Why a small orchard works in a small garden

A single apple on a dwarfing rootstock will fit a border no bigger than a small car, and three or four well-chosen trees can keep you in fruit from late July to November, with plenty left for the freezer and the preserving pan. The secret is matching the tree to your space and soil — and making sure it has something to pollinate with.

Rootstocks decide the size of your tree

The variety gets the glory, but the rootstock — the root system the variety is grafted onto — decides how big the tree grows, how soon it crops and how well it copes with your soil. Choose the rootstock first and the variety second.

• M27 — the most dwarfing apple rootstock, around 1.5–1.8 metres. For containers and stepovers, but it needs staking for life and good soil.
• M9 — dwarfing, roughly 1.8–2.5 metres. Crops young and heavily; plant 2–2.5 metres apart and always stake.
• M26 — semi-dwarfing, 2.5–3.5 metres. The best all-rounder for a modest garden: freestanding after a few years and tolerant of most soils.
• MM106 — semi-vigorous, 3.5–4.5 metres. Good on heavy soil and in grass, but too large for a tight space.

Pears go onto Quince A or Quince C; plums and damsons onto Pixy for a 2.5–3 metre tree or St Julien A for something larger. Sweet cherries are worth growing only on Gisela 5, which keeps them to a manageable size.

Varieties and trained forms for tight spaces

You do not need a whole tree's worth of one apple. Cordons are single-stemmed trees grown at 45 degrees and planted 60–90 centimetres apart; espaliers have horizontal tiers and need three to four metres of wall; fans suit plums and cherries against a south-facing wall. Stepovers — low, single-tier espaliers — make excellent edible edgings along a path.

If you have room for only one tree, choose a self-fertile variety: Victoria plum is reliably self-fertile and heavy cropping, and Stella and Lapins are self-fertile sweet cherries. Most apples are not, though Discovery and Fiesta are partly so and will crop alone, if more thinly.

Pollination: the mistake most new growers make

Apples, pears, plums and cherries are grouped by flowering time, usually numbered 1 to 6. To cross-pollinate you need two different varieties whose flowering overlaps — the same group or an adjacent one. Two trees of the same variety will not pollinate each other, however many you plant.

Watch for triploids, which produce little viable pollen and need two compatible partners rather than one. Bramley's Seedling, the classic cooker, is a triploid, so it needs two other apples nearby. A flowering crab apple pollinates almost anything and flowers over a long period, making it useful insurance. Bees do the rest, so avoid spraying blossom and keep a few nectar-rich flowers nearby.

A cold, wet spring keeps bees grounded, so a sheltered, sunny site is as much about fruit set as about ripening.

Preparing the ground and planting

Fruit trees crop best in full sun, in deep, well-drained soil. Avoid the bottom of a slope, where frost collects and can strip the blossom in May. Bare-root trees are cheaper, establish better and are available from November to March; plant them while dormant, when the ground is neither frozen nor sodden. Container-grown trees can go in at most times, but autumn and early spring are kindest.

Dig a hole wider than it is deep — about twice the spread of the roots — and fork the base to break up any pan. Set the tree so the soil mark on the trunk sits level with the surrounding ground; planting too deep is a common cause of slow decline. Backfill with the excavated soil, firm in stages and water thoroughly.

Stake dwarfing trees permanently, using an angled stake and a proper tie with a spacer so the trunk is not rubbed. Mulch with well-rotted manure or compost, keeping it clear of the trunk, and keep a metre-wide circle free of grass and weeds for the first few years — they compete hard with young trees.

The first few years

Water young trees in their first two summers — around 20 litres a week in dry spells — and top up the mulch each spring. On maiden trees, remove the fruit in the first year or two so energy goes into roots and framework instead.

Prune apples and pears in winter while dormant, but plums and cherries in summer, between June and August, to reduce the risk of silver leaf infection entering the wounds. Established bush apples want an open centre so light and air reach the fruit; cordons and espaliers need their laterals shortened each summer.

Expect apples on dwarfing rootstocks to crop within two or three years, and plums and cherries in four or five. Store apples in a cool, dark, frost-free place and check them weekly, because one rotting fruit will spoil the whole tray.