Planning a Small Orchard for a Back Garden

Measuring your plot before you buy anything

The romantic picture of an orchard — rows of trees marching to the horizon — is not what most of us have to work with. What we have is a patch of lawn behind the shed, a strip along a fence, or a corner that never quite knew what to be. The good news is that a rectangle of roughly 6m by 4m can comfortably feed a household in apples, with room left over for a pear or a plum.

Before you choose a single tree, spend an afternoon watching the light. Top fruit needs sun for at least six hours a day in summer; fewer than that and you will get leaves and shy, tasteless fruit. Watch for frost pockets too — the lowest point of a sloping garden collects cold air on still spring nights, and a late frost will strip blossom from a crop in a single morning. Shelter from wind is welcome, but shade from a neighbour's conifer is not. Also check drainage: apples and pears will sulk in ground that sits wet through winter. If your soil is heavy clay, plant on a slight mound or improve a wide area with well-rotted manure and grit rather than digging a narrow hole into a sump.

Rootstocks: the single most important decision

The rootstock controls how large the tree will eventually grow, and it matters far more than the variety you graft onto it. Buying a "dwarf apple" without checking the rootstock is the most common mistake gardeners make.

• M27 — very dwarfing, reaching only 1.2–1.8m. Perfect for pots and tiny plots, but it needs good soil, permanent staking and never lets you forget to water it.
• M9 — the classic garden choice, a bush of 2–3m. Crops heavily and young, but also wants a stake for life.
• M26 — semi-dwarfing at 3–3.5m, more tolerant of poorer soil and wind. A sensible pick for a larger garden or an exposed site.
• MM106 — 4–5m and only worth it if you genuinely have the room.

Pears are grown on Quince C or Quince A, plums on Pixy or St Julian A. Approximate planting distances for bush trees: 1.5–2m for M27, 2.5–3m for M9, and 3.5m for M26. If you train trees as cordons, set them 60–75cm apart in rows 2m apart; espaliers need 3–3.5m of wall or wire per tree.

Pollination partners and flowering groups

Most apples are not self-fertile. They need pollen from a different variety that flowers at the same time, and the flowering period is grouped into rough bands usually numbered from 1 (earliest) to 6 (latest). A variety in group 3 will pollinate another in group 3, or one in group 2 or 4. Your neighbour's tree within about 100m counts too, so a suburban street can quietly do the work for you.

Triploid varieties — Bramley, Ribston Pippin and Gravenstein among them — are a special case. They produce poor pollen and cannot pollinate anything, so a triploid needs two compatible non-triploid partners nearby. If in doubt, plant a crab apple such as 'Golden Hornet' or 'Evereste'; it flowers over a long season and pollinates almost everything. Reliable self-fertile options include 'Katy', 'Scrumptious' and 'Arthur Turner'. Pears need partners too — 'Conference' and 'Concorde' work well together — while dessert plums like 'Victoria' are partly self-fertile and 'Czar' is fully so. Remember that bees stay in the hive during cold, wet weather, so a late-flowering variety is the safer bet in a northern garden.

Training forms that fit tight spaces

You are not limited to round bushes. Trained forms are wonderfully space-efficient and look handsome against a wall or fence.

• Cordon: a single stem at 45 degrees, fruiting on short spurs. Ideal along a boundary.
• Espalier: horizontal arms in tiers, needing a wall, fence or wire frame.
• Fan: best for plums and cherries on a wall, where the spreading shape helps fruit ripen.
• Stepover: a single tier about 45cm high, used to edge a path or a vegetable bed.

Trained trees need annual summer pruning to keep them in bounds and encourage fruiting spurs, but they earn their keep in small gardens. Choose spur-bearing varieties for cordons and espaliers, since tip-bearers such as 'Discovery' do not suit the restricted forms.

Planting and the first three years

Bare-root trees go in between November and March, whenever the ground is not frozen or waterlogged. Container-grown trees can be planted at almost any time, but they establish more slowly for the money. Soak the roots, dig a hole wide enough to spread them without cramping, and plant so that the old soil mark sits at the same level. Firm in gently with your heel, then stake — a 2.4m stake for dwarfing rootstocks — and tie with a proper rubber tree tie that will not strangle the trunk. Mulch a metre-wide circle with well-rotted manure or compost, keeping it clear of the trunk, and fit a spiral guard against rabbits.

For the first two summers, water deeply once a week in dry spells and keep that circle completely weed-free. Do not feed a young tree heavily with nitrogen; you want roots, not soft leafy growth. Remove any fruit that sets in the first year so the tree puts its energy into establishment.

Routine care, and a sideline in cider

From the third year onwards, a bush or standard tree wants winter pruning to keep an open, goblet-shaped centre, while trained forms are pruned in August. Thin the fruit after the natural June drop, leaving one apple per cluster about 10–15cm apart — you will get fewer, far larger and better-flavoured apples. A handful of sulphate of potash in February suits established trees, and a watchful eye for canker, scab and woolly aphid will save trouble later.

If cider is the goal rather than pudding, plant accordingly. Dessert apples alone make a thin, sharp brew, so look for the traditional bittersweet and bittersharp cider varieties — 'Kingston Black', 'Dabinett', 'Yarlington Mill', 'Michelin' or 'Harry Masters Jersey' — which bring the tannin that gives real cider its body and colour. A small press and a scratter will handle a few sacks of fruit, and a blend of roughly two parts bittersweet to one part sharp or dessert gives balance. Let the fruit sweat for a week, mill and press it, then ferment slowly in a cool shed and rack off the lees once the frothing subsides. Even three trees can yield enough for a respectable first batch, and the smell of a fermenting demijohn in the shed is one of the better rewards a garden can offer.