Growing fruit on your property is not only fun, but it’s also an important element of being self-sustaining, especially in a hot climate like South Florida which is perfect for a wide range of tropical fruits. Veggie gardens have their time to shine during the fall and winter whereas tropical fruit are in full swing during our muggy summer months. Fruit that yields quickly and is easy to grow includes bananas & plantains, mulberries, pineapples, papayas and passionfruit. If you have more space you can consider adding larger slower growing varieties like mango, lychee, avocado, strawberry tree, longan, mamey and canistel.

A fruit tree guild is basically like a raised garden bed, but with perennial fruiting species instead of annual vegetables. We plant it to mimic the design of a forest, with a large tree providing shady canopy to the smaller plants below. Plants won't compete for space if planted the way nature intended them to grow, in collaboration with each other. Fruit tree guilds can oftentimes visually mimic more traditional landscaping while also providing your family with fruit, herbs and spices year round. The fruit tree guild in this photo includes bananas, turmeric, spicy peppers, lemongrass, rosemary, sweet potatoes, garlic chives and cranberry hibiscus.

Want to transform your ornamental landscaping into something productive and beautiful? A food forest is a landscape design concept that replaces most or all of plants in a space into useful ones. Not all of them are edible but they all perform a function like attracting pollinators, adding nutrients to the soil, or providing food for birds. Food forests are typically designed just for you and your unique space and vision for what you want to grow in abundance. Large systems can produce quite a bit of food for your family, and do it year round, since many food forest species fruit in the summer months when vegetables are out of season.