by As an avid gardener, my abilities have been limited to vegetable production. I have always wanted to grow fruit, knowing how much better it tasted when ripened on the tree. The homes I have purchased over the years have had established landscapes, eliminating the ability to grow anything other than strawberries. Then, in 2005, at the start of the “Great Recession,” my husband Chuck and I found ourselves moving from Michigan to Chicago in search of gainful employment. We purchased a house on the far south side of the city with a double lot and two lollipop yews in front of the porch. I finally had room to grow fruit!
Now I am in the position to be leaving Chicago and heading back to Michigan. I thought this would be a good time to reflect on the past 12 years of fruit growing in the city. This will not be a tale of the bushels of fresh, delicious fruits that I grew. But rather tales of the good, the bad
and the ugly.
Before moving to Chicago, I had always gardened in the typical soils of the midwest: alkaline and heavy clay. My location in Chicago is surprisingly different. I am in an area of the city east of a glacial ridge called the Blue Island. My property is located where the bottom of Lake Chicago was. Lake Chicago continued to shrink and evolve into Lake Michigan. The final natural shoreline of Lake Michigan is less than two miles away. (The shoreline of Lake Michigan was expanded by the debris from the Chicago fire. I am located 7 miles west of the current shoreline.) Amazingly, I was now gardening in sandy loam with a pH of 7.1. I have never had plants grow so large, so fast. My tarragon plant easily reached 4 foot tall!
The climate here is different from what I had experienced in Michigan, even though the growing zones are the same—zone 5B. Being on the edge of the Great Plains, the weather fronts seem to sweep across the prairies and then slam into Lake Michigan. There can be rapid temperature swings, especially in the spring when steadiness is most critical. My location in the city does provide a small cushion from extremes, allowing for apricots to produce most years.
The infamous winter vortex did not kill my fruit trees, only the flower buds. My growing methods are primarily organic. I spread my own compost every year, and mulch with straw or wood chips. For several years I used Michael Phillips’ Holistic Spray on all things fruit bearing as well as on my rose bushes. If you are not familiar with the mix from his book The Holistic Orchard, it is a mix of liquid fish emulsion, mother culture, blackstrap
molasses and liquid kelp. I only used the neem oil he recommends on my pear trees.
Interestingly, a few years ago, family demands increased and I didn’t have time to do the sprays. I now have a problem with American Brown Rot. I didn’t have it before when I sprayed. Michael’s philosophy is that a healthy environment makes for healthy trees which can withstand disease pressure more readily.
My biggest pest problems are not insects or diseases. They are of the four-legged type. When my dog Chloe passed away in 2012, word spread quickly that the yard with all the great snacking was now unguarded. The squirrels and raccoons clean off the peach and pear trees leaving me very little. I have found if I use bird netting I can save some of the crop.
I have grown a wide variety of fruits in my yard. Some are still here; some I have taken out. My initial focus was adding some landscaping to the yard. I wanted to work with native woody plants. My first plantings were of Amelanchier Laevis (Allegheny Shadblow/Serviceberry) in 2006 and Corylus americana (Hazelnuts) in 2007 and 2008. I selected the Amelanchier for the type of tree it is – multi stemmed and an understory tree. I did not know its common name so it was a pleasant surprise when it flowered and bore really tasty fruit! The hazelnuts started bearing a few years ago, maybe before. The squirrels get to them before I do, but even so they are a beautiful landscape plant in the fall.
I love raspberries and they are relatively easy to grow. I planted Heritage in 2007 and 2008. Harvests were abundant from my small patch, enough for small batches of jam and freezing. Then in 2011 I started having a problem with an apparent white fly infestation. When I went near the bushes they would fly up in clouds! I don’t really get bothered by insects, but I don’t want larvae in my raspberries. It’s not like you can cut it out of the fruit. Spraying is not really an option since when you wash raspberries they turn to mush. I pulled out the plants. Recently I started coming across articles about Spotted Wing Drosophila. I researched when it moved in to Illinois and it was around the same time. Now I wonder if that was what I was experiencing.
Apricots were next on my wish list. It is difficult to find apricots that have ripened on the tree, even at the farmers market. I planted Tomcot in 2007 and Alfred in 2010. It took a few years (2010) to get my first fruit set on the Tomcot, but it was worth the wait. Alfred followed close behind in 2011. I like the flavor of Tomcot over Alfred. Tomcot is also a darker-colored apricot.
The apricots are so prolific that I do not begrudge the squirrels taking some. I do have problems with plum curculio and have tried using Surround. It is tricky to get the timing of the last spray right, as it needs to come off naturally, not via washing. I haven’t been using it for the past few years and have noticed certain things about the plum curculio. Tomcot ripens before Alfred. Tomcot has much more plum curculio-infested fruit. It also seems the infestation is heaviest near the bottom of the tree. Most of the fruit from the top portion is clean. I have read that the plum curculio lives in the soil and comes up into the tree at night, so this makes sense.
Maybe some sort of traps would work or perhaps Tanglefoot to control it?
I planted the Columnar Peach Crimson Rocket in 2009. The first fruit set was in 2010.This variety ripens by mid-August. Most years the squirrels leave me enough to enjoy, but there are times they are greedy. In 2011 my notes state that they left me one! The columnar shape is a challenge to prune. The central leader can get quite tall and I haven’t figured out how to properly prune the side branches. The peach has a pleasant flavor, not as acidic as Red Haven. It is a good tree for small areas and a very prolific bearer. If the squirrels don’t do it, the fruit should be thinned, as they can really weigh down the branches. I did have a branch split off the tree last year before my squirrel, Chester, got around to doing the thinning for me.
Many years ago, I rented a house with a quince tree in the yard. I seem to recall it was a shrub more than a tree. It bore huge fruit and my mom would make crabapple quince jelly with it. I have been curious about this fruit and decided to plant one. I planted Aromatnaya in 2008. It has done well and is very prolific. The only pests I find in it are lepidoptera, which can happen wherever they are grown. The problem I have had is determining when to pick them. After picking, I have wrapped them in newspaper and put them in my cool basement for a month or so. When I cut them the flesh is brown. I have read and tried many different theories about when to pick them: after the first light frost, before the first light frost, when they are yellow. I always have the same problem.
I work with a man, Dragan, who is Macedonian. His mother is serious about canning and preserving. I thought I would see what they think so I picked two bushels for them. Dragan told me they were beautiful, but his mom said that they were not quite ripe and needed to sit in the cool, dark garage for a few weeks. When they went to use them, they found the same problem. I was disappointed because I wasn’t going to get quince preserves, but this also confirmed that there is something not right. I am asking for input from anyone that grows this variety. Do you get good fruit from it? When do you pick it and how do you store it?
Pear trees were also on my wish list. I planted Dana Hovey and Superfin in 2008. They started bearing in 2014. I haven’t gotten a single fruit from these trees. Between the raccoons and the squirrels—nothing. I took these pictures in mid-July. They look beautiful!
I will leave you with two recipes for apricot preserves. It seemed that all the American cookbooks had me peeling the apricots – really? Then I looked in my copy of A Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden. I found two simple recipes.
Apricot Jam
2 lbs. fresh apricots
3 cups sugar, or the weight in sugar of the pitted apricots
Wash and pit the apricots. Layer them with sugar in a large glass or earthenware bowl and leave overnight to macerate. The following day, pour the contents of the bowl into a large saucepan. Bring to a boil very slowly and simmer gently for about 40 minutes, until the apricots are soft and translucent, and the juice has thickened enough to set when tested on a cold plate.
Stir occasionally to prevent the fruit from sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning. Let the jam cool in the pan, then pour into clean glass jars and close as usual. Note: I pour jam into hot canning jars and close with heated lids. Usually the jars will seal when done this way. Alternatively, you could use a hot water bath to seal the jars.
Apricots in Syrup
Use the same proportions of sugar to apricots as above. Wash and pit the apricots. Bring sugar to a boil with 2½ cups water and juice of ½ lemon, and simmer for a few minutes. Drop in the apricots and cook gently until soft, about 40 minutes. Lift them out carefully with a flat perforated spoon and put them in clean, heated glass jars. Thicken the syrup considerably by boiling it down until it falls in heavy drops from a spoon. Cool slightly and pour over the fruit, covering it entirely. Seal as usual.
Note: I put in more lemon juice than specified, as I have had some jars of apricots brown over time
