Jennifer Garner has taken to Instagram for a behind-the-scenes fruit garden tour, and we have to admit, it's pretty inspiring.
In the video, we get an exclusive look at Jen's fruitful garden at her home in California, which she has named 'Once Upon a Garden' in reference to her role as co-founder and Chief Brand Officer at Once Upon a Farm, a company that aims to provide farm-to-family food to food-insecure communities through its A Million Meals program.
And while One Upon a Farm is based at Jennifer's century-old family farm in Locust Grove, Oklahoma, where pumpkins, blueberries, peas, rye are grown, and honeybees and cows kept, she shows in the clip that growing a fruit garden to be proud of needn't take decades (there are some great fast-growing fruit trees to plant), nor do you need acres of space to do so.
The stars of the clip were her apricot, fig, nectarine, and peach which looked invitingly juicy. Apples, less so.
'Apples are not ready,' Jennifer winced as she took a bite of a not-yet-ripe, sour fruit.
The best fruit trees to grow are, of course, those that are best suited to your zone's weather; you may also want to ensure that you pick from the best fruit trees for small gardens if you have little space, and you can count the trees Jennifer is growing, plus citrus trees on this list.
Inspired to get kitted out to grow your own fruit trees? We recommend these varieties, and some essential fruit-growing and picking kit:
- Small space? Try these: 150+ Dwarf Bonsai Fruit Tree Seeds for Planting, 50+ Lemon Tree Seeds /50+ Cherry Tree Seeds /50+ Orange Tree Seeds.
- Peaches: we like the Bonanza Peach Tree, available from Fast Growing Trees.
- Figs: a Fignomenal Fig, available from Burpee, is a dwarf fig tree and one of the best fig trees for a small space.
- Citrus: An Improved Meyer lemon tree, available at Burpee, is a self-fertile tree and a hybrid between a lemon and an orange.
- Apples: The Espalier Edible Grafted Apple Tree available from Nature Hills has six different apple varieties grafted onto one trained tree, namely Granny Smith, Gravenstein, Honeycrisp, Red Delicious, Rome, and Red Fuji.
- Cherry: The Carmine Jewel cherry tree available from Nature Hills is a dwarf variety that produces a crop of deep red-to-purple fruit in summer.
Once Upon a Farm focuses on providing nutritious snacks and meals for kids, from babies to older children.
The company has partnered with Save the Children, with an aim to provide one million nutritious meals to children in need by 2024.
This 'A Million Meals' program is very close to Jennifer Garner's heart: In 2021 Jennifer told PEOPLE 'I loved the idea of being part of a business that could have a meaningful impact on Save the Children's work because I've worked there forever. So Once Upon a Farm came up, and in the very first meeting I said, "If you really want to connect my heart and soul, connect Once Upon a Farm to Save the Children".'
