Edible LandscapeTreesBlue Hill Country Garden Home Page Landscape Services Landscape Design Ideas A landscape can serve as decorative and edible at the same time. Consider that fruit trees in your yard act as ornamental landscape trees in the spring with pretty flowers, they give shade in summer and make fruit at the end of the season. They only need to be planted once, maintenance is minimal and you reap the rewards for years and years. In northern climates where there are temperatures below 32 degrees for 45 days or more many cultivars of Apple, Pear, Cherry and Plum trees thrive. In warmer zones Peach, Orange, Grapefruit, Lemon and Lime trees are excellent edible additions to the landscape. In Maine, Plum trees, both wild and cultivated are among the very first trees to bloom in the spring. Their small white flowers are intensely fragrant with a beautiful haunting scent that makes you want to breathe as deeply as possible. Bees are strongly attracted to flowers in the plum family. Apple, Cherry and Pear trees bloom a little later but make up for their tardiness with big displays of simply elegant mid sized white flowers. Often pink or peach blushed in bud the flowers are mildly sweet scented. Dwarf and semi dwarf fruit trees fit easily into today's lanscaping projects. Mature sizes of dwarf and semi dwarf fruit trees are between 6 and 20 feet in hieght, meaning they can be tucked in just about any sunny location. If planting near a building stay at least the width of the mature tree from the building. If you have room for only one of a varieity then you need to have a self pollinating cultivar. If the tree is not self pollinating then you will need two or more that are in bloom at the same time. They don't need to be the same cultivar just blooming at the same time so the bees can do their thing. A local landscape nursery is a great place to go for fruit trees, Often they will carry culivars that are known to be good pollinators of one another. Selecting dwarf and semi-dwarf cultivars of fruit trees, which mature at six to twenty feet, makes the harvest easier to reach. Much of the fruit can be reached from the ground or with a small step ladder. Good production from a dwarf fruit tree could be one to two bushels. The Apple, a fruit of beauty and good taste. Low calorie, high fiber, full of vitamins and minerals, apples are one of Americas favorite foods. North America is the top ranking apple growing region in the world. Our temperate climate seems to b ideal for growing fine twsting apples. Apple trees are terrific in the landscape. There's nothing quite so picturesque as an old apple tree in a field. Practically sspeaking they provide both shade and food. That duel role makes the apple tree especially useful in the home landscape. Yheere are 3 sizes of apple trees,. A standard size tree is the largest usually running between 30 and 40 feet. Semi-dwarfs grow approoximetely 15 to 20 feet and dwarfs 6 to 10 feet. Semi-dwarfs and dwarfs have the advantage of bearing fruit at an earlier age than the standards and they're easier to rech to prune and harvest. Not all varieties of apples are available in all sizes. Semi-dwarf in the most common size found today. Be sure to give your Apple tree room to grow. Apple trees should be plabted witha s much space between them as they will be tall. That is a standard size tree would be planted 30 to 40 feet apart, semis 15 to 20 nad dwarfs 6 to 10 feet apart. A good rich soil should be used to plabt your apple trees. it should contain lots of organic matter. Home made compost is perfect. Keep the apple tree mulvhed to prevent weed or grass growth and to feed the soil. A location in full sun on a north or north-west slope is ideal. Apple trees should be well watered with free drainage. © Blue Hill Country Garden 2005 - 2011 Other small fruits that fit well in the backyard landscape. Blue Hill Country Garden |