Starting a food forest or edible landscape is always going to be a challenge. Let me help you make it a little easier by providing a list of easy-to-grow, cold hardy, and totally necessary fruit trees to plant in your temperate, edible landscape to give you something to work with.

When you want a tree that basically grows itself, you need look no further. Without giving any additional care to my own fig trees after planting them in the ground, I was able to harvest from two of them within 8 months of planting.

Fig trees make excellent starter trees for the food forest, are beautiful, have large leaves, and…of course, the figs themselves are super healthy and surprisingly much sweeter than most figs you can buy in stores due to them being very soft fruits when they are at their ripest point.

Peach trees make great starter trees in the food forest and will grow well in heavy, clay soils without the addition of compost or soil amendments. Peach threes are arguably one of the most beautiful fruit trees and can make a great focal point in any garden or edible landscape, if you’re looking for a visually appealing, food-producing tree.

Persimmon trees are another beautiful, edible addition to any food forest. With dark, waxy leaves that turn a red orange in the fall, you’ll not only have something beautiful for your edible landscape, but also receive a harvest of persimmon fruit which are often hard to find in most grocery stores. Since you’ll be growing persimmons in your own yard, you’ll also be able to harvest your persimmons when they are at their sweetest and softest, unlike persimmons found in food markets as fruit this soft will bruise easily and doesn’t travel well.

Flowering pink when it is their time to fruit, apple trees make lovely, easy-care fruit trees. There are more and more varieties being developed everyday so you have everything from sweet to sour to cider apples to choose from.

You’ll need at least two variety of apple trees in order to cross-pollinate and get fruit so check with your fruit tree retailer for the best choices for your climate and to suit your personal tastes.

Pomegranates are high in antioxidants and are said to be able to replenish electrolytes in the same way that Gatorade or pickle juice is known to do, making them an excellent fruit to be able to harvest during the summer.

Pomegranate trees also come in several varieties ranging from white pomegranates, to pink pomegranates, to the more traditional red, and even black. The trees themselves can also be trained into a tree form or left to bush out, giving you a flexible, edible plant able to be squeezed most anywhere into an edible landscape with the right pruning.

A fast-growing tree that will get a lot of use. You’ll be surprised about just how many things you’ll start using lemons in once you have them growing in your backyard. There’s lemonade, and lemon desserts, jam-making, and using them to flavor and tenderize your hams and turkeys. The versatility of the lemon makes this a very affordable and quick investment return that will also add a year-round beauty to your edible landscape if you live in a climate that has warm enough winters.

Kumquats are a fruit that can be eaten right off the tree, which makes them perfect for grazing for anyone who is like me and would rather graze than “harvest” fruit. The kumquat tree is perfect for those who spend a lot of time in their food forests or edible landscapes, hanging out, blogging 😂😂😂 , and want fruit trees that offer multiple harvests throughout the year.