Top of the Crops

Home-grown fruit is delicious, nutritious and you don’t need an orchard to enjoy a bountiful harvest

We all know that home-grown fruit tastes better for being picked fresh and produced without pesticides, wax coatings or chemicals, but you can go one better by choosing good-flavoured varieties that aren’t grown commercially.

And you don’t need an orchard. Nowadays, trained mini trees can be slotted in all around – even in a small garden. The effect is stylish, and at blossom time, fruit trees have a wow factor like nothing else.

A traditional, lollipopshaped standard tree works at the back of a border, while espalier or fan-trained trees are good for growing flat against a wall or fence.

You could also plant cordon-trained trees 18 inches apart to make a productive fruiting hedge, or train a pair of them over an arch, which saves a lot of space while still yielding a useful crop.

Cordon or espalier fruit trees look stunning trained over a pergola. Team them with a modest-sized hybrid clematis for the added bonus of getting some summer flowers.

Today’s fruit trees are extremely versatile, but they do need the best growing conditions to do well. A sunny, sheltered corner with deep, well-drained soil generously enriched with organic matter is perfect.

Start by preparing the ground. Work in as much well-rotted compost as you can and if the ground is likely to be a bit wet in winter, or if you are on heavy clay soil, mix in a couple of bucketfuls of grit or sharp sand to improve aeration and drainage.

With the ground ready, water your pot-grown tree, tap it out of its container and plant it without breaking up the root ball. If the roots are very tightly coiled round the inside of the pot, gently tease a few loose with your fingers before popping it into its planting hole with the top of the root ball barely buried under the soil surface.

A fruit tree is made up of two parts – the roots of one type, chosen to produce a slow-growing dwarf tree, and the

The effect is stylish and fruit trees have a wow factor like nothing else