A belated welcome to Brooklyn. Shade tolerant fruit is outside my experience. If you have three to four hours of sun you can grow chard, kale, thyme, MAYBE the smaller alpine type strawberries. If you have about two hours (total) of sun daily, you can grow heuchera, hakone, ferns -- the Japanese varieties have color, dusty miller -- it winters over IF well-mulched. I grow the above perennials on the northside of my house in containers. Good luck!

Thanks for the welcome :-) I get a bit more sun than I expected - about 5 hours full sun in part of the garden. Definitely enough for another persimmon tree, some berries, and will try figs.

I'll plan the garden over the winter, and plant next spring. Now to remove those evergreens without getting eaten by mosquitoes...

Hi fellow Brooklynian! Red Hook here.
I too deal with a large Magnolia in the far corner (why were trees planted so far away from the house to shade the garden beds, but not the house in hot summers, I will never understand). Anyways, I'm into edible landscaping, sustainable gardening, etc. and for shade fruit, your best bets I think would be gooseberries and currants, maybe some blueberries. But, 5 hours of sun, is about adequate for a lot. I am now growing a sour cherry, and planning a Blackberry bush for the fall. I may go for some gooseberry bushes for next spring. Also look up Salal. I just discovered it, but don't know what it tastes like. Loves shade.

I've got friends in Red Hook! I'm in Bay Ridge. So far I've got 2 blueberries and 3 raspberries planted this summer. The persimmon and fig are patiently waiting on the side for the evergreens to move out of the way, and a couple of fargesias in the back for eventual privacy screening. My garden's a center square and a border around 3 sides. The fruits are in the border and I'm planning on herbs in the center. I can't wait to start.

What variety of blueberries did you get? I am debating about those, since I am not a huge blueberry fan, but my partner is. I also need to check the soil pH for them so I just ordered a pH meter off the internet. If it is suitably low, then I suppose I might try a blueberry bush. I would have planted raspberries, but again not a huge fan (strange tastes I've got, no?).
Are you removing the evergreens? Good decision. I nowadays only plant stuff that provides food (fruit, vegs, berries, herbs), looks great (roses, clematis) or has a fragrance (moon vine, flowering tobacco, honeysuckle). And evergreens really only screen, which can be acheived by other plants as well. I also have a homemade green roof with succulents galore. Keeps the upstairs cool.

I've got Duke and Northland blueberries. You'll enjoy the red fall color if not the fruits :-) I'm a fan of "good" raspberries, which is a rarity in NYC except in high-end restaurants (and ICE classes).

I'm totally with you on all your plant choices. I'll be taking down the evergreens in the next week or so. They were like a couple of huge commercial refrigerators sitting in each corner of the garden and not half as useful. The bamboo will eventually provide a screen that is less solid.

You can grow the blueberries in 20-inch diameter containers if you have reservations about the soil. The soil mix is about half peat, half compost/manure with four or five cups of perlite. I maintain two plus inches of pine bark mulch. Alternative, you can amend the soil where you will grow the blueberries. Dig out what you have about two feet down and a meter square. Fill in with peat and compost/manure -- 50/50. Also mix in perlite, about four to five cups. Maintain two plus inches of mulch. It should work. The containers are easier in many ways. We use plastic netting to keep the birds and squirrels off the blueberries. The blueberries sure do taste great every year. The plants are from Pinetree, Patriot and one other that grows vertically. Good luck!

Wow ..... I just 'happened' to come across this site. Haven't been on GardenWeb for quit some time. NEVER used to be "Brooklynites" here before! WELCOME!!
I assume you are all "new-comers"! (I was born here and absolutely love it)! Where, in Brooklyn, are all of you?
p.s. re the fig tree ..... I've kept mine right in the yard all winter for many years; it grew to about 30 feet (had to get on a ladder to get the fruit) until two years ago when we had a very bad wet and frosty winter. I 'thought' I lost it, but we cut it down to about 8 to 10 feet and, Thank God, got it back.

Good to know about the figs. I'm still waiting to put it into the ground and hoping it won't be too late for this season. There are evergreen trunks in the way and I'm waiting for someone with a power tool to help me remove them. I don't want to plant and chance getting the fig (and persimmon) removed by accident. Worse comes to worse, I'll keep them in pots until spring.

It is a good time to plant the fig tree in the ground. Suggestion, mulch well over the entire root ball plus -- at least five or more inches. My fig tree has never been wrapped, and was planted in 2001. It's been producing heavily every year since 2004; it's a dark Turkish type. The 'parent' plant was brought from Italy decades ago. Enjoy.

Annoyingly, those trunks are still there and I'm still waiting to plant. I've never mulched anything in my garden before and am not a big fan of wood chips or cocoa shells. Any other suggestions? I'm new to this garden/yard so don't even have a compost bin set up yet and I'm still working on getting past the thatch of weeds to the soil.

I've been mulching with shredded pine bark or shredded cedar and it's all good. Enjoy.

Hi,
I'm in Sunset Park. I grow mostly veggies and herbs. Anyone getting together for a seed exchange this spring?