Had calamondin in a container for a few years. Made dozens of little citrus fruits yearly. Very fragrant blossoms. Needs to come indoors during freezes.

Compact forms of Strawberry Tree (Arbutus) make edible fruit.

Both of the above are evergreen.

While I was picking up innoculant at the garden center, I saw they had small Meyer Lemon and seedless lime trees that were positively LOADED with fruit, despite being in 12"-14" containers. Obviously they'd need some protection in below freezing temps, but I think most citrus do very well in containers. As long as you could roll them inside or adequately protect them -- I've seen Xmas lights used to good effect in light freezes -- they would be a great addition. Fragrant flowers and delicious, ornamental fruit. Hard to beat.

I'm glad you mentioned the improved meyer lemon because that was on my radar before and i nearly forgot about it. My only worry is I dont have any good southern facing windows to plop it in front of during winter courtesy of my neighbors big house. I may still give it a whirl.

I made a list of my "must haves" and my "maybe must haves" to help keep my thoughts organized. If anyone has any feedback, especially on the maybes, I'd appreciate it.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.niroha.com/2011/02/time-to-focus-on-edible-landscape.html

i haven't gotten it to fruit yet (this summer is probably its first chance and i may need to hand pollinate), but i've had great luck with naranjilla in a smallish pot. raised from seed last spring, its got a strong central trunk, maybe 2 inch circum, and will put out a nice number of very very large leaves. its been fine inside all winter, languished a bit in shade but recovered in a sunny spot. a bit aphid prone.

you have to keep it well watered, and keep it in the shade on hot days. in our dry season, keep a tray underneath and give it AM sun.

very fun plant, very good focal point. NOT A TREE, but can play one. not to mention that you can get 10 of them going pretty easily with a $3 investment.

Columnar apples are a great choice for containers. You need two different cultivars for proper pollination but including a columnar crab for that purpose works fine and will increase the variety of fruits you grow.

Reseach your fig selection carefully. While figs grow here well (with some dieback in colder winters), not all will produce fruit that will ripen properly in our cool summers. Some selections should be sited where they will receive reflected heat in order to encourage good ripening. 'Desert King' tends to have the best reputation for reliable fruit production and ripening in our climate. But it is not the only one.....just be prepared to have 'iffy' crops on some of the others :-)

Experiences with some of my clients who have grown El Dorado peach have indicated it is not a great performer in our climate.....heavily prone to leaf curl and rather tasteless fruit. We are opting not to sell it any more at the nursery and focusing only on Frost peach for this area. YMMV

How tasty the fruit of Arbutus unedo is is definitely a matter of personal choice......'unedo' roughly translates to "eat just one" and the consensus seems to be that while edible, the fruit eaten fresh is gritty and rather tasteless. Using it for jams might be more rewarding :-)

I'd certainly consider something like Cornus mas (Cornelian cherry) for an unusual edible fruit. The tree is small by habit and could make a reasonable container subject and the ripe fruit is very good. If you can beat the birds to it! Also a number of berries can grow well in containers - blueberries, goji berries, aronia, Himalayan blueberry could all be good choices (caning berries not so much).

Kiwis get to BIG vines -- hope these are going in the ground :-) You might want to consider some other edible vines - passionfruit, akebia, holboleia. All need a good hot location to ripen.

The pineapple guava is a beautiful shrub - flowers are gorgeous - but not reliably hardy here in the ground and would appreciate winter protection. It is also my experience that it seldom produces fruit in our climate.

One Green World is a local grower (Oregon) that focuses on unusual edible fruits and berries. You may want to check them out.

Here is a link that might be useful: One Green World

i planted two cornus mas at my old place. the fruit was good fresh eating, but you really had to wait for it to tree ripen. very astringent as an unripe fruit.

i found the best time to pick was just as the fruit started to wrinkle.

they are attractive trees with nice early march/late feb yellow flowers.

I wouldn't plant kiwis if space is an issue. They grow huge and you'll be constantly hacking them back. they've got much cheaper to buy too so I wonder if they are still worthwhile. Taste is the same. I have a dwarf Frost Peach and it is incredible. The fruit is a decent size and the pip in the middle very small. Taste is absolutely wonderful. Unfortunately, we have damp, wet springs and the curly leaf is a real problem. I'm going to buy another one and plant it in a bottomless bucket next to the barn where I can give it some protection in the spring. One of the fruits that I love is?are? black currants. They are an attractive bush and the fruit makes a wonderful jam. Black, rich and very tasty. I just stockpile the currants raw, in the freezer until I have the time to make the jam.

thanks everyone I appreciate the feedback on my wish list as well as some more ideas to add to it. I have lots of reading to do this weekend.

I was telling my coworkers about my upcoming projects and my hopes for bringing in unique and unusual edibles into my garden. My coworkers got a laugh at the idea of me putting in all this hard work and effort to feed my two dogs my hard grown bounty. They do love their fruits and veggies.

It's worth it, even if i only get one berry ;)

And yeah I realize with a few of these plants I may not get anything more than pretty blooms. I'm okay with the experimental aspect of all this.

The below pic is Sadie "helping" me harvest the snap peas. She also helped me harvest my tomatoes, zucchini, & brussel sprouts. They're good helpers.

What gorgeous raised beds and what an adorable dog! Beautiful pic!

That is a very handsome dog, and my favorite breed! I love that pit bull stare - 'who are YOU looking at??' My first pit bull bonsai'd a small container-grown apple tree for me. She would also dig out any trees I tried to grow in half barrels - jumped right in, like your Sadie there, and dig dig dig away.

The current pit bull also bonsai's things in the process of playing with the plastic pots they're planted in. I can only use pots that are heavy enough to discourage her from dragging them around the yard. She just about killed a dwarf peach by bare-rooting it and chewing off all the branches, but it's coming back now. The bullmastiff I had long ago would harvest all my lettuce and tomatoes for me, plus I had to put plexiglass in front of all the herbaceous stuff to keep him from peeing on them. Most all my dogs have learned, by watching me, to pick and eat berries - strawberries, blackberries, salal, whatever.

I ended up planting dwarf fruit trees in 35 gallon garbage cans, with drain holes drilled in the bottom, to keep the digging dog from jumping in - too tall and narrow for her. The trees grew very well that way, I had dwarf peach and citrus.

Kiwis get huge. Think twice before planting those. And you need at least two of them! as the males and females are on separate plants.

Evergreen huckleberries will grow in pots and are generally available at nurseries. The huckleberries people go off into the mountains for are not so easily available, and I'm not sure how well they would do at sea level in an urban garden. But worth a try if you can find them! Raintree nursery may have them.

Alpine strawberries are very easy to grow in containers, and they don't run, they grow in clumps, and live for years. I've started them from seed in the past, if you don't find them in nurseries. The flavor is extraordinary and the fruits are very delicate. My dogs harvest these too.

I have seen some videos about growing fruit trees in large galvanized trash cans - it's nice to know that's a good option. Do they do well there long term or do you have to transplant them to a larger container after X amount of years? I would love that. Just nice to have options because otherwise I don't think I'll be able to bring in many fruit trees.

And I laughed at the term "bansai'd" trees. I have a feeling that will be an ongoing issue that we'll just have to learn from as we go. My girls are smart and they also learned by watching me pluck and eat that things grown in these box structures are TASTY! In fact the below link is a video I made recently of my girls eating brussels sprouts. They never saw me plucking/eating them - they just know that anything in these boxes are pure yummy gold.

I'll talk with the folks I'm bringing in about the kiwi idea. I understand they need a huge, strong trellis to make it work. We'll see what they say and see if it's reasonable to do in my yard.

The more I think about this the more and more grass I think I'm willing to give up in order to do this. I can't wait to get someone in here and make this happen.

Here is a link that might be useful: Youtube Vid of my dogs eating Brussels Sprouts

Negronne tastes good but in my hotter location near Portland it cannot ripen the current year's fruit. If the winter is mild and some tiny Brebis fruit makes it through, it can ripen the second year. Mine also got very big and split down the middle, what a mess. Desert King and Latterula have been very good, staying small and ripening fruit every year. Need full sun, heat.

I love Aronia, it has the highest ORAC (antioxidant) value of any North American fruit, is native, is much easier to harvest than blueberries or black currants since the berries hang in discreet clusters that ripen all at one time, not this piddling picking a few ripe ones off and breaking off the green ones at the same time. I accustomed myself to the taste and eat them with yogurt or in a mixed fruit salad, raw or frozen. Cooked they are excellent. They come in dwarf, mid, or 6-8' tall bushes. Old Orchards frozen juice is putting them in some juice blends now.

My second choice would be as many blueberries as I could plant. They far outshine kiwis, which turn into absolute monsters and reach for any nearby trees. Mine don't ripen until the end of October and frequently mold from rain. The blueberries start ripening in late June and can last until frost with enough early, mid and late varieties.

Arbutus unedo needs to be planted by asphalt in my observation here, where they get additional heat and can fruit. Mine planted in a field got frost damaged and killed and never fruited. I like the fruit only as a novelty and it is not a good producer like Aronia, I freeze many quarts a year from 2 large bushes.

Grapes can do well, and you can even eat the leaves.:-)

Have you considered Asian Pears?

I'm considering all types of fruit trees that comes on dwarf or semi dwarf root stock. I would love to harvest and can a bunch of healthy pears. My neighbor has a HUGE pear tree but it doesn't get tended to and the pears aren't that great. But on the bright side if I got a variety of pear that needed to be pollinated I'd be good to go.

I think I am going to have to buy a small notebook to separate and organize all these suggestions. My brain is swimming.

Def not kiwis, they take over your house !!!!

Just wanted to update. I have someone from an edible landscaping company coming over Thurs morning to discuss things. They asked for pics of landscaping designs I like, as well as plants I like. I put it on my blog (linked below) if anyone is interested. It includes pics of my ugly back yard

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.niroha.com/2011/02/landscape-hardscape-photos-i-like.html

I looked over your blog. Not so ugly, has potential. The lawn looks like a typical double-dog lawn.

Sea buckthorn is on your list. These plants get quite large and you need at least two for fruit (male/female). Stick with the compact Buryatian varieties from One Green World and be prepared to do heavy pruning on the male plant. The plants have long needles, you have to be careful around them.

Remember that Pineapple Guava has excellent edible blooms, they are really very tasty. You likely would not get much fruit, but eating the flower petals does not affect the fruit formation.

Hi again! Small update - met with one of the two edible landscape design people I'm bringing in for consult and it went really well. He thinks we'll be able to have success with all my wish list items except paw paw which is great. He thinks we'll be able to get in more than I was initially thinking which is also great. He wants to take advantage of fruit trees that can be grown in Espalier form.

It's all very exciting :)

I forgot about buckthorns needing male/female. We'll see if we have room but self pollinating varieties will have preferential treatment so thanks for that reminder.

Here's a dwarf cherry I'm very impressed with - although I've only had it in the ground since last year. But it stayed incredibly health-looking all season long, holding its leaves very late here in Tacoma (my other attempts at growing dwarf cherry trees failed) and grew and filled out impressively from the bare twig that arrived in the mail. It's on its own roots (bred in Saskatchewan) so it won't sucker, and the description really intrigued me. Can't wait for blossoms this spring! Take a look at the link below:

Here is a link that might be useful: Carmine Jewel Dwarf Cherry

It's been a while, over a year now, since I updated. A lot has gone on!

I have currently in the ground...
Stella Cherry
Dolgo crabapple
Seneca Plum
Desert King Fig
Three espalier fruit trees - Orcas and Comice pears, and Karmijn De Sonnaville apple
A few small japanese maples
two Hydrangeas
two quince bushes
Several gooseberries, blueberries, currants, huckleberries, lingonberries
Misc herbs and flowers

Plus 4 raised veggie beds. I have quite a few figs in containers along my fence line, as well as an ultra-dwarf peach and nectarine.

It's been a lot of work. Still not done. I have several plants outside that still need to go in the ground and I hope to get that done this weekend. Everything is young and immature so the yard looks sparse but give it a few years and it'll look nice.

Before: (before the dogs destroyed the grass)

Hardscape done

The new hammock chair swing thingy on the pergola. There will be grapes growing on this pergola once it is big enough to survive the dogs.
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rain chain

Water feature up and running

Planted thyme around the flagstone

Dolgo crabapple and Inaba Shidare JM

Tulip beauty in front of the raised veg beds
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Young Seneca Plum, Tulips, Pixie JM

Pixie JM

Aoba Jo JM

We have lots of protective gear for the plants to keep the pups from plowing into them
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I need an updated pic that shows the whole yard. My goal is to finally clean up the yard this weekend. It's in a constant state of weeding, planting, mulching...

Now I have things starting to fruit which is super exciting.

My currants :)
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Gooseberries!
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Baby peach!
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Baby nectarine
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Love this hosta!
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Thanks for sharing the update and photos. You've put a lot of thought and effort to make a yard you'll all enjoy. Have fun!

Love your yard--very tidy and beautiful. I have several fig trees that produce fairly well (except for last year) and a plum tree that did really well the first year and no so well the second. Also have a peach tree that, I think, does better every year. Just planted another plum tree (in a big container) so I am curious how that is going to do long term. My asian pears do well but would do better if I paid better attention to them (one is in the ground, the other in a big, big pot. I love that you are willing to try--wish you lots of success.