As you may or may not know, several years ago I ran a podcast and website titled, DIY Food Supply. It was a permaculture based educational website that was about localizing our food chains. I mean real local, like as much in your yard as you can manage.
Without going into all of the ins and outs of Permaculture design, one of the keys to doing this successfully is embracing perennial food crops. One of the most abundant of those is fruit trees. So obviously all of my plans (both for my own system and others I designed) involved as many of them as the area could support.
Nursery testimonial and review.
In order to do this, I needed a dependable supplier of saplings that also had a diverse crop to select from. After doing some research and getting some feedback from folks with similar interests, I decided to give Nature Hills Nursery my business.
What about them made me want to use them? The difference maker for me on the initial call was their incredible selection and the efficient layout of their website. Finding everything I wanted in one place was a tough enough task (and even they didn’t have everything I wanted, but they had everything you could legally ship across state lines…permies like a lot of plants that are considered invasive)…but they didn’t stop with just having them all. They had them organized well so I could find them and had lots of varietal choices. So they got the call.
Their ordering process was easy. Their shipping was smooth. And this is a big one. Their trees lived. Out of the first dozen fruit trees I got from them, only two were lost in the first year. And they replaced those two. I would love to take credit for having a great skill with trees…and while I am sure I did the right things…these were the first fruit trees I had ever planted. So long and short, their quality is high.
So I conclude my review by giving Nature Hills Nursery a solid Blue Ribbon Team rating. I like them so much, I entered an affiliate relationship with them…and what follows is a paid advertisement.
One of the great things I mentioned about Nature Hills is their selection. I only went into fruit trees, of which they carry 64 varieties of citrus, 31 varieties of cherry trees, 199 varieties of fruit bearing bushes (not including another 14 blackberry variations), 88 varieties of apple, 27 varieties of pear, 38 varieties of plum trees, 6 different persimmon trees, and 13 figs. How many can you name of each?
Where else are you going to find 480 different fruit tree and bush options to include in your permaculture garden or private orchard?
And then we let it sink in that those are just the fruiting trees and bushes.
Nature Hills also carries 224 other flowering tree types. Some of the more popular are Mimosa, Magnolia Butterlfies, Lavender Twist, Ivory Silk Japanese Lilacs, Purple Red Locust, Sumer Jazz Fire Trumpet, and so many others.
And then we realize that only covers the flowering TREES. For shrubbery, they have 54 cultivar options for Lilac bushes alone. Which seems like a lot.
Well until you notice that there are another 1173 flowering bushes listed on their website. All organized by USDA zone and hardiness so you can narrow your selection by things you can actually grow where you live AND STILL GET SOMETHING YOU LOVE!
If Roses are your thing, Nature Hills Nursery currently lists some 370 Rose options ranging from your rugosas and mountain rose bushes to highly hybridized and elegant show roses complete with patents, trademarks, and highborn genealogy.
Love flowers, but don’t want the maintenance of a rose or the hassle of replanting every year? How about choosing a few of the several thousand other perennial flowers on the site.
Again, its a big number, so they are not only divided by hardiness zone, but you can shop specific categories, such as spring, summer, or fall blooming, or deer resistant, or based on their size, speed of growth, or even based on how much shade or sun they need.
They know it can be difficult to figure out what you can grow and what will work well together, so they do the extra things to take the guesswork out…and unlike that big box store that sets up a “nursery” in their parking lot every year…these plants will thrive if you meet their basic needs.
If all that wasn’t enough, they have 17 strains of lavender. How is that even a thing?
So there you have it. I had a good experience with Nature Hills. They have all the plants to satisfy your needs…oh and they have great deals too. If you have used Nature Hills, send me a message and let me know what you think of them.
