Fruit tree garden layout. Designing a backyard fruit garden takes a little more foresight than preparing a vegetable garden.
The majority of fruits are trees or shrubs that can live for up to 50 years. Some vegetables are evergreen or biennials, meaning they only stay in the garden for one or two seasons.
Fruit tree garden layout
Compiling a selection of what you want to eat is the first step in creating an edible garden, whether it’s a fruit or vegetable garden. Grow foods that you and your family enjoy.
Make a list of everything you want to do. After that, figure out how many of each crop you’ll consume fresh, cooked, or conserved.
Calculating each plant’s production can assist you in figuring out how many of each crop to plant.
Size of the Fruit Garden
- Strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, for example, require only a planting bed that is 3 feet wide by 6 to 10 feet long, if that.
- A small or curved fruit tree, such as an apple or pear, will require a garden space of around 4 feet by 4 feet. A semi-dwarf apple tree will take up almost twice as much space.
- A fruit tree planted as a columnar may need as little as 3 feet by 3 feet of area. Fruit trees with spurs, such as apples and pears, are ideal for columnar growth.
- Several orchards can be planted as cordons or espaliers, requiring only a 3 foot by 3 foot or 3 foot by 6-foot growing area along with a stake, wall, fences, or house. Cordons and espaliers work nicely with apples and pears.
- When it comes to planting fruits, time is essential and space; many soft fruits will give fruit that year or in the spring after they have been grown. A juvenile fruit tree will produce fruit in three to four years, whereas a mature fruit tree may take five to six years to produce fruit.
Site and Soil for Growing Fruit
- Grow delicate fruits and fruit trees in which they will receive full sun for the entire day, ideally 8 hours or more.
- Fruits should be planted in sandy loams, compost-rich soil deep and well-drained. Growing fruits where there is standing water after a downpour is not a good idea.
- Grow fruits where they’ll be protected from the wind or breeze. A breeze can dry out leaves and fruit, while wind can do the same and even damage branches.
- Raising fruits in low places when cold air and frost can accumulate is a bad idea. Flowers can be damaged or killed by cold weather and ice in the spring, and ripening can be slowed down the stretch.
Spacing Plants in the Fruit Garden
Grow fruits near walls or structures that can capture the sun’s radiation throughout the day and reflect it straight out towards the garden at night if you live somewhere with chilly summers.
If you reside in an area where spring temperatures fluctuate from warm to chilly, put fruits on the north side of buildings or walls wherever degrees are constantly cool before spring arrives and temperatures warm evenly.
Fruit trees should be planted in areas where other fruits and vegetables won’t grow too close—besides a thick layer of aged manure or leaf mold, leaving the ground beneath fruit trees naked.
Conclusion
Pick fruit-bearing plants that are simple to harvest. If you don’t have a tall ladder or are terrified of heights, don’t grow a 25-foot-tall regular size apple.
Choose one quasi or miniature tree that is ready to gather by hands or with a farm worker while keeping your feet anchored planted on the floor. Understand when the fruits you wish to grow will be ready to pick.
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