Juneberry Bush Changes Colors with the Seasons
Edible Landscaping – Introduction to the Juneberry
by Guest Blogger, Joseph Heckman
My previous article described the edible landscaping concept and introduced the pawpaw. With this article I will introduce the Juneberry.Besides Juneberry, this bush with an edible berry has many other names including Amelanchier alnifolia, the saskatoon, saskatoon berry, or serviceberry.
I think Juneberry describes it well in my area of New Jersey where it is covered with an abundance of fruit ripening over a period of weeks for good fresh eating from the bush during most of the month of June.
In my opinion Juneberry fruit is tasty but not quite as good as my favorite the blueberry. However, it seems easier to grow and the fruit makes a nice substitute for blueberries. Also, Juneberry tends to ripen before blueberry is ready for harvest.
Juneberry Bush is Lovely Along a Garden Path
Besides tasty attractive fruit, Juneberry has other worthy ornamental characteristics. The white flowers cover the bush in abundance in the spring and in the fall the leaves turn orange to purple.
Juneberry grows as a cluster of woody branches that may reach 10 to 15 feet tall and 10 feet wide. The bush can be kept smaller by pruning out the branches that may have become too large for a given space.
I carefully placed several Juneberry plants on my farm along pathways such I can enjoy some handpicked fruit on the way to the mail box or on the way to the barn to feed my animals.
Joseph Heckman and his Plentiful Harvest of Pawpaw Fruit
Dr. Joseph Heckman is a soil scientist with the Rutgers New Jersey Agriculture Experiment Station. He grew up on an organic dairy farm, and has helped to organize the Rutgers Raw Milk Seminars. Heckman has written a number of articles on organic farming for Wise Traditions, the quarterly journal published by the Weston A. Price Foundation. See all his past blog posts on our Joseph Heckman, Ph.D.page.
Another article by Joseph Heckman is In Defense of Living Organic, published in That Natural Farmer.
Next Wednesday, Joseph will introduce our readers to the Persimmon. Stay tuned for more edible landscaping ideas!
This post is part of the Real Food Wednesday blog carnival. See more edible ideas on Kelly the Kitchen Kop blog!
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Love your blog, by the way. What a great, centralized resource for all real food and local farm info.
http://www.nofanj.org/
Film Screening & Urban Homestead Tour
“Before long the most valuable of all arts will be that of deriving a comfortable subsistence from the smallest area of land” ~ Abraham Lincoln. Join NOFA-NJ and Professor Joseph Heckman from Rutgers Department of Plant Biology and Pathology for an evening of “Urban Agriculture and Organic Homesteading” followed by a screening of the just released movie “FARMEGEDDON , The Unseen War on American Family Farms”. “American’s right to access fresh healthy foods of their choice is under attack.