OK, so this is way off to the side of what you’d expect at a Landscape Company website, but I love growing fruits and vegetables, and feel that they are an important aspect of our family’s enjoyment of our outdoor environment.

When studying Ornamental Horticulture, one has the option of focusing on many different branches of the horticulture field.  My personal focus was woody plants and perennials, specifically for the purposes of designing beautiful, lasting spaces for residential clients.  However, I have also long been interested in growing fruit crops.  Call me crazy.  No aspect of horticulture, other than growing roses, has more potential for headaches than getting into a haggle with birds, deer, rodents, insects, and diseases over a few apples and berries.  But since I didn’t have time to study this in school, my wife and I have been on a fifteen year journey to figure out how to “make things grow out of Indiana clay.”

First, the why.  There is something so satisfying about harvesting one’s own fruit and vegetables.  What beats a sweet, homegrown carrot (crooked as henry lauder’s walking stick, maybe, but sweet nonetheless), or a fresh batch of salsa made entirely from one’s own home grown peppers, onions, tomatoes, and cilantro?  Or, my personal favorite, fresh raspberries in a cold, icy, freshly cracked Diet Coke.  Of course, the Diet Coke was bought, not grown in our modest hobby garden…

What do we have?  Here is the history of the Schrock Family in the garden.  My wife and I both come from families who loved to garden, and so we bring a little experience to the table.  But experience does not the garden grow!  Rather, we have had a lot of trial and error.  Maybe more error than not.

Our gardening adventure begin early in our marriage.  While in the baby stages of our first of five children, my lovely wife began to get the itch to plant a garden.  One chilly february, five years and three additional children later (we now have a total of 5), I asked the obvious question.  Why do we plant a garden?  Every year, the seed catalogues come right after Christmas.  We read through them, plan the garden three different ways, and order seeds instead of investing in our childrens’ college funds.  We recieve the seeds in the mail with great joy and anticipation.  We till the garden early, and again later (in the middle of a busy landscape season), and plant our garden.  Then we lose interest.  in the fall, we till the weeds back into the ground.  In the meantime, we purchase fresh vegetables from the truck garden down the road for less than the cost of our seeds.  Did I mention this was a lunatic hobby?

My wife’s answer was simple and poignant.  Hope.  There is something about planning a garden in the bleak winter months which inspires a sense of green, joyful hope.  That hope is what kept us coming back year after unsuccessful year.

But each year, a little more information stuck.  We were investing in our own education, Fruits and Vegetable Production 101.  Sorry kids.  I’m sure it will develop some character of some sort which will help you more than a college fund ever would.  Pretty sure.

Fast forward to today, and we have a salsa garden, okra, cucumbers and squash, a large mint patch with chocolate mint and peppermint.  These provide fresh salsa from August to Frost, and gallons upon gallons of fresh mint tea all summer long.

We also have 4 varieties of raspberries, a dozen Asian Pear trees, 10 apple trees, and 2 apricot trees (take two…our first planting was unsuccessful).  Heidi asked if we could grow a couple of cherry trees.  I said sure, and in what I am now certain was a horticultural siezure, I ordered 7.

We also have 2 red and 2 green seedless grape plants (yet to produce) and 10 maturing Concord Grape plants which yield a gallon of grape jelly, 14 gallons of grape juice concentrate, and 2 gallons of horrible wine each year.

Add to this a tropical twist of a lemon, kumquat, and two fig trees, and you can see we are developing quite a menagerie.

We are thinking we need more children just to help us work our hobby.  especially carrying trees in and out of the sunroom each season.  Yikes.  Once again, kids, I refer you to the certain character growth which is built into working with your hands in the soil.  You’ll thank us for this someday.

So, my intention with F&V 101 articles is to take a diversion from the serious work of landscape design, construction, and maintenance, and to pass on to you what we learn as we stumble our way through this unfamiliar branch of Horticulture.  Welcome, and I hope you enjoy the ride as much as we do.