Delicious berries and tree-ripened fruits offer tasty and visual treats to complement the harvest of fresh produce from the vegetable plot, which is something anyone undertaking a landscaping project this spring may well consider.
Even where space is limited, careful planning is sure to turn up space for some fruit and berry plants. It may call for innovative use of these plants to achieve aesthetic and edible results, but that`s the reason for planning before planting.
Consider the virtues of the fruit-bearing trees. All sport a profusion of colorful spring blossoms as appealing as their fruits, and then shade in summer, whether they are standard size, dwarf or semidwarf specimens tailored for smaller yards. Berry plants can be set out in the most unexpected places with decorative effects.
While the large standard fruit trees may be appropriate in some situations, the dwarf trees are usually the logical choice for typical city or suburban gardens. They can be planted as part of a shrub or fence border, used as specimen plantings, or where there is space, set out as a mini-orchard.
Being low growers ranging from 6 to 15 feet tall, the dwarf trees simplify such necessary chores as spraying, pruning and harvesting of fruits. Seldom is a ladder needed. Almost all popular varieties of apple, peach, pear, plum, cherry and nectarines are available.
There are even ``extra-dwarf`` or mini-trees that grow only 5 to 7 feet tall available in limited varieties from some nurseries. These are suitable for large tubs on the patio or apartment balcony. All dwarf kinds yield the same quality large-size fruits as their standard counterparts and tend to bear them earlier.
Catalogs of mail-order nurseries that sell fruit trees are a good guide to the different varieties available, with most offering helpful advice on pollination requirements and how to plant and care for the trees.
Strawberries, raspberries and other berries are seldom more flavorful than when eaten freshly picked from the garden. If you have given up on these because you thought you had no room for conventional plantings, try utilizing garden areas you may have never thought of before.
Strawberries, for example, will thrive as a flower border, or as an edging along a walk or garden path. Their bright green foliage and white blossoms are attractive enough to sustain interest until the red-ripe fruits replace the blossoms. Or grow them in an old-fashioned strawberry barrel, in a pyramid or terraced planting, or in large clay pots grouped on a stairway or sun-drenched part of the patio.
If red or black raspberries tempt you, finding a place for them should be no problem. Plant them along your lot-line fence. They may even do better there, where you can give them more support, than they would in a
conventional, space-consuming bramble patch. Or give them a row at the rear of the vegetable plot.
Gooseberries and currants also will thrive along a fence line, but they are substantial enough shrubs to serve as a hedge to mark boundary lines where there is no fencing.
A little room at the back of the yard is all that is needed for a few elderberry plants, whose clusters of glistening black berries make delicious pies and desserts. Their showy flat, white flower heads in June are reason enough alone to grow them. These are vigorous growers, but can be cut back freely without reducing their berry production.
Blueberries are a flavorful treat borne on highly ornamental shrubs whose rich, waxy green foliage turns red in fall. Use them as a hedge or accent wherever there is room. They need an acid-type soil, but any soil can be conditioned with peat moss and aluminum sulphate to meet this requirement.
Readers may address questions to Art Kozelka, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 60611. Questions cannot be answered individually, but those of general interest will be considered for future columns.