Fruit

Trees of any kind take up a lot of space. If you're planting trees in your backyard make sure they're useful ones like fruit trees or natives. If you don't have much room in your backyard, dwarf varieties are readily available from most nurseries. These trees take up little room and crop well. And don't forget the front yard.

Front yards are often treated like icons of tidiness, for neighbours and passers by to admire. In my view front yards like this are neglected, no matter how tidy they may look. They're only ever visited when they need mowing and a phenomenal amount of water is wasted to keep the lawns green. Why not plant out a mini orchard instead.

Plant half a dozen fruit trees and give them a good mulch. They'll need water and maybe the occasional pruning but other than that they need little maintenance. There's less lawn to mow and then there's the harvest. Go a step further and get rid of the lawn completely. Plant herbs and native shrubs instead. Spiders and other predator insects will move in to clear up Codling Moth and other fruit loving insects once your under story of shrubs is established. My only warning is - watch out for service pipes. Tree roots seem to be highly attracted to stormwater pipes, so plant trees a good few metres away from them. Also find out where other services are before digging around, you don't want to sever your water connection or underground electricity cables.

Fruiting vines are another great space saver. They can be grown all around your fence line on lattice or wire, over the veranda, or build an archway over the garden path. Let one or two clamber over your shed. They only need a small space for the actual planting spot.

I can't pretend to be an expert on growing fruit. As with all areas of gardening discussed on this web site, the subject matter comes from my own experience as a backyard organic gardener and I haven't yet grown much fruit. My own backyard only has 4 fruit trees (a peach, an apricot and 2 apples). Having just bought the place I'm just beginning to plan the what, where and when of the fruit department. As my knowledge of growing fruit broadens, so will this section of the web site. However, I have done some research on the subject, applicable to Tasmanian conditions, so check out the links above. I hope you find this information accurate and useful.