what to plant in mini-orchard?

[Ormx]

hi all,

we're in gers dept and have a big garden that I want to put to better use. at the moment the house and trees/plans are all squashed into one corner of the plot and I want to open it all up.

thinking of an orchard, a veg plot, a wildflower meadow and a green area. Not looking for much am I?

I know it will all take time but would like to plot out the areas and hopefully plant the orchard next autumn (best time?). At present we have 2 apple trees, several cherry, 1 fig, 2 plum, several walnut trees all around the house. I'd like advice on what I should plant in my add-on orchard (probably about 15 trees?, assuming spacing of about 4m between each).What would you plant?

thanks for any advice

[andyh4]

Looking at what you already have and thinking about extending the range, then I would go for a few obvious missing candidates:

peach, nectarine, almond and apricot - but you will need to look at your weather patterns, they all blossom relatively early and if you are prone to late frosts they may not be apprpriate for an open position.  (The little warning bell is ringing that if they are not there already, there may be a good reason.)

pears (you'll need a couple of varieties to pollinate one another, generally 3 varieties will be OK for X pollination). Not likely to be any climate issues.  (I personally don't like pears so that's why it's not first on the list).

Hazel nut. - no climate issues

 

I would probably also add a couple of extra apple varieties to improve pollination and would want to include a cooker - Bramley is the one everyone goes for but it is a sterile variety (its pollen doesn't fertilise other plants - or itself), and is prone to biannual cropping. 

 

[Ormx]

thanks for that andy that gives me loads to think about.......

 

meanwhile the vegetable plot was finally started yesterday so now I've tomatoes on my mind