June 2, 2005

In the last part of the series, Zahrah Nasir writes about which fruit trees can be grown in an edible garden and suggests planting them in very large clay pots

In this, the final part of the edible garden series, we will take a look at something which no such garden is complete without, that is, fruits. These are the source of numerous additional vitamins and minerals.

If, as I hope, you have been following this series, you will be aware of the fact that I really haven’t allowed a specific planting area for trees and have previously advised against planting tees around the boundary wall for reasons which I won’t repeat here, although I did allow for fruit bearing climbers in that locality.

Naturally one can find space for up to six small growing trees at a reasonable distance from each other in the central rectangular area of the garden, but and this may come as a surprise to quite a few people, some species of trees actually perform exceedingly well in very large clay pots, which, providing you have the manpower, can even be moved around to alter the appearance of the garden from time to time.

Growing fruit trees in plant pots does restrict their roots and therefore their rate of growth and final size. Pot grown trees tend to be much smaller than trees planted directly in the ground, but they accordingly require less space and water and are also less liable to interfere with other plants growing close by. It is also much easier to monitor their individual requirements and to cater to their personal appetites.

Trees which are suitable for plant pot cultivation in Karachi include: Chinese lemons; guava; the extremely unusual strawberry guava, originating in Brazil with small, supposedly strawberry flavoured fruit; dwarf date palms; chikoo and custard apple, both do very well and seem to start fruiting in no time at all.

Dwarf varieties of loquat; dwarf mango trees, which can be quite a delight; lasura once not very popular at all but now in demand by epicures both in Pakistan and overseas; dwarf coconuts and papayas are very useful to have around and, to be honest, you don’t really need to lay your hands on special papaya seeds as the trees, which are really a grass, tend to naturally dwarf themselves if grown in containers or plant pots.

Bananas, yet another member of the grass family, also grow, and fruit well under restricted conditions; ziziphus or jujube, which can be very successful too; and tomatillo, another South American fruit, which is basically something like a tomato crossed with a guava but on a small growing tree.

You can grow any of the above even if you don’t have a garden at your disposal. All you need is enough room for a plant pot or two.

A couple of other useful shrubs to add to the edible garden are capparis, more commonly known as the caper bush, which produces those little green things, so popular when pickled and so expensive to buy; and piper nigrum — good old black pepper — which I feel, under the right circumstances, may, just may fruit in Karachi.

Plus, whilst I remember, there is yet another climber to consider for the boundary wall, vanilla, although it takes quite a long time to produce pods with the now rarely found natural source of vanilla, a bean which needs fermenting before the flavour can be extracted. The commercially available vanilla which is used in baking and perfumery is now, sadly, usually made from a synthetic base.

There are also the smaller growing varieties of fruits, which are best grown directly in the ground, except for strawberries, that is, as they just seem to love being grown in pots for some strange reason of their own. These include: melons, both sweet melons and watermelons.

There are a vast range of mouth watering, water hungry varieties of these productive plants available in the market, large and small ones, green and yellow ones, tiger-striped and spotted ones to name but a few, plus, citrullus, the original wild watermelon from Namibia in Africa which, totally unlike other melons, is extremely drought tolerant.

Pineapples are being grown in Karachi and its environs in increasing numbers so a few of these wouldn’t go amiss along with physalis peruviana, better known as either Chinese gooseberry or cape gooseberry. This medium sized plant originated in Peru, and later was widely cultivated in South Africa and called Chinese with reference to the pretty paper lanterns that follow on from the small, yellow flowers, and which enclose an orange/yellow berry, edible both raw and cooked which sells for upwards of Rs160 per kilo in Islamabad and this for very inferior quality indeed.

I’m sure that there are lots of other fruiting climbers, trees, shrubs and plants which one can use in the edible garden and which will thrive in the hot, humid, often rather difficult Karachi climate, but I think that those mentioned here and throughout this series are quite representative of what can be grown, relatively easily and, hopefully, successfully in whatever space one has to utilize in this increasingly congested city.

So the foundations of the edible garden have been planted and what is needed now is uninterrupted tender loving care combined with a large measure of patience and a fertile imagination to boot.

There are still lots of details to be discussed, such as how to do what and when, how to make compost, suggestions for garden furniture, shade construction etc, and I hope to address all of your thoughts and queries in separate articles over the coming months.

However, if you feel that I have missed something of importance out then please do not hesitate to get in contact with me.

My email is zahrahnasir@hotmail.com and your questions will be answered in a future issue of The Review. Happy edible gardening!

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