Sustainable Homesteading – Growing a Cold-Hardy Food Forest

This blog is written by someone who lives in the mountains of Colorado – probably a little warmer than Edmonton in terms of actual winter temperatures, but with an even shorter growing season (which, of course, poses its own set of challenges!). She lists fruit trees, berry bushes, vines and even some nut trees that are growing well. A super-helpful list, including specifics about the varieties she is growing. (I always like getting information about varieties, because there can be huge differences between different varieties of the same plant in terms of how productive they are in our climate.)

This list would probably be particularly helpful for Calgary gardeners and Northern Alberta gardeners, actually, as we are lucky in Edmonton to have a relatively early last frost date – so there isn’t quite as much pressure to find the best short-season varieties.

Also, I had not heard of aronia before and I want to learn more. Sounds promising! It’s also known as chokeberry (not the same as chokecherry).