easy to grow (depending on where you live), require pruning and fertilizer, soil amendment, and unfortunately pesticides or fencing if you don’t want insects or deer destroying your hard work.
That’s way more effort than most people want to expend. HOAs or even local ordinances may also restrict what can be grown.
European garden with some ten different berries/fruit trees and bushes - no work needed, they just do their thing (when they are big enough.) Rotate about one every three years, sometimes move some berries from one place to another.
Strawberries are a ton of work at the end of the year (not the little wild ones though,) don’t do them unless you really love them.
Look into native plants. There are so many edible things that you can just leave in the wasteland that is your yard and they’ll take over. Here in Tennessee we have pawpaws and maypops for fruit, tomatoes that pop up randomly, garden greens like wood sorrel and lambs quarters, and a bunch of other things that absolutely take over given half a chance. Sure, if you try and grow the seed packets from your local Lowes you’ll have issues with pests and whatnot, but there is so much more food out there than these varieties.
Absolutely. Already have a couple.
Probably against HOA rules in many places.
Ok, but why?
The real answer is because in America rich people buy houses, and then create HOAs in the housing deeds and contracts to force all future owners to maintain the house in a way that will increase the neighborhood property value forever.
HOAs exclusively fight to make houses more and more “valuable” since housing is a financial investment here
Thank you. So not having a proper garden increases the value?
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Most older (white) Americans think having any sort of enjoyment or color in anything is “gay”. Hence why so many American die of heart disease, because eating an apple is basically like giving a blowjob.
Because having a big yard of grass that you have to mow every week while using up gasoline is the American dream and a flex for some reason.
A lot of people are secretly cows and they actually eat that grass. Next time you say hello to someone and they respond “moo” you’ll know why.
The answer is they were a wealthy European concept brought to the colonies as a status symbol. They are still associated with wealthier people which raises property values, so are enshrined in local ordinances and HOA rules.
The 50s happened.
And for whatever the fuck reason, they wanted houses like the ones found in pre-1789 France
There is a pretty great website called Falling fruit to map trees and other plants that you can pick from freely.
Hey. Thank you for sharing this.
Websites like this are the good part of the internet.
You’re welcome 😊😘🤗
We do. Obviously not everyone can But I wager the number of Americans growing something edible on their space is decent. Usually it’s easy stuff to grow, or someone’s favorites.
Thinking about it and counting in my head I actually know dozens of people that grow tomatoes personally. They grow easily in large quantities in relatively small space and all taste better than store bought.
Citrus has been pretty plentiful my entire life too. Lemon trees especially.
Zoning laws in a lot of places.
HOAs say “ew no that’s for the poors” and good luck finding a house that’s not in an HOA within a reasonable commute to your job
My HOA:
Looks like you are stuck with fruits, grains, herbs, and ornamentals in the front yard, then, lol.
Sadly, bad behavior from owners are the cause. I have several fruit trees in my backyard and the pest presence is high. If they aren’t harvested and maintained the impact on your neighbors is high. I hate HOAs, but I get why they would prohibit it, and it’s not a class thing, after all…you’re a property owner.
Littering your yard with food attracts things like rats, raccoons, squirrels, etc, which destroy property and infrastructure, spread disease, and cause injury to people and pets. I’m not saying I’m against fruit trees, but I do understand people who are. It’s a legitimate concern. Some areas even have things like boars or bears which are extremely dangerous.
I’m also curious with the way you can sue people in the US what would happen if someone becomes sick after eating one of your fruits. I imagine it varies by state.
Reading this made me even happier I don’t have to live there
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Dropped fruit all over the ground really encourages rats though.
My mum got a house super cheap when I was young because it had a “rat problem” it also had a peach tree in the back yard that the owner didnt pick up after. We removed literal garbage bags of peach pits from the roof space and crawl spaces of that house and garage.
Chopped the peach tree down (it wasnt a healthy tree anyway) and the problem basically disappeared in days.
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Not possible. Nature finds a way.
I don’t think that’s the case, but trees in general are sadly not common in American landscaping, at least in my experience with urban areas. You tend to see newer (90’s+) homes with very small trees that suggest the idea of nature without providing any shade or other benefits. I keep hearing about people buying older houses with big lovely trees and having them immediately cut down because it’s disturbing the driveway or they’re afraid of it falling in a storm. I think insurance costs may have something to do with these concerns, but it’s really sad regardless.
In California they’re constantly giving out these little saplings that will grow into very functional and deep-rooted shade trees, but no one wants them because they aren’t pretty and drop needles.
This. Fruit trees are loads of work that most amateur gardeners don’t know how to deal with them or have the time to deal with them. Gardening and farming is a shitload of work and was only made cheap and easy through the marvel of modern technology. You don’t just plant shit and get to eat lol
I lived in a small city (~30k) in the middle of rural texas growing up, and our main wildlife was deer, squirrels, possums, foxes, armadillos, javalinas, and birds, although we also had the occasional ratsnake or raccoons or skunks.
We didn’t really have fruit trees, but we did have plenty of pecans and several gardens of all kinds of veggies, a fig tree that never seemed to bloom, and some assorted berrying bushes.
We never experienced these plagues of infrastructural damage and diseases and hurt pets (4 cats and 2 dogs in total) that you describe. Idk where people get these horror stories from.
I suppose it can happen, but that’s probably in areas where such a yard is the only safe space for wildlife and people don’t live with nature as a daily part of their lives.
I s2g cityfolk act like getting brushed up against by a non-domesticated critter will give them an instant prion disorder.
that’s probably in areas where such a yard is the only safe space for wildlife and people don’t live with nature as a daily part of their lives.
I think this is the case. In urban areas you get the rats and such nesting directly in people’s homes because there’s nowhere else for them to be, thanks to the absolute miles of pavement. When I’ve lived in more rural areas you would see a lot of animals all the time, but everyone was pretty much minding their own business. I think habitat destruction is the real problem.
You think we own shit? Lawns are the landlord’s landscaping equivalent of white paint: inoffensive but dull and useless
Because this is illegal in most of America. You would be fined and the city would probably send a crew out to rip it all up and give you the invoice if you defied it and left it that way.
That’s a bit extreme? I think that you are correct that this may be the case in front yards depending on location, but backyards are usually fine for whatever barring some HOA BS or unusual local rules.
I’ve seen this happen before in real life so extreme or not, it’s definitely the norm in upstate New York at the very least. Had the city called on us while we were out of the country and we came back to all 6 of our small fruit trees dug up and tracks all over the front lawn from an excavator and a $2500 bill from the city.
So front yard? Yeah, not super surprised at that. I’ve heard plenty of stories about front yard cultivators running into problems with the city. I live in a more rural/urban mixed area so it’s a lot more forgiving. Plenty of people here have apples or other fruit trees in the front yard - not aggressively farming the yard, just as part of the plantings.
Ya front yard. We didn’t aggressively plant either. We had 4 or 5 fruit trees planted with beds around them
That really sucks.
Shoulda gotten a tree lawyer. Tree law is not to be fucked with.
6? What are you trying to make an orchard? That’s pretty aggressive. How big is your front yard? How long were you gone for to make the city take action? You wouldn’t get one notice, then a day later, they tear up your yard. You had to have been gone for a long time.
I have a fairly large front yard, and if I planted that many trees, yeah I’d get sited.
It doesn’t matter if you had fruit trees or not. That’s not a “you can’t plant trees in your front yard”, thats, “this many trees in a relatively small area can cause safety issues”
Wow haha you must have been the city bylaw officer with the way you are so gallantly siding with the city and telling me off for planting 6 fruit tree saplings on 1+ acres of front yard. You must have been to some very small orchards! You sound very intelligent. I am truly humbled.
Yeah I would’ve been intelligent enough to look up my city’s ordinance about planting multiple trees in my front yard. Especially if I’m going to be leaving for several months afterwards.
Like it sucks you got your trees ripped out my dude, I’m sure you can try it again. Just search it up on the interwebs of your city. 100% you’ll find it. If you want Ill search it for you. You can plant some awesome stuff in upstate.
All the best to you my man.
Bugs, pests, and animals, at least where I live. Unless you build a green house, clear the yard of all other foliage, or somehow fortify your garden, only produce with natural defenses like peppers will make it to harvest. However, I am jealous of my friends on the west coast, who don’t really have to worry about bugs or other critters eating from their fruit trees just passively growing in their yard.
If you’re East Coast, I think you’ve just given up too early. Plenty of pests on the West Coast, too. There are also plenty of organic ways to keep them in check. Will you have perfect harvest? Never, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have anything at all.
As someone who lives in an ex-industrial city (Birmingham Alabama), I’ve always been worried about air pollution and tainted soil (there are superfund sites nearby). I feel like every thing would have to be above ground and covered. That seems like a lot of work. Should I be worried?
Yeah you should. Look into soil testing with your local city, county, or University Extension office. You send in a little sample of dry soil and they email you the results. It’s usually pretty cheap and will tell you if any soil is unsafe. My local library, for example, has sample boxes for free. Definitely a good idea for anyone in a place where lead paint could have been used, let alone other horrible stuff.
oh, man I was there for the first time ever just two weeks ago. I wanted to stop at a boutique liquor store I had found listed online. I was shocked to see the number of abandoned/dilapidated structures. The liquor store actually happened to be located in a newish out-building on the same lot of one of these abandoned mansions. The store was very nice as was the staff, but I was left with a lot of questions that were all pretty-much answered when I read online that Birmingham is also known as The Pittsburgh of the South.
Your city has a cool vibe.
