Annette Clarke, the owner of Exotic Fruit Nursery in Lunenburg, has spent the past few decades growing a wide variety of food plants in British Columbia. Clarke began to source trees for friends and other gardeners in her area, which eventually led to her building six greenhouses and growing more than 250 fruiting plants on her property.
In 2021, concerned about water scarcity and forest fires, she and her son Nicholas, relocated to Nova Scotia. They packed 800 plants in a U-Haul to establish the Exotic Fruit Nursery in Lunenburg. Clarke bought 33 acres and built a 60-by-40-foot greenhouse.
For relatively hands-off plants, she recommends cold hardy, berry bushes like Aronia berry, goji berry and hackberry. Other options include true quince, not the common flowering quince.
Hazelnuts are more compact plants and fit easily in a garden or landscape. Clarke offers several varieties and recommends Nova Scotia gardeners choose blight-resistant ones to avoid disease issues.
Read more at The Chronicle Herald