PNW: I grew a Akebia, or chocolate vine from seed. I got the seed from a garden on Queen Ann Hill in Seattle. I live in Olympia, WA so wet, colder a bit than Seattle. The Seattle Akebia had "fruit". It looks like big pods full of seeds in Seattle. With a gelatinous gooey opaque white can I call it fruit? It was sweet and delicious. I think they need a lot of sun to get the fruit, mine are partial shade. Otherwise the vines are beautiful, very hardy, don't entirely lose their leaves in winter. My vine is 2 years old, and no fruit yet. I'm going to start growing sunchokes. We have 2 acres, of which one is forest, about 2 miles from downtown Olympia. So we are essentially in a town but have our own well water. I grew Orach for a leafy green that re-seeds, did well here. I have a fig tree that does pretty well.
Also, kiwi both the fuzzy, and "hardy". The Hardy or grape, or Anna Kiwi (all names for it), took 7 years to harvest, but are they wonderful, the skin is smooth, pinching off tassle to eat. Can harvest when just barely ripe to ripen inside since the racoons and birds will eat them right away if you don't get them first. They drip down from the branches like grapes. We harvest, clean them, then freeze, and use all winter long. Very little work required to grow, that's my kind of plant. Apple trees doing exceptionally well, but they are very old so well established. I harvest Spruce tips in spring and have made a tincture, and a balm. If you grow a wild cherry tree, you can take the bark and make an excellent tincture for respiratory problems. We had one already on the property. Chickweed grows fast in spring, and miners lettuce. Look for wild ginger, I have a patch that mysteriously appeared under the rhoddys, and are spreading like crazy, loving the shade. If you plant a Linden tree, the bees will love you. Also, the flowers harvested and dried make a wonderful tasting calming tea, popular in Europe. A very pretty, hardy tree to grow. You can find them in cities along parking strips everywhere. We used strong black mesh deer fencing between poles, or can be stapled right onto branches around the property, as the deer eat everything, even rose bushes. Made a gate this year by attaching a pole to the mesh, then the pole into a pvc pipe in the ground down about 6 inches to hold the pole. When opening, lifting the pole up out of the pvc, moving it over to another pvc pipe that is set to accept the pole the distance of the opening. Does this make sense? It's been a great way to have a gate! Brenner gardens online is where I got the roll of fencing. I am brand new to this site, so this is my first posting.
