Plant These 11 Fruits Once And They'll Return To Your Garden On Their Own Every Year

Whether you're on a budget or feeling flush with cash, a supply of homegrown fruit at the ready has a way of conveying a sense of luxury and well-being. And if you want to take your satisfaction a step further, there are a multitude of fruit-producing plants that will come back on their own year after year, offering a bountiful harvest and providing a convenient and reliable food source.

This would come as great news to you if you've always wanted fruits in your yard but kept getting discouraged because of the constant replanting most plants require. There's such a wide selection of these long-living fruit plants that you can decide to improve your yard with small trees, bushes, hedges made of brambles, or vining plants, all of which will supply a delicious harvest of fruit. With the right knowledge regarding the cares and needs of these plants, you can get off to a good start, and plan for a continual harvest from early summer all the way to late fall. You'll be surprised by the sometimes astonishing number of years that these plants will continue to provide food.

Blackberries (Rubus spp.) are cane-producing plants generally covered in thorns that can live for 40 years or more. These brambles start producing fruit in year two, bearing large juicy berries that turn black when ripe. Blackberries come to maturity in summer, and there are many different blackberry cultivars with different hardiness ratings, most of them recommended for USDA Hardiness Zones 5 to 8 or 6 to 9. Before you plant your canes, learn about the avoidable errors that'll save your blackberries in the garden, such as growing them in insufficient sunlight.

When you plant blueberries (Vaccinium spp.) in your garden, you'll have a ready supply of fruit for years to come. These shrubs can live for 25 years, bearing round berries that are blue when ripe and harvested in summer. For gardeners who don't yet know how to grow and care for blueberry plants, expect a full harvest when plants are about five years old. Blueberry hardiness varies depending on the variety, with many types recommended for zones 5 to 10.

Commonly known by the less-than-appealing name chokeberry, Aronia species are shrubs that produce black or red fruits, depending on the species. Although chokeberries don't appeal to most people for fresh eating, they can be used to make delicious preserves, and can be grown in zones 3 to 8. Starting at two years, these shrubs will produce a harvest year after year, with fruit ripening in the fall. Chokeberry plants can live for up to 30 years, providing great fall color in addition to food.

Currants (Ribes spp.) are small, white, pink, red, or black berries that grow on spineless, shrubby plants. Expect currant bushes to produce fruit in two to four years, and be ready to enjoy many years of delicious summer fruit since currants can live for 20 years or more. Whether you plan to grow red currants or black currants, make sure you live in zones 4 to 8.

With a lifespan of 60 years, elderberries (Sambucus nigra) are shrubs or small trees that bear large clusters of small, shiny, black, or blue berries that ripen from late summer to autumn. When planting elderberries, plan on two to four years until the first harvest. Gardeners in zones 5 to 9 can grow these fruits, which need to be cooked prior to eating, and can be transformed into delicious pies, crumbles, or syrups.

Gooseberries (Ribes spp.) grow on prickly canes that can provide a source of fruit in your garden for up to 15 years. With berries that are similar to currants but larger, gooseberry fruits are translucent and come in shades of pink, red, and green, with a deliciously tart flavor that mellows as the fruits ripen. Gardeners in zones 3 to 6 can count on gooseberries as a source of summer fruit after the two to four years needed to mature have passed.

You can grow sweet, seedless grapes in your backyard, but gardeners should plan on a three-year wait from planting until the first harvest of white, red, or blue bunches of fruit. When growing grapes (Vitis spp.), harvest time will depend on the type, generally ranging from late summer through fall. Also, the hardiness of different types of grapevines depends on the variety, with some that will grow well in regions as cold as zone 3. Grapevines can live to be 100 years old, making them plants that will feed future generations.

A lesser known fruiting plant in North America, the honeyberry (Lonicera caerulea) is a heat and cold tolerant fruit tree. Honeyberry bushes produce fruits that look like oddly-shapen and elongated blueberries. Also known as blue honeysuckle, sweet berry honeysuckle, or haskap, honeyberry bushes will start bearing early summer fruit one to two years after planting. Honeyberry bushes, which have an estimated lifespan of 30 years, are extremely cold hardy, and can be grown in zones 1 to 8.

Related to kiwi fruit but more cold hardy, kiwiberries (Actinidia spp.) are produced on vining plants that can have a lifespan of half a century or more. The fruits of these plants are smaller and sweeter than kiwi fruit, and have edible peels. After planting, vines need up to five years to start producing fruit, with kiwiberries ready to harvest every year in late summer to fall. Depending on the species, kiwiberries can be grown in regions as cold as zone 3.

Growing on canes that are usually thorny, raspberries (Rubus spp.) produce delicious, juice-filled berries from summer to fall. Raspberries bear fruit the second year after planting, and their berries can be red, black, purple, or yellow, depending on the variety. If you are a gardener who lives in zones 5a to 10a, you can grow and care for a raspberry plant. Keep in mind that these fruit-producing brambles live for up to 12 years.

Adored for their super sweet berries, strawberries (Fragaria x ananassa) can be grown in the home garden in zones 4 to 8. Although each plant may only live a few years, some types of strawberries produce new plants from runners, which will keep fruit production going as long as new runners are cultivated. Depending on the variety, strawberry plants will bear fruit the same year you plant them, or the following year. These low-growing plants can produce their red fruits from late spring to fall, and can make a delicious, flowering ground cover.