I’m uncertain whether children are still allowed to climb trees today – at least without full body armour.
But when I was a kid, ascending the neighbours’ trees and pinching fruit was one of the joys of my life.And in those days, in suburban Dunedin, everyone had fruit trees, no matter how small their section.
Hopefully, we’re heading back towards that trend now. Following on from the huge interest in growing vegetables in small gardens is a resolve to make fruit trees fit the space as well.
Dwarf varieties in containers is the obvious answer, but there are a couple of other options. It’s about multi- tasking. Use fruit trees as living walls, screens, hedges and espaliers, and you get not only a new design element in your garden,
but real value for money – with the price of fruit trees, that’s not to be sneezed at.
Espalier is a practice that harks back to the huge kitchen gardens of 16th century Europe. It can be applied to almost any fruit tree; apples, figs, olives, tamarillos, cherries, citrus, peaches, pears and plums. And because an espaliered fruit tree gets more sunshine per area of leaf than the natural tree shape and often more shelter and warmth, you get maximum fruit.
If there’s space in your garden for a hedge, choose plants that fruit. In a mild climate, a feijoa hedge will reward you with structure, shelter, flowers and fruit.
For fruit, plant grafted trees – ideally two different varieties. The Chilean guava is another good choice, with fragrant flowers, attractive evergreen foliage and tasty red fruit in autumn. It’s hardy, wind tolerant and easily clipped. It will produce
plenty of fruit, even if it’s in partial shade. Flowers and fruit are produced in the second or third year.
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