Backyard Fruit Trees: How to Fit an Orchard in Your Yard

Thrifty families (like mine) are always on the look for ways to save money. At our house, one huge money saving tip for me is growing my own produce. Not only do I have two huge vegetable gardens, an herb garden, and a berry patch, I also have a small orchard which keeps our family well supplied in fresh produce.

Families interested in growing fruit may be surprised to discover that fruit trees don't take up much space. Space saving semi-dwarf and dwarf fruit tree varieties means that instead of having just one or two trees, you can have a small orchard containing many different types of trees. If you are interested in finding space for an orchard in your yard, these tips can get you started.

Look for the light. Just like your vegetables, fruit trees need plenty of sunshine. Before we bought a single tree, we took stock of the sunny parts of our yard. Areas that receive at least 8 hours of sunlight as early as May were designated as possible locations for our fruit trees.

Drawing a blueprint of the space. Another helpful tool for us was to draw a scaled-to-size blueprint of our yard on graph paper, outlining the possible planting areas in yellow. This scale drawing is what we brought to the nursery to determine how many trees would fit in our yard.

Visit the nursery. Nothing against Big Box nurseries, but this is not the place to find fruit trees for an urban backyard. Locally owned nurseries are in the business to know what trees grow locally, and can advise you on what fruit tree varieties work best for your area and which varieties must be planted to ensure cross-pollination. These nurseries can also help you select trees that will work in the space that's available.

Planting the tree. Referring to your blueprint, plant your new fruit trees following the planting instructions provided by the nursery taking care to allow plenty of growing space in between the trees. Adequate space requirements is important both for tree health and development, but also provides for plenty of sunshine which is the key to raising a bumper crop of fresh fruit.

More by this contributor:
How to keep birds of out free tree naturally.
Small space fruit crops for small yards.
Is my yard big enough for a fruit tree?.