Nuts and Shell Fruits from Your Garden

Many people love to snack in the evening during winter while watching TV. And there's hardly a healthier or more natural snack than nuts, almonds, chestnuts, and similar shell fruits. They provide our bodies, especially our nervous system, with many important nutrients, are delicious, nutritious, versatile, and have a long shelf life.

Many home cooks use peanuts, pistachios, cashews, and especially walnuts to refine cheese dishes, salads, and vegetables, giving them that final touch. For example, anyone who has tasted lamb's lettuce with freshly roasted almond slices won't want to do without it again. And goat cheese with honey and walnuts tastes just as delicious as an appetizer or a dessert.

Admittedly, for a stately, fully grown walnut tree or even a sweet chestnut, you certainly need a rather large garden. However, it's also worth it for owners of small green oases to look into the topic of shell fruits.

Most nut varieties are very easy to care for, especially all hardy native species. Hazelnuts, walnuts, filberts, and sweet chestnuts are completely low-maintenance. They only need loose, sandy soil and a sunny location to grow and bear abundant fruit. If you regularly remove old branches and twigs and collect the fallen fruits, you'll enjoy these shrubs or trees for many years.

Even an almond, as a shrub or tree, is uncomplicated, and most varieties available today are largely winter-hardy. It's still advisable to plant almonds in as much sun as possible and in a sheltered spot. And anyone who has seen an almond tree bloom in early spring knows why almonds are often kept as ornamental plants in modern gardens.

You can even form hedges from almonds and hazelnuts in shrub form, allowing your children to harvest from them in autumn. Marrons, also known as sweet chestnuts, are usually available as standard trees. They also make wonderful climbing trees, as they develop into stately, strong trees. Accordingly, you should plant them far enough away from your house. The same applies to the walnut tree, which was once seen in almost every farmhouse garden. If you want to harvest quickly, opt for a grafted plant, as it can sometimes take more than ten years for ungrafted specimens to bear fruit.