You don't need acres of land to realize your dream of a home orchard. Planting one or two of your favorite varieties, choosing dwarf stock, or creative pruning can help work the trees into your small yard. Fruit trees will provide visual interest and shade, along with the delectable fruit.

Track the Sun

The best space for your small orchard depends on your soil and sun exposure. Most fruit trees need well-drained soil that's rich in organic matter, along with full, all-day sunlight. Avoid heavily shaded areas or locations where your home or larger trees will shade out the small fruit trees. Generally, a fruit tree needs at least six hours of daily sunlight.

When it comes to soil, working compost into the planting site can improve less than ideal soil. You don't want to plant in waterlogged or marshy ground.

Measure Your Space

Once you know the best location for your trees, it's time to break out the tape measure. Before you can select the trees, you need an accurate square footage of your available space. Start your measuring 15 feet away from buildings, sidewalks or streets. You don't want the roots to damage paving or foundations when your trees reach maturity.

Once you know the square footage of your planting bed, determine the square footage requirements for the trees you want. This varies greatly between varieties, so check the tree care tags at the nursery or online to find those that fit best into your available space.

Choose the Trees

When it comes to fruit trees for small spaces, you have more options than you realize. Apples, cherries, peaches and pears are all available in shorter dwarf varieties. Apples even come in columnar varieties, which don't produce side branches, so you can fit a lot of trees in a small area. Dwarf trees are usually your favorites grafted onto dwarf roots, which allows them to grow smaller than they would otherwise. Some types are even small enough to grow in large pots or a raised garden bed.

Select fruit varieties that are known to grow well in your area. Many fruits, including apples and peaches, have chill hour requirements to produce fruits. This means the trees need exposure to a certain amount of hours when temperatures are below 45 degrees Fahrenheit each winter. This can differ greatly between tree varieties. For example, a low-chill apricot may still need 300 chill hours, while a low-chill apple only needs 100. High-chill varieties may need 1,000 or more chill hours each year. Choosing the wrong variety could result in a healthy tree that never bears fruit.

Get Creative

If space is really at a premium, add some espaliered fruit trees to your landscaping. These trees are grown right up against a wall or fence. With careful pruning and training over wires, they spread their fruiting branches across the wall instead of growing outward and taking up space. Pruning begins in the first year. First the tree is pruned to one leader, or upright trunk. Excess branches are cut off and only the framework of side lateral branches are left in place.This allows you to grow productive fruit even if your yard is the size of a postage stamp.

Fruit trees are a useful and attractive addition to any home landscape. Whether you plant only one or plan a whole miniature orchard, you can grow and enjoy your own fruit in almost any space.

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