Fruit Trees

[Marcus]

Howdy folks.

Anyone on here know a bit about fruit trees?

See, the bloke who owned this house was a lazy fucker and decided to rip all the hedgerow out that surrounded the garden as he couldn't be arsed trimming the thing once a year. So we either need a fence (expensive) or I have come up with the genius idea (yes, I know... I;m humble ) of having fruit trees around the boundary.

I was thinking cordon apples and plums, cherries and the odd pear etc. Anyone done this or know owt about planting and pruning cordon fruit trees?

Another idea was to cut the main stalk of normal fruit trees (whips) when we plant them, down to about 10 inches from the ground and hope that lots of branches grow up from the base and to train them into a column. This is where I need info, will they do this?. I have an Alan Titchmarsh book, but fuck me that bloke is boring as hell and there ain;t much info on fruit trees in there.

I am in need of an edible bush guru.
Googling edible bushes just brings up loads of smut on my computer, and I get easily sidetracked.

[GMO]

spend some time looking into back yard orchard tree growing tech bud. not exactly what ya talking about but very functional for growing food

laurel are generally hedge plants but not really useful

[Marcus]

spend some time looking into back yard orchard tree growing tech bud. not exactly what ya talking about but very functional for growing food

laurel are generally hedge plants but not really useful

Hi Mo, I found this linky... https://www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk/ ... the-space/

That got me thinking... "That may be cool man, but as a hedgerow that I can eat!" and I went from there. Just can't seem to piece all the bits of the puzzle together, so an oracle on fruit trees would be a BIG help.

We were going to get hawthorn for a hedge, not considered laurel. I'll have a googly about it, but will end up watching black and white comedy films from the 1930s all night.

[Nom]

How about some gooseberries?

[Marcus]

Howdy folks.

Anyone on here know a bit about fruit trees?

See, the bloke who owned this house was a lazy fucker and decided to rip all the hedgerow out that surrounded the garden as he couldn't be arsed trimming the thing once a year. So we either need a fence (expensive) or I have come up with the genius idea (yes, I know... I;m humble ) of having fruit trees around the boundary.

I was thinking cordon apples and plums, cherries and the odd pear etc. Anyone done this or know owt about planting and pruning cordon fruit trees?

Another idea was to cut the main stalk of normal fruit trees (whips) when we plant them, down to about 10 inches from the ground and hope that lots of branches grow up from the base and to train them into a column. This is where I need info, will they do this?. I have an Alan Titchmarsh book, but fuck me that bloke is boring as hell and there ain;t much info on fruit trees in there.

I am in need of an edible bush guru.
Googling edible bushes just brings up loads of smut on my computer, and I get easily sidetracked.

Hi Marcus, have you thought about running posts and wires along your boundary and then doing an espalier type of thing where you train the branches out along the wires? Peach and apple trees do well grown like this if there is good light where you're looking to do this. Although I'm unsure what height you'd start the first branch it should be googleable. Depending on soil pH another alternative would be blueberries. Some of those grow to around a metre and a half. Gooseberries are no good as a sawfly attack would leave you nothing in the way of privacy. Plenty of fruit bushes grow well from cuttings, so if you're patient you could buy a few varieties take cuttings and try and get them going now. Probably want something two to three years old for that.
Another alternative would be grape vines. They take well to training of exactly the type mentioned above and as the vine grows you can add another run of wire to build the fence up yearly if the posts you buy are tall enough?

If you're looking for ideas have a look at some of John Seymour's (self sufficiency guru) books. He has some good stuff on using trees as a boundary for allotments.

[Nom]

What @GHO said sounds like a plan worth paying someone to execute professionally

[GMO]

Enjoy

[Marcus]

How about some gooseberries?

I already have two swollen ones in my underpants.

I'll DM you a pic.

Howdy folks.

Anyone on here know a bit about fruit trees?

See, the bloke who owned this house was a lazy fucker and decided to rip all the hedgerow out that surrounded the garden as he couldn't be arsed trimming the thing once a year. So we either need a fence (expensive) or I have come up with the genius idea (yes, I know... I;m humble ) of having fruit trees around the boundary.

I was thinking cordon apples and plums, cherries and the odd pear etc. Anyone done this or know owt about planting and pruning cordon fruit trees?

Another idea was to cut the main stalk of normal fruit trees (whips) when we plant them, down to about 10 inches from the ground and hope that lots of branches grow up from the base and to train them into a column. This is where I need info, will they do this?. I have an Alan Titchmarsh book, but fuck me that bloke is boring as hell and there ain;t much info on fruit trees in there.

I am in need of an edible bush guru.
Googling edible bushes just brings up loads of smut on my computer, and I get easily sidetracked.

Hi Marcus, have you thought about running posts and wires along your boundary and then doing an espalier type of thing where you train the branches out along the wires? Peach and apple trees do well grown like this if there is good light where you're looking to do this. Although I'm unsure what height you'd start the first branch it should be googleable. Depending on soil pH another alternative would be blueberries. Some of those grow to around a metre and a half. Gooseberries are no good as a sawfly attack would leave you nothing in the way of privacy. Plenty of fruit bushes grow well from cuttings, so if you're patient you could buy a few varieties take cuttings and try and get them going now. Probably want something two to three years old for that.
Another alternative would be grape vines. They take well to training of exactly the type mentioned above and as the vine grows you can add another run of wire to build the fence up yearly if the posts you buy are tall enough?

If you're looking for ideas have a look at some of John Seymour's (self sufficiency guru) books. He has some good stuff on using trees as a boundary for allotments.

Hi GHO, thanks man!

I currently have a knackered post and rail fence... But that's it... Just posts every metre and a half and a couple of rails attaching them all together. So I am contemplating wires attached to those posts for training the cordons, but I was wondering if I could just snip and train young trees without the need for the wire etc.

I'll have a googly for Mr Seymour.

We're also thinking about Hazel - for the nuts, Rosehip - tinctures for good health, blackthorn - sloes for gin etc..

[Marcus]

I've never grown hazelnut trees but check the height they usually grow to. I know mature walnuts will eventually hit 120 to 140 feet (take a few decades though).
I suppose it the canopy ends up too high you can always put bushes between them...

[GMO]

imma suggest evergreen if ya looking for privacy

hazel can be trained into a bush with coppicing but its a race against the squirrels