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Do you want to add some excitement to your garden? Sustainability is a wonderful goal, but sometimes a garden full of tomatoes, mint, basil, and other common herbs and vegetables gets a bit boring. If you want a cool plant to breathe new life into your hobby, how about growing a few pineapples?
Pineapples are a tropical fruit indigenous to South America, so you’re probably wondering if there’s any chance you’ll have the right conditions for success. The good news is, you don’t need to live near the equator to add pineapples to your garden.
Want to learn how to grow a pineapple? There are a few things you can’t do without.
Plenty of sunlight
Unfortunately, you’re not going to have any success growing a pineapple on a windowsill that gets an hour or two of direct sunlight a day. While it is possible to grow a pineapple indoors, that will only be the case if you’ve got a spot that gets plenty of sun throughout the day. Otherwise, you’ll need to plant your pineapple outside.
Remember, you’re doing this for your own enjoyment, not in order to feed your family or promote sustainability. This means that you will probably need to find space in a corner of your garden rather than creating a whole new space for it.
A pineapple
You could simply buy pineapple seeds and plant them in your garden, but that’s no fun. Rather, start with a store-bought pineapple. Cut off the top section and pull the leaves from the bottom of this section. Put it in water and after a few days you’ll be on your way, with some new roots reaching out. Now you can plant it in soil and wait.
Patience
Are you hungry for pineapple now? Planting a pineapple top is not going to solve this problem any time soon. Expect to wait 24 months for your pineapple to grow. This project is not meant to be practical! You will not need to give too much care to it most of the time, but you do need to protect it from frost in the winter. Remember, this fruit is from a tropical climate. While it will grow in your garden in winter, it won’t be able to stand extreme conditions on its own.
By the time you harvest your pineapple, you’ll be ready to start again, with your slowly growing fruit a permanent fixture in your garden.
Similar passion projects
If you are looking for a passion project for your garden and don’t want to plant a pineapple – or you simply want to add to your repertoire – there are some other fruits you could try planting. A pawpaw tree will take five to seven years to bear fruit, becoming a long term project that will feel incredible to harvest. A plum tree will also take a few years to bear fruit, and is quite a nice addition to a garden. These trees are going to take up a lot more space than a pineapple, of course!
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